Upper Wardington: lesser black backed gulls pile in behind the plough

Quite a busy day, making the most of glorious sunshine.  An early morning visit to Grimsbury Reservoir was pretty quiet so I took the opportunity to photograph a few plants.  A lesser whitethroat also posed quite well for me.

juvenile grey wagtail

lesser whitethroat

do I need to label these? dandelions

great crested grebe

Indian balsam

Next stop was Tadmarton Heath, where initially there was little to see until near the end of my visit I located the main flock of birds and a good selection of warblers, including garden warbler.  If you visit at the moment, take time to find the bird flock - they seem to work their way around the wooded and scrubby edge of the reserve.  I also came face to face with a fox.

poppy in the wild bird strip

 

garden warbler

treecreeper

Back in Upper Wardington late morning a large flock of gulls had gathered in a large arable field where the stubble was being cultivated.  I went back a little later to identify and count the gulls - the majority were lesser back-backed (over 500) and about a hundred black-headed gulls and just two common gulls.  Also in attendance was a red kite, three lapwings (my first to a while) and a few skylarks.

gulls flock in behind the plough

lesser black-backed gulls