shenstone- blue-headed wagtail

12/04/09
doesent every birder get that happy feeling when a good bird turns up just down the road and not only that,but on your birthday as well.heres how the day goes:

after the dip with the redstart yesterday i was on a downer and not really expecting much from my stomp along the severn to blackstone.i must again admit that lickhill was dead again and with the 100's of people strolling around i was unlikly to find 3 male white wagtails that had been presant at the same time last year or a female redstart which i flushed while watching the wags at the same time.the only birds around lickhill was another red leg partridge in the fields at the farm adjoining the site,while i also got 4 house martins hawking over the lickhill area and a buzzard over burlish top.

only 6 skylarks were singing in the fields today but shown well if very distant.as usual when i got to the lake by blackstone i was transported into another world with warblers singing,kinfishers zitting about and sand martins jinking in the air.a bit further up the east side of the lake i caught site of a small bird perched in the top of a willow.it sounded familiar but i couldent put a name to it.then i remembered REED BUNTING, patch first. OMG.i watched it on the other side of the lake for a bit when it stopped singing and dissapeared not to be seen again. 2 blackcaps were singing but only gave brief views. i refound both the grey wags from a couple of weeks ago and they were both wearing summer clothes.2 nuthatchs were calling and singing from a nest site boardering the river.and you remember the loads of willow warblers i had last week,well now i only had one.not much else really apart from a couple of showy jays.

then it was back home and not 15 mins later i got a txt from brian stretch informing me of a blue-headed wagtail at shenstone but as my dad had started cooking dinner we had to wait till he had cooked it and we had eaten it.i must admit i havent eaten dinner in that little time for a long time. we all finished at 3:30pm and me and my dad left for butts lane.after inquiring about the exact location we were told to look for people standing on the side of a plowed field with giant telescopes and cameras.well we turned onto butts lane at stone and what did we find.4 birders standing on the side of the field.so i jumped out the car got my scope and hiked towards the twitch. on arrival i placed my scope down and asked if he was showing in a casual manor(not showing my exitedness) they said he was out in the field in front of the green barn.i must admit i had a bit of trouble finding him.so a kind man at the other end of the gathering let me look through his scope and get a few record shots.then back over at my scope i found him and watched him as he showed well in the company of 5, yes, 5 yellow wagtails(year tick).

other highlights were:

pied wag (a lot)

3 skylark

2 pheasants

2 r l partridge

the blue headed wagtail(lifer) showed well for the rest of the time we were there.and ill let my photos and videos show the rest of the way.but none of them show the beautiful, charismatic bird well

.

and with a possible white wag(just waiting for brian stretch to confirm it)

and heres the field that held the wags and skylarks

reg the birder has his magic field and heres mine

this surley mixed with the camera makes a great birthday presant

MB