always stay that little longer

25/04/09

its the day of the upton warren all day birdwatch and where am i being a slave for my family doing the usual saturday mouning for them.the only reward from this task is 2 swift hawking over the river at bewdley(year tick).at earlswood it was the same with the same stuff i reported last week apart from the fact that i got onto 2 more swifts over the house.i got my dad onto these as they drifted towards the lakes.

we found 3 bullfinch(2m 1 f) in the garden with 1 perticulary showy male which i gladly got a pic of(note this pic was taken without bins or scope and is heavly cropped:

and a showy buzzard:

highlights here were:

2 swift

4 swallow

1 goldcrest

4 goldfinch

3 bullfinch

5buzzard

5 greenfinch

hopefully upton warren will cheer me up:

then......

just as we were getting ready to go.my phone trobs into life:osprey flew south over moors just.b****kS.if my dad didnt do the weeding in the garden i would of got an osprey

as usual when i arrived the usual suspects were there but the greylags were on the sailing pool again.but there was a few suprises.

after an hour more birders pilled in.all for 1 reason to get onto a whimberal in the almost non existant curlew roost(cause of the time of year)

allas no whimberal but even if one did turn up it would be imposible to find it as they arrived when it was almost dark but this didnt hint to what would show next.we had a fox circle the flash a few times although there was more than one as it was limping while the other one waswnt.

than around 8:50pm we saw a shape appear from above the hide.a small raptor flew in.hobby, was the next shout but was very difficult to follow after it dropped below the skyline.it blended in with the fields on the south shore of the flashes.this is certinaly the bird of the weekend.

highlights were:

2 greylag

2 shelduck

3 gadwall(2m 1f)

1 teal(im all alone)

1 hobby

9 avocet

6+ l r p

7 lapwing

2 common sand

3 redshank

7 curlew

5 snipe

2 stock dove

tawney owl heard

meadow pipit heard but not seen

1 sedge warbler(year tick)

1 cettis

1 reed warbler

1 goldcrest heard

1 reed bunt

next a short post about a breeding bird survey i did on blackcap at lickhil with very good results recorded.ammixed with a few other birds.