Let’s start with a quick thank you to all you OM blog-readers out there for your feedback on the recent change of blog format. Almost everyone who has spoken to me or the Visitor Centre staff, thinks the combination of summary and (when possible) further observations, works for them.
So, without further ado, here’s a summary of what was seen at Old Moor today…
Still reading? Well, one of the things I noticed on my visit to Old Moor today was just how tricky the business of feeding youngsters is.
For example, on the Mere at the moment are two young Mediterranean gulls with an attentive adult nearby. Growing fast and already taking small flights, these young demand food each time the adult returns to their island.
The trouble is that the Mere is a busy place with plenty of black-headed gulls and their – equally hungry – offspring. But it’s not just gulls that the ‘Med. parent’ has to watch out for. Today I saw a canny jackdaw trying to muscle in on a free meal.
The adult Med. gull landed heavily on Island One, obviously carrying plenty of food. The jackdaw with that watchful, pale eye, wandered closer. You could see his calculation – can I time this right?
Fortunately, the adult Med. is not daft. She spotted the jackdaw and took off, flying behind him in order to keep a close eye on his movements. Meanwhile the two hungry young Med. gulls begged, heads down and mouths open.
The jackdaw, recognising he’d been out-manoeuvred, toddled off to look for grubs in the nearby vegetation. Only when he was a good distance away, did the adult Med. gull offer her catch to her two, speckled grey young.
One of the pairs of common tern on the Wader Scrape also seemed to be having trouble feeding their youngster today. Alongside other watchers out there, I could only spot one young tern. And like those fledgling Med. gulls, the young tern was seen exercising its muscles and making small ‘flight hops’ today.
Most of these 'hops' took it off its island and into the waters nearby. Unable to fly accurately, the young tern then had to paddle back to its island, all the time watchful for a returning parent - and a meal.
It didn’t have to wait long.
All around Old Moor the next generation are growing up fast. The Med. gull chicks fledge between thirty-five and forty days and, from hatching, those tern chicks are up and flying somewhere between three and four weeks! Even a gap of a few days between visits at the moment, can make all the difference.
Until next time.