no, were losing them!!!!!

11/07/09

ok i think a post is well overdue so here goes.

upton waren

moors pool.

dropped into the north moors to see if the terns come close enough for a photo,

it did come close enough but the light was screwed and the images completly mucked up(as per with my upton terns).and after only a few brief flight views of reed and sedge warblers we decided to head for the east hide to look for the OYC chicks.about half way down the track to the hide my dad told me to look up as we saw a hobby circle over at a low(ish leval).the bright white clouds burned the colours away but you could make out its red undertail.we watched i glide around and then fly north.great its always a good day when you see a hobby(and ive seen quite a few hobbys this year).in the hide we met the photographer(seen before at waxie twitch at upton,wyre forest and a few times at upton) again but again didnt manage to get his name. a sedge warbler was in the nettles to the right of the hide and gave good views but i didnt get any photos.the oystercatchers were on the 'cage' island again showing off there young which are a lot bigger and with less 'fluffiness then the previous week and were starting to grow some feathers.it was then when i noticed a face i have never seen at the moors,an avocet,the first ive seen on this

side and how different it looked to see it here.(this was ment to be a video but it wouldent upload)

and next to it landed a upton born and bred common tern.i dont think it learned its parents inabbility to land on water.no seriously if you watch a flock of terns you see them everwhere but landed on water(but they do wade in shallow water).i dont actually think its a inabbility but rather a habit.they can land on water and i know this but you dont see it very often.

a redshnk flushed from the east islands(so covered in weeds and stuff you cant see jack) and flew off high west.10c curlew flew over and 6 of these landed but again at the back of the east islands so no photos(trying to copy the godwit).not much else really but its not a bad list.

highlights:

7 g c grebe
2 cormorant

2 mute swan(7 cygnets,leg ring U91, orange,left leg,and its mates leg ring U92,orange left leg,seems as if they were ringed together and stayed together)

5 gadwall

2 teal(per my dad)

20c tufties

1 hobby

3 OYC(+2 young)

1 avocet

10c lapwing

1 redshank

10c curlew

9 common tern

2 stock dove

normal warblers again noted

3 jay flushed from trees north of car park(family group)

1 bullfinch

10c reed buntings

again we got a high total of greylag geese(10 still on sailing and 4 adults flying low over flashes).the avocet from the moors had moved down here while it was puring down(i mean pouring).an OYC was down here and was presumed to be from the moors.the LRP chick had been predated.we had a count of 13 green sands and a lone common sand.another redshank was down here but we arnt sure weter its the same as the moors or not.only 1 curlew was down but we did leave early and missed the roost.really there isnt much more to talk about from here so (and it was raining quite heavily so i didnt get any photos or videos)highlights are:

3 g c grebe

14 greylag

1 gadwall

4 teal

10c tufties

1 OYC

7 LRP

1 avocet

30-40 lapwing

13 green sand

1 common sand

1 redshank

1 curlew

2 common tern

2 stock dove

1 green woodie

2 g s woodie

8 sand martin(flyins SE)

3 reed bunting.

sounds like some good stuff is commin in the last few days, pomarine skua at bartly,lesser yellowlegs and collered pranticole in yorkshire,and a blue cheaked bee-eater in kent(yes i do know its gone now),and on local news 2 little egrets are at upton warren and a yellow legged gull has been having hanky panky,bum-fun, whatever!!!, with a lesser black back at upper bittel, and in your local,local news a pigeon was found dead in a local field,WOW so exiting, come on somebody find a carmine bee eater somewhere close,so we can rub it in the coast peoples faces,oh yeah,bring it,

and there comeback 'we've only had green herons ,yellow browed alatross,blue rock thrush,maqueens busterd,naunmens thrush,eyebrowed thrush,swainsons thrush,gt blue heron,pacific diver,amerian robin,ruppels warbler,spectacled warbler,eastern bonellis warbler,humes warbler,brown flycatcher,alder flycatcher,collered flycatcher.............' and this is about the time us midlands birders run away weeping.oh poor us.you got to feel sorry for us.normal me will be back in the next post.

