wag-fest

right i promise last 'fest'type post on this blog but today was certainly the day of wagtails
19/09/09
at bewdley in the late mourning early afternoon i was very privalidged to watch 3 yellow wagtails,2 grey and 4 pied wagtails under the bridge in the town centre,not the usual place to find a yellow wag,but i suppose passage birds can turn up anywhere.
later that evening after the earlswood job i got to my usual place at upton warren but as it wasent long before dark(less than an hour) we went for the flashes as a potential life tick was there,a little stint.
at the sailing pool a ton of wagtails were flying around calling over the car park,and i didnt know why.on the south shore i reallised why,they were roosting in trees between the lake and the car park.a few seconds after a wagtail zipped from the lake edge and the short tailed(in wagtail terms) yellow bird was imidiatly identified as a yellow wagtail my 4th for the day.a few squeals from the hen pool allerted me to a water rail but i carried on,at the brook spliting area,i saw a raptor perched on the dead tree,i raised my bins and there was a male kestrel,it stood theer for a good few minuites then flew off over the hen pool,

after about 30 mins in the hide and not having seen the little stint or the whinchats i was wondering if they would show.then a call from my dad telling me to look at the curlews feet,i swung my bins over there and there it was a juv little stint,doing what all the books say,feeding around the feet of other waders.in this case the largest wader next to one of the smallist,so you can imagine the size difference.despite trying it was too dark to get a film/photo so nothing along that line im afraid.for some reason then i decided to scan the telephone pole to see if the buzzare was still on there,it was but a small movement distracted me after locking onto the bird i found it was one of the whinchats,fromjust an houror so watching this isnt a bad total.highlights here were:

1 shelduck

1 water rail

75c lapwing

1 LITTLE STINT(LIFER)

4 green sand

12+ curlew

20+ snipe

100c BHG's

1 tawney owl briefly near farm buildings

50c pied wag(roost)

1 yellow wag

1 whinchat

1 cetti's warbler

MB

life list-192(latest little stint)

upton warren list-127(latist barnicle goose,see later post)

all quiet

it has to be expected, i am going to merge 2 upton warren visits together as i didnt see much and im still behind so:

5/09/09

despite a water rail showing very well from the feeder hides at the moors i didnt raise my camera,neither did i raise my camera at all.2 hobby's shown well briefly as they spead over the reeds in front of the hide.one turned back about half way up the lake and again flew close to the hide into the education reseve.you could see the white cheek even though the light was to be honest,diabolical(i have been told by my teacher to use more sophisticated language in my writing so this is where im starting).even though i was quite early it went very dark.i mean dark like in a thunderstorm,but it didnt start raining,it just went dark.9 greylag geese flew over the moors twice(about 30 mins apart) and canadians were everywhere,it was nice to see a bit of summer when a common tern(adult,heavly moulting) flew in from the north and flew around the lake fishing,and proberbly my last common swift of the year,and i will say it now 'asta la vista birdy'(i first said that about 2 weeks before this day) and a few warblers were hanging on by there toe-nails,with a sedge warbler,a reed warbler and 3 willow warbler(and the resident warblers).a starling roost developed over the north moors with around 200 birds at least.

moving to the flashes it added the usual stuff,an LRP,5 green sand,2 common sad,39 curlew and only 2 snipe(well that i saw),the BHG roost was up to a massive 2000+ birds with smaller numbers of the larger gulls,the common tern from the moors again joined us and roosted on the posts in the first flash,a huge movement of swallows consisted of over 200 bird passing through including a flock of 150+ that hawked the reedbed to the south of the hide as i came in

