Tuesday 11 November 2008

upton warren again

28/10/08
much better day today,visited the moors pool first. as i stepped in the west hide the rain and wind slowed.typical. i first watched the feaders in front of the hide.the normal feeder birds were there. although a female pheasent spent about 15 minuites on the middle feeder and a squirral on the ground feeder.a lesser redpoll landed on dead plants in front of the hide.i then scanned the reeds around the edges of the lake to see if i could find the bittern that was presant there.(it would be my first ever)but no sign of it.so instead i scoped the islands on the far side of the lake. i imidiatly found 19 teal feeding there.i looked at the other end of the island and saw what i thought was a wigeon.it was. but it showed unusual plumage with an eclipse male body and a normal head(which i couldent see untill some time later)then came the shout i was hoping for"bittern out".it took a couple of seconds to get directions but then it was flying.it looked massive in flight.as this was going on a lucky birder came in the hide and got onto it straight away.the bittern(lifer 176) landed in reeds near the car park and showed well over the rest of the time i spent in the hide(it was a very pale bird compared to pictures in bird books).
little grebe-2 g c grebe-1 cormorant-10 bittern-1(although 2 were presant) grey heron-3 mute swan-12 canada geese-10c mallards- shovler-25 wigeon-1 teal-19 pochard-1 tufted duck-11 sparrowhalk-1 male very good views pheasent-1 water rail-1 moorhen coot golden plover-3 lapwing b h gulls h gull-1 l b b gull-1 collered dove-1 kingfisher-1 pied wagtails-2 wren-1 dunnock-3 robin-2 song thrush-1 redwings-2 mistle thrush-1 fielfare-3 blackbird cetti's warbler-2 very good views(lifer- but i did find one at sheepwash urban park on 21/8/08) goldcrest-3 great tit blue tit coal tit-2 blue tit/ l t tit magpie carrian crow-3 starling-20c h sparrows-2 chaffinch linnet-2 lesser redpoll-1 goldfinch-3 greenfinch-2 siskin-1 bullfinch-1 reed bunting-1
also visited flashes highlights are jack snipe curlew+ 3 greylags over


the pictures below are not taken by me(i need to buy a good camera soon)

2 comments:

David Campbell said...

Hi there. Nice blog you have here, keep it up :-). Well done on the Bittern. Young Surrey birder David Campbell www.southeastbirding.com.

midlands birder said...

thanks 4 your comment you have a great website 2. great blog.like the pics 2h