Prime time Birding.

26/12/10
i have put so much effort in to get the blog up to date and finally it is, and what a day to do it on.
christmas had been as good as usual so when a report of goldeneyes on the river in bewdley surfaced very near to the patch i just had to be there, but luckily i did briefly change my mind to visit trimply instead but being -7.5 ouside that seemed a bit much so goldeneye hunting it was...
the plan was to park in Blackstone car park then just check the area. but alot of the plan was aborted when the area of river that is actually on the patch was completly frozen ( south of the road bridge) so we walked northward, clocking GOOSANDER, after goosander, in total 14 birds ( 3drk), we very quickly logged onto 3 LITTLE GREBE right in below the bank, including a bird which we though was frozen in the ice, luckilly after a few minuites it manadged to free itself and dived to join its 2 friends.
we got to behind the high school over the metal bridge when i spotted the GOLDENEYE feeding slightly upriver with its friend a drk goosander, i got into a positing where i could video the bird and got one short, wonky film before it and the goosander was flushed by walkers on the opposite side of the river, its wings humming as it went....





we had our target bird so decided to head back to the car with the hands struggling to turn the focousing wheel on my bins, we again found the goldeneye and after a minuite it was flushed once again by walkers on the opposite side of the river ( a major problem today), we decided that the bird had already been flushed twice so we left it to its own devices.

we crossed the metal bridge again and came to a small gap ( heading back downriver btw), where the bird of my patch dreams was,

In all its 1st winter splendor

A DRAKE SMEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A drake smew OMG, seriously DRAKE SMEW, sitting in front of me about 4-5 metres away, a drake smew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, before i even put my scope down i grabbed my camera from my pocket and put it to my bins before this bird was flushed to, and here it is: video no-1 of the bewdley smew:




yes. really crappy, but a white drake smew!!!!!!

now i had the confirmation video, i put my scope in the middle of the path ( could give a toss if somebody wanted to get past cause i just found a drake smew!!!!!) and spent about a min struggling to find it in my scope, but when i did:




yes i know, still really crappy, but all i ask from my photo's/videos's is that you can tell what the bird is and this is a 1st winter DRK SMEW!!

i got this video then for the 2nd time in 2 week phoned up birding today to tell them of my momentus discovery, but before the phone was answered a flock of 9 Goosander took flight and the smew took off with them, as did the single goldeneye, i didnt know what to do, drop my phone or pick up my bins, the birds flew south under the road bridge ( thus onto the patch) and i told the details, we very quickly got to the bridge but the birds had gone, but knowing that there was a little bit of open water open on the patch we hung around incase they flew back up ( as the goosanders do on the patch), they didnt so we went to the car to thaw out. where 2 reed bunting were in the car park. we drove around to bewdley as a last ditch fire attempt to relocate the bird, from the opposite side of the river, but although after walking all the way to the patch bridge there was no sign of the bird and only 5 goosanders ( 2drk), but i did manadge to find the whole flock of 5 goldeneye (all drk), whcih added to the bird that flew off was the total that was seen the day previous.

another 2 little grebe were noted, and an amazing flock of 11 !!!! tufted duck were on the river ( 5 drk) in the town centre, and 2 dipper were reported here this evening also. there was alot of birds presant so i did probs miss them....

and like i said in the last post what a way for the patch to hook me back in. 3 new patch birds in a week.....

1st win drk SMEW!!!

6 GOLDENEYE

14 goosander

11 tufted duck

5 little grebe

2 reed bunting

What a couple of hours can do to a patch birder eh......

MB

A hint of the mediterranean at the warren

15/05/10

a very quiet time at the moors with the darke gadwall remaining, a water rail was heard sqwarking from within the reeds adjacent to the causeway, and an unsesonable cormorant, a pair of pied wagtail were flitting about, and a pair of common tern were about.

after an hour it was so dire we left for the flashes

as we walked across the southern shore of the sailing pool a flock of 8 greylag geese landed and swam to the NW corner of the pool.

a slow walk to the hide didnt add anything, we walked into the hide and was greeted by upton regular dave walker who did very little to raise the spirits ''rather quiet''

we chatted for a bit, he decided to go and have a check of the moors and we stopped.

he had walked off when my dad told me to get onto an odd gull on the sticks at the back of the flash he didnt recognise, a slow pan from the 1st flash to the sticks, a BHG was perched on the sticks, but i knew my dad well enough to know he can ID a BHG so i carried on and a few sticks later

OMG

i ran to the door, then turned around to look throgh the scope again to check i wasent stringing, then bolted out the door down the steps and along the boardwalk, dave was at the bench area, a simple call

''dave, MED GULL''

we(I) jogged back to the hide and took a look at the 2nd summer MEDITERRAIEAN GULL perched on the sticks, we both started takeing photos of this amazing looking bird, but i will admit, the first load i took were rubbish(but identifiable)

The 1st 2nd summer i have ever seen and what a looker, it was amazing, we had just enough time to savour this unusual midlands plumage(the least common age to be seen in the midlands apparently) and then the bird was harrased by a BHG and was forced to take flight revealing its distinctive pattering and very white impresion. after a few 'is he coming back' moments it eventually flew off east at 18:18.

we both text a few people to pass the news on and later we were joined by another upton regular(gordon greaves) and later by steve whitehouse(a med gull fan, like me), steve had somewhere to be at 7, and he kinda left at 7:05 so a bit late then...........

another 20 minuites passed and at 7:25 the reward came the MED GULL was flying back in from the east(the bird had a missing primary in its right wing, first noted when the bird flew off), the first thing i picked up on was its giant white eyelids, then its missing primary, and then it wing pattern, it swooped in front of the hide and circled the flash before landing on the stumps between the 1st and 2nd flash, again i started snapping away, the photos were a little better but still pritty dire, it was at this point that gordon sudgested that the gull would be viewable much closer from the path near the bench, i was soon there and watching the med gull at point blank range, an amazing specticle of a frame-filling med.

(before anybody says, the word in the film is see-you or see-ya, as gordon left, had me a bit stumped what i said when i first heard it)

after a good load of photos, i returned back to the hide where we watched the med gull swimming around the 2nd flash, it then took flight at 7:45 and flew north, in total we saw the bird for less than 30 mins but it was a real cracker of a bird......

a BHG with a yellow leg ring was seen on the stumps also and on scopeing it was ringed as 2Y32, this has been submitted to the ringing website and i await details on the bird, but untill then

good birding

MB