12/09/09

again in the west hide for a water rail or ultimatly the bittern.unfortunatly neither shown.a juv pheasant ran into the feeder area brefly and them zoomed back out again.a snipe was seen on the opposite side of the lake.i will admit i spent most of the time chatting to the man who owns the yellow sports car(cant be bothered to write the real name) who i now know is called brian(i know loads of peope named brian and loads called andy,are they popular names or something).the last time i saw him was when he was russhing off to get the spotted crake at the moors.i was pleased to hear he did see it,but only for a few seconds before it dissapeared forever.he said if he didnt run from the car park he wouldent have seen it.we talked about his plans to visit spurn head the next day for booted warbler and barred warbler.then we got into a discution about his car how it is bad owning it,he dillebraty get blocked off at traffic lights and teenagers in stupid looking modded corsas(just an example) trying to get him to race them.

at the flashes it fared a bit better with a new arrival being a redshank which was a welcomed return and the snipe total had gone up to 6,the dunlin was still in residence at the back of the flash.a kingfisher was on the brook and 5 pied wags were flying around over the car park,25+ curlew came down(most as it was getting to dark to see) and the BHG roost had significantly dropped to only 1000 birds,a drop of 1000 on last week,7 green sands were poking around the shallows.i will just end this post with a couple of pics of 2 cars at upton:

MB

1st time love

29/08/09

upton warren

no this post isnt about love for all those soppy people out there.this is about my friend andys first visit to upton warren,and god did it leave him well impressed.he now knows wy i love the place so much,showed him every hide over the visit being in each hide from 30 mins-3 hours depending on what was happening.went for the east hide at the moors first as he is always gloping over the fact he never see's large flocks of lapwing.it took him a bit to adapt to these new surroundings(at first he found it difficult to pick out anything).nothing but 2 buzzard,a whitethroat and a jay on the north moors at the east hide i asked whether the black tern was still around. they said it was on the railing infront of the concrete hide.he found it hard to pick up on the railings on the far side of the lake but seen it through my scope.after noting a common sandpiper we headed to the concrete hide.from here we had a few flypasts from the black tern but couldent pick up much else.the west hide had more to offer,with the feeders now back in use my andy started clicking away at the birds,a kingfisher briefly landed on the water gage:

but flew off soon after,it was then followed by 2 other kingfishers,so there were 3,nice.at the bottom of the reeds near the muddy area i saw the arse end of a water rail running for cover.i quickly called it and that was then a lifer for andy,one which for a long time i have said to him,if you don't see or hear a water rail your unlucky.loads of willow warblers were around the feeders too with a total of 7 along the west path and from the feeder hide and 2 chiffchaff,the feeder birds were momentarilly sent into blind panic as a male sparrowhalk swooped through but missed everything.highlight here were:

- shoveler

10c teal

1 peregrine(viewed through scope on masts from east hide)

1 water rail

1 common sand

1 black tern

3 kingfisher

7 willow warbler

2 bullfinch

2 reed bunting.

but all the exitement came from the flashes. i was pointing out all the so called 'common' waders to andy whie he was reminding me a lot were lifers.take green sands now i have seen hundreds but for andy these were lifers.it just shows no matter how many times ive seen them someone else will need them..at 6:50 pm the flashes started to liven up a shout of a golden plover got me onto the arse end of a GP as it dived behind cover in the flash.a few birders went out to see if it was visible from the gap in the bush along the path(and to check it wasent either of the rarer species).one of the birders came back in and said 'nothin to get exited about' while again andy reminded me it was yet another lifer for him.now it was just for the sabine's gull.after yet another day of negative news the previous night i didnt want to get his hopes up.we spent a lot of time switching things.i used his camera while he used my scope etc.the GP posed beautifully for the camera.that was untill this b*****d tried to have him for his tea:(look out it's behind you)

luckily the golden plover got away and decided to land right in front of the hide,giving the best views of GP i have ever had,although it did look a bit wary,but eventually settled down and spent the night feeding.

a few pics for the flashes:

other birders came and left eventually leaving just andy warr,andy,my dad and me in the hide after all the others drained hope of the sabine's comming into roost.

