stop press.mega found

15/03/09
lickhill manor. god it takes forever for somehing good to turn up here.but recently its come alive producing 2 records of mealypoll,a lesser spotted woodpecker,a marsh tit,a showy lesserpoll and a couple of goosander.all are rare at lickhill but theyve all turned up so far this year.why.....is it me being more vigilant and take time to sift through the flocks of 'commons' to eventually find something good.but today was a downer untill i got to moorhall meadow where after checking moorhall marsh i crossed here to be ammused by 3 green woodies chasing after each other.this is what it looks like if anybody cares

then one of the woodies landed by a small bush.i slowly stalked the tree hoping to get a good view of the woodie.then the 'yaffel' bird flushed but in its panik put a small bird into the tree which too was below the tree.i casually raised my bins,expecting to see a dunnock or something like that.

jese

i was amazed to see a medow pipit(year tick) staring at me..wow.now this is a scarce bird at lickhill with usually only a few records a year.the bird just stood there.as there was nothing else doing i decided to stay and watch it. it gave stunning views in the tree at the start of the film(you proberbly guessed that cause thats where my scopes facing).

but while watching this i got a by twitch in the form of a kestrel that attacked the mipit(unsucsesfully)and came close and 3 flyover buzzards in a line.then the mipit flew to the hawthorn(on the video again) and i decided to leave.nothing else to mention from around lickhill that day.then i went back.got a headache.went to bed,woke up,and spent the rest of the day puiking....great....

same place a week later.

22/03/09

after a very dissapointing saturday because the gardening job ran over and i spent 4 hours raking the lawn getting the moss out..this ment i missed out on my planned visit to upton warren to admire the ringed plover there.anoyed by this i vowed if i didnt get anything the next day i would hand in my bins(joke that'll never happen)and claim this the worst weekend ever. the day started as usual watching the feeders.only 16 siskins and 3 goldfinch today.a lot down from last week.then around the local patch.and first up the sand martin colony.after getting splatted by a sprinkler.i was relieved by a very low buzzard that passed over my head at 10ft.then while watching this the unmistakable sound of the....yes it is..a sand martin(year tick) . i love these birds as they wheel there way through the air.and reminding me how hard they are to keep a lock on.they also confused me to how many there were.while watching one flying in front of me,i then lost it and another appeared behind me.was it the same one,i dont know.so i decided to put the news out as at least 1.then to the fields further upriver to hear the skylarks singing.but what i came across was totaly different.behind me a large dark bird was circling.another buzzard...no it was not..a ravern(year tick) souring around.thats a good bird.i watched it for a few minuites as it wheeled around above my head,then promptly dissapeared towards devils spitful. there was a lot of campers on the site so i decided to head back home.at the feeders the siskins were on so i decided to wait by the car till they flew off as i didnty want to scare them 4 nothing.so i took the op to scan the trees.siskin,siskin,siskin.then a few goldcrest appeared and entertained me with my previous favorite species.then out of nowhere a 'chiff chiff chiff chaff' song allerted me to the presance of a chiffchaff.then i had him in my scopes(year tick).he flew around the birches,conifers and silver birches for a bit then dissapeared.

then to stanklyn lane(dont worry not long to go now).got another chiffchaff in the trees.then we just turned into heath lane and a small falcon crossed the path of the car.'merlin' we both shouted.i jumped out the car to see the rear end of a female merlin dive into the roadside bushes.my dad glimpsed it before it hit the tree and dissapeared.but it was enough to id another year tick. after about 10 mins and no other sighting we decided to check the model airstrip.but there were people flying model aeroplanes there so decided to just scan the trees and were rewarded with 2 corn duntings(year tick).a nice mixture of winter and summer today.and has turned a truily terrible weekend into a good one.

MB