(soz for the lack of images/videos in this post,blogger wont let me upload some of them,god knows why).you'll have to wait for my nxt post as i have to wait for my friend to forward some of his pics from sheepwsh.

MB

tree creepin

11/07/09

garden feeders

the pair of breeding nuthatches from last year didnt return and since then i have had a lot of trouble catching up with them(only seen them twice before now) so it was a big suprise to see 2 feeding on the next doors tree.a treecreeper was on the tree in my garden and a female blackcap was in a nearby willow.2 robin young have taken residence in the garden and are giving good view.2 golcrest were latched onto the tit flock in the garden.also 3 each of chaffinch and coal tit.

the tits

5/07/09
lickhill
not much to note very quiet really,did see the broud bodied chaser again at the lake at blackstone.the only birds of note were 2 willow tits which were found in the woodland between the lake and blackstone rock.i was attracted to them while one was calling and after finding them confirmed(after 10 mins of observation)my suspisions they were this species.

waderfest

4/07/09
upton warren
prittlyslow today.the oystercatcher pair had hatched 2 young and were acting very cute

there was also a lapwing chick on the shingle island in front of the east hide(moors).

and mommy lapwing

the only other highlight was a common sand which showed briefly for my dad but not meipent most of the time counting how many chicks the birds had.highlights and how many young(if known):

1 little grebe

6 g c grebe(3 young)

mute swan(6 cygnets)

canada geese(7 goslings)

5 gadwall

2 shoveler

3 teal(per my dad)

3 pochard(per my dad)

10c tufted duck(13+ young)

moorhen(2 young)

122 coot(numorous young)

3 oystercatcher(+2 young)

5 lapwing(1 young)

1 common sand

b h gull(tons of chicks)

8 common tern(2 young)

1 kingfisher

the usual warblers

1 bullfinch

at the flashes it was little better,the greylag family was still showing well by the benches on the south side of the sailing pool,but the range of waders was bigger(7 species).green sands put on a good showing right in front of the hide giving a great photo oprotunity

4 teal were newcomers which included 1 drake.4 common terns were flying around but it looked as if the nesting pair had failed as the birds failed to land on the island during the time we were in the hide.it was saddening to see that only 1 LRP chick had survived and we though that this survivor wouldent last long either(and it didnt)
highlights from here:

4 g c grebe(sailing)

10 greylag(sailing)

3 gadwall

4 teal

10c tufties

1 oystercatcher

9 avocet

6 LRP(1 young)

30c lapwing

14 green sands

6 common sand

8 curew

4 common tern

1 stock dove

1 green wood

2 pied wag(first ive seen for ages)

the usualwarblers

2 reed buntings


to show how small the LRP chick is watch this(bear in mind it is a week old)
and i will finish this post with a beautiful landscape

MB

sheepwash

3/07/09

this time i havent forgot about sheepwash.apart from 2 common terns which gave stunning views along the raised ground along the r. tame expeshily at the area near the fishing pool where the bird flew within a few feet of me(to busy watching through bins to get camera)the birds landed on the island near the path and i took the op to 'borrow' my friends camera(a lot more zoom than mine) and i started snapping away. a few photos i took:

the terns(with a tuftie)

close up on swans

great crest with young

and a 'royal' common tern
(if you really look at this pic,open your artistic mind, it looks like a royal tern,god knows how i do it,....crap i'm sounding like my goth art teacher)

the terns were obsrved displaying and passing fish but me and my friend agreed that it was too late for breeding so we passed it off as pair bonding.

highlights were:

2 little grebe

8 g c grebe(2 young)

1(eclipse) gadwall

1 unnamed duck that is wrongly persicuted

2 common terns

6 reed warbler(good views on reedy pool)

noted a comma butterfly and a few red admirals

today i went paintballing with my school it was imence.overall we used over 10,000 paintballs.it was maniotic.i heard a few goldcrest like calls in a habitat that looked good for firecrest(also the surrounding fields look good for quail,the area is by shareshill,staffs.i didnt look for it as i was a little preocupied by a hail of paint.our team won the day but didnt win nothin ,how bunk is that.it was really fun though and i very much enjoyed shooting at some people i dont like,SWEET REVENGE

MB