at 7:55 a call from my dad of a gull with a black head,after a few schetchy details me and andy warr were onto the SABINE'S GULL yet again.andy(my friend andy) was a bit ferantic asking where it was as he couldent pick it up.i got up aimed my scope at it and said 'look through there'.he took a peak and grabbed for his camera and tried to take some shots now knowing where the bird was.all the images came out all grainy and horrible but yo can tell its of a sabine's.i txt the news out to brian stretch and recieved one on the golden plover asking if i'd seen it,i simply said 'yes'.andy warr called a few people saying the sabine's was back at the flashes.what a way for upton to show how good it is,a few scarce birds,some commons and a mega(well in my terms,not like the tufted puffin in kent) highlights here are:

3 LRP

1 GOLDEN PLOVER

7 green sand

2 common sand

28 curlew

3 snipe

1 SABINE'S GULL

1 BLACK TERN

20c stock dove

1 cetti's warbler

andy got 7 lifers today (i think) but it will be some time before he can catch up with me.wink,wink

MB

geese galor

27/08/09

slimbridge

a spur of the moment trip,very last minuite.but worth it.on the motorway i was staring out the window and saw a large deer,it had short horns if it helps,any ideas what it is,

it turned out we screwed the tides up massivly and the tide was way out and the birds were literaly miles away(from the holden tower anyway).we had a steady stroll through the 'plastics' taking a few photos along the way,by the way my favorites are wood duck and ringed teal,im pritty sure there are more flamingos here than in spain.i heard reports of a redstart in the spinny(the wood around the ziess hide) but we didnt see it, the distance between the zeiss hide and the lake there was huge

,but managable,to the left of the hide(quite far away)i saw a flock of geese,greylag maybe,no they wernt a stunning flock of exacly 110 barnicle geese(lifer 191,reasons for counting them are set out in the comments section of 28/08/09),they were a bit far for dodgyscoping so i didnt try,a few plovers were out in curved area(look in middle of previous pic),on getting my scope onto them they were ringed plover,after a bit we both counted 5,and around these along the edges of the water,were 3 greenshank(year tick) with their perculiar leaning forward gaint,by the size and what seemed suitable habotat i was bemused but the fact that there was only 3 lapwing.my dad came over to say he just saw 2 yellow wagtails around the hay circle things,but after he told me where they were i couldent pick them up,for 5 mins i couldent see them but then suddenly one burst into my field of view(through scope),then landed and dissapeared again in some long grass.i scoped this grass untill it came out and followed it to a bare area of ground,where there was another 4 yellow wagtails feeding,overall there was 5 from the zeiss hide and 3 wheatear fedding there too.the barnicles took flight and shown imaculate wings flying onto the dumbles.not long after we left and headed for the holden tower.

for some reason we scipped the south lake,this seems the best idea when visiting there,but we missed it,bet all the good stuff was there.

in the tower we found out we had made a big mistake,the birds were out on the mudflats of the river.they were miles out.i put my scope on the river and got 2 little egrets standing side by side,200c small waders were put down as dunlin,but i knew that there was knot in there ad maybe a few scarcer waders(in my terms that means barwit,turnstone,grey plover,esturine waders i need to tick really).its just they were so far out i couldent tell,i picked up one bird i would swear was a knot(by structure) but as i wasen certain i didnt get the news out and im not ticking it,well not untill i see one i can id anyway.after seeing 2 ravern on the dumbles we decided to leave but visited the stephen kirk hide where 10 black tailed godwits were showing very,very,very close to the hide,got some amazing footage of them:

highlights of the day are:

2 little egret

110 barnicle geese

1 OYC(heard)

5 ringed plover

3 lapwing

200c dunlin

1 green sand

3 greenshank

13 b t godwit(10 from sk hide,3 in rushy pen)

