what a day!

i must admit that i have been slakacing off the blog in recent days as a result of homework.and i appologise about it but what can i do.

well heres the days birding:

18/04/09

the usual satturday mouning routine was employed today.get out of bed, watch the feeders,go to nans,take here to bewdley then to earlswood.my joy suddenly lifted as i got news from my friend andy,that 2 arctic terns had been seen at earswood lakes and asked if i was going to get them.i said why not.i was bribed by my dad to do a lot of hard laborous work in exchangeto see the terns and get to upton warren later(because there was a 'gropper' and a goosander there,both would be personal site ticks).so i worked very hard.we both finished our tasks early and we got to leave early.firstly my dad drove round the lakes and came across the causway where we saw a birder,that i now know was matt from the earlswood blog.we headed for the engine pool car park as we have parked there before,while looking for another tern,a little tern(which we dipped on).

te news said that the birds were on windmill pool so we walked along valley road where we had a grey wagtail on the wires.even from the other end of engine pool i could see 2 terns just by the jizz.we walked over to where the birder was but half way across the causway a tern landed on a boid.to me this bird looked good for arctic(short legs,all red bill,long tail streamers and the contrasting white cheek)but on talking to matt(nice to meet you by the way) found out that he thought they were both commons.and means has he had a scope i took his word.not wanting to spend too much time here we had a walk to the bottom end of engine pool and collecting my scope from the car on the way.at the bottom of the lake we had 2 more terns which on closer inspection with my scope turned out to be arctic(lifer 182)i got a few pics of one of the birds that landed on a random boid in the lake.not the best results but not bad:

after watching these for a bit we left for upton warren and a whole new story opened.

to be continued.........

immediatly

after me asking which side of the reserve would be more productive.i got the news of the two above species.so the moors it was.getting out the car i saw a tern flying north.i passed it off as a common.on the way down to the west hide and stopped at the dissabled hide where the gropper was.not realling no sign.we decided you could hear it from the west hide so in we went and it was completly empty.so whats about.well got the goosander(site tick) drake and a drake wigeon at the other end of the same island.there was 4 pheasnts( 3f 1m) and i got an amazing close up video.the scope was on minimum zoom when i took this:

the highlights from here was:

1 little grebe

7 g c grebe

1 greylag

2 shelduck

1 wigeon

5 teal

1 goosander

4 pheasant

1 LRP

1 common tern over

2 bullfinch

5 reed bunting

then on the way back everything came out 2 cettis warbler,2 reed warbler,a chiffchaff,and a garden warbler(year tick).this garden warbler is joint first for the earliest warren record.and finally the grasshopper warbler started reeling.after a flythrough sparrowhalk we saw a small locustella warbler zit between the patches of brambles.(year tick).unless the warren has got a lannocated,pallas,savis or a river warbler(dream on) then this has to be the grasshopper.after getting good prolonged views(if through a few reeds)of a cettis warbler we decided to get to the flashes.and what a good decision that was.

as i stopped to watch 2 oystercatchers circle the sailing pool(at one point going right over our heads)and land on the field to the back of the sailing pool in a canadian goose flock and got a few decent(for me) images:

then i had a quick look to see how far my dad had got down the steps but when i looked he had moved barly passed the info board.i asked why he stopped and then a sound i have not heard for years rung out.'cuck-oo' is my description for it and everybody will know what that means.we either have a cuckoo on our hands or some prat trying to get lucky with a tape player.we hopped into the hen brook hide to find an almost complete mc-donalds.but this is where we thought the cuckoo was calling from.no sign.but a few reed warblers were chattering away and a cettis was singing.we decided to get to the feeder hide as it shown us the field at the back,along the dense bushes and over the hen pool.after noting a few reed buntings and no more that 5 mins into our vigal and i got a shout from my dad asking what a cuckoo looks like(in his words this means he thinks he has th bird mentioned)my very basic description was a kestrel x sparrowhalk.then i had him flying towards us along the shrub line from the field.he came into land on the dead tree near the hide and managed to get noe shot before he was attacked by a magpie.this was taken through my bins:

givnen that the bird was only on the tree for 15 secs this isnt a bad image.from then on i was in a great mood.this being my first cuckoo for 3 years(although i heard one 2 years ago near stackpole head)the bird didnt show or call again.but what a birdall the birds seen on the second flash were pretty much the same as last time but 3+common sands were newcomers for the year(year tick).

highlights were:

4 shelduck

5 gadwall

4 teal

2 oyc

9 avocets

5+lrp

1 green sand

3+common sand

2 redshank

3 curlew

6 snipe

2 stock doves

1 cuckoo

2 cettis

2 reed warbler

3 linnet

2 reed buntings

ill end the post with some pics and videos.

MB