2 lifers 1 day

18/02/09
visited upton warren again today.visited the moors first(as i usually do now) didnt really get much around the north moors apart from a cettis warbler that flitted about in the reeds(giving a view it always does) and i scoped the islands from the hide and got an oystercatcher(year tick and my first for upton) but a buzzard flew over the paddocks. so now onto the east hide hoping to see the OYC a little closer but looking in the trees for lesserpolls didnt see non though. got in the hide and located the OYC i scoped him and almost sweared.but it wasent the OYC that atracted my attention it was the 2 ducks behind it.a pair of pintails(lifer 179). god these are beautiful little birds. with all my lifers i watched them for quite a long time by the telegraph pole to the left of the west hide.fro this i presumed you would get great views of them from the west hide but i found out later the birders in the hadent seen them. i txt brian strech if anything else was about at uw.he replied about a mealypoll on the track to the east hide but when we again looked it was a no show.i told him about the pintails and the OYC.and joined my dad on the other side of the hide facing the track. this is when the beautiful male bullfinch came out at close range and i got another film:

i also got one of the OYC:

also noted here was:

2 greylag geese

3 shelduck

2 pintails

1 oystercatcher

3 bullfinch

then visited the west hide where i logged:

15c reed bunting

1 water rail (not very good views today)

4 more bullfinch

1 green finch

- chaffinch

1 goldcrest (behind the hide)

and various other feeder birds and a very enfusiastic kid whos voice appears in most of my videos from today.

now onto the flashes and the white fronted goose.this was in the fields to the south of the flashes and gave distant views(lifer 180).oh well , butits another bird to add on my list. this fed in the fields for some time till it dissapeared over the ridge of the hill not to be seen again.we stayed till dusk hoping it will return to the flashes to roost.we estimated about 30 canadians were in this flock.it was also joined by the 2 greylags from the moors that were seen to fly in from that direction.

also noted was:

2 little owls(on barn roof and a year first)

36+ curlew(these were the ones we could see from the hide we heard an unknown amount on the 3rd flash)

1000 aprox lapwing(both flashes and surounding felds)

40c teal(a large flock landed on the 3rd flash containing about 30 birds)

2 shelduck(same as moors)

3 snipe

nice day i think hope i can get some more like this