30c curlew

3 common tern

5 yellow wagtails

9 wheatear

2 raven

20c linnets

i will end the post with all sorts of pics of plastic stuff

MB

im a bit pissed 2nite,a montys harrier has turned up just up the road from my dads at caunsall,i travel along the road next to it every friday and sunday and it decides to show mid weeks when i can't get it,i cant miss 2 in a row can i after the upton bird.if it sticks around untill friday i WILL be there.......

a rail a,tern and a gull

6/08/09
upton warren
heading for the west hide there was a large tt flock along the path,spent about 5 mins scanning the flock for anthing,only things in there was 1 willow warbler and 3 chiffchaff(yes you can tell them apart),went straight into the west hide and called a water rail.it disapeared but i wasent sure as i didnt get my bins on the bird (in reeds).2 black tern were here(both juv) and shown at the top end of the moors:

i scanned the assembled gulls for larus sabini,but they only consistesd of black heads :(

then turned my attention back too the feeder area and a water rail was there standing in the cut reeds and just spent 30 mins walking up and down the newly cut reeds,at one point directly in front of the hide on the waters edge giving a great oprotunity to film it:

a kingfisher landed on the stick in front of the hide briefly but flew off before i could get my scope,

it is good to see the bird tables/feeders coming back into life with 7 bullfinch(3 juv),3 reed bunting and numrous greenfinch with a lone young goldfinch,a woman in the hide said 2 sabine's gulls had been found at westwood pool and i must say i was tempted(but its permit holders only),but it was soon after that i recieved news of the bird at the flashes so after telling the 2 other people in the hide(one traveled quite far to see it,can't remember where though),they both left for the flashes but we stayed in the hide for a bit,nothing new came in so after 20 mins we headed down to the flashes.highlights here are:

1 shovler(not good for seeing them from the west hide)

1 water rail

3 common tern

2 BLACK TERN

1 kingfisher

1 cetti's warbler

1 willow warbler

3 chiffchaff

7 bullfinch

3 reed bunting,

again the hide was packed and i took to sitting at the back of the hide.i was pointed onto the bird on entering the hide,which for the first time was out the water(note the end of the video goes dark because someones head gets in the way:

(sorry no video here,uploading failed)

while in the hide i heard someone mention something about sheepwash but didnt hear anything else,the sabine's flew off showing off it's upperwing pattern,despite thinking it would land again,ti didnt it just kept going and going untill it was a distant speck,this gave me a chance to look for some other stuff,a juv LRP was here and 2 common tern landed on the posts,i then looked south and saw 2 terns commin in from the south,my dad asked what i had and i sai i had the 2 black tern from the moors,a few other birders looked at them but the rest of the hide was intently scanning the gull flock,the sabine's gull reappeared and landed with the gull flock at the back,it shown for the rest of the night.highlights here were:

1 LRP

10c green sand

30c curlew

1000c BHG's

5 l b b gull

1 SABINE'S GULL

2 common tern

2 BLACK TERN

4 stock dove

1 cetti's warbler(hen pool,heard from path)

MB

can it get any better

24/08/09

upton warren

the answer is yes it can

for some unknown reason we pulled in at the sailing club first,but i wanted to check the flashes out later for the roost,so after having a quick scan of the sailing pool resulted in 1 common tern but nothing more else apart from mallard.

at the moors we walked to the lapwing hide and there was quite a bit showing. a jay flushed from the bush behind the hide and flew into the educastioon reseve.a few minuites later i glanced over out the left side of the hide and there was a jay on the fence.i quickly grabbed my scope+camera and the bird was flying,then yet another jay came from the bush behind the hide and landed in a tree,it then flew to the bushes along the river and then all 3 birds popped out but were a little distant for dodgyscoping.we noted a bit of k-fisher activity on the broudmeadow and then suddely one zoomed towards us and landed on the stick giving stunning views,then the sun came out and of cause the sun was reflecting of the water behind the k-fisher but i till tried and got an acceptable video:

a few common terns were still hanging on and the cormorants were up to 6.then over to the west hide hoping for a water rail or even better a bittern but my luck had turned and none shown.a common sand flew from one of the tern boxes onto the islands.highlights here were

3 shoveler

2 teal

1 common sand

4 common tern

2 kingfisher

3 jay

a birder then entered the west hide and i told him what was about.his reply was shocking 'well theres 6 black tern on the sailing pool'.on this news i quickly gathered my stuff said thanks and rushed to the car.i had to get rid of another bogey bird.they werent there earlier so had to be recdntly arrived.i grabbed my bins and my scope and jogged to the bench.from here saw there indeed were 6 black tern(2 adult summer-winter,rest juv,family flock maybe)the views were good but we saw they were comming in much closer on the south shore,so we headed over there,i couldent expect a lifer to act the way these birds did the views were so close but so quick,one bird repetidly flew a metre or 2 away from us as it dip fed.i noticed how differant its flight was compared with 'sea terns' after watching these for some time(lost count how much time)

we headed towards the steps when a perigrine flew over carrying a white dove in its tallons which was still alive,featers were flying everywhere it flew towards the masts and was lost to view not to be seen again.we dropped into the hen pool where a 'showy cettis warbler shown well,a few reed warbler and a female gadwall.

walking to the avocet hide produced nothing.on entering the hide i asked if anyone had seen the black terns,they all seemed rather shocked.none of them had seen them,they all decided to stay put but not long after the black terns joined us anyway givving good but not as great views

one of the adult black terns landed giving me an op to try and get some pics.ok i admit there crap but you can tell its a black tern.then they flew back to the sailing pool they returned to the flashes at 7:40 pm then flew south at 7:42 pm.it wasne tlong before we were joined by more birders looking for the black terns,at around 8pm one birder came in,sat down and said 'ive got the sabine's',there was a mad rush to get on the bird then when we were all on it it gave great views of it doing its best to avoid the BHG's.mone of my videos show the amazing beauty of larus sabini. unfortunatly it only flapped its wings once revaling its upperwing patter which birders simply die for.but i was lucky enough to be filming the bird as it done just that so enjoy this as much as i have:

the rest of the night is pritty self explanitory,we watched the sabine's gull untill dark but kept an eye out for anything else,i never get tired of this bird.i got loads more films but a lot are dark and doesent show the bird doing much so i will leave them out

highlights are:

1 gadwall

3 shoveler

30c teal

1 perigrine

1 LRP(juv)

1 dunlin(juv)

10c green sand

3 common sand

10c curlew(came in when it was dark)

2 snipe

1000c BHG's

1 SABINE'S GULL

8 common tern

6 BLACK TERN (lifer)

5 stock dove

2 cetti's warbler

4 reed warbler

1 willow warbler

again i will end the post like this what a day and what a start to a week(well 9 days) over my dads 21/08-30/08/09

some more good stuff coming up soon,and a post just fr you martyn one about slimbridge,the home of ultimate plastics(with a load of wild birds thrown in)

MB

THE HOLY GRAIL

22/08/09

upton warren

had another one of those dying txts from brian stretch late thurday night about a adult sabines gull that had roosted at the flashes,i only though one thing it'll be gone by tomorow mouning,awoke friday mouning to the news of it still at the flashes but flew off about 4 hours before i even awoke,it flew north so i thought it wasent migrating south which could buy some time.i just hoped it would stick untill saturday.after hearing no news that night i came the conclusion it had gone.

it was only at about midday the next day i heard it again roosted last night.from the earlswood job(for some reason i didnt wright them in my records book so,nothing from earlswood today).we had just finished cutting the hedge when i recived some more news on a juv mediteranian gull at the flashes and within an hour we were there(it only takes 20 mins from earlswood but we had other things to do).as all the news was coming from the flashes i decided to get down there,on walking by the bench there was andy warr looking over the flashes through the gap.he said the med gull was only showing from the hide so we went up there.i was immediatly put onto the med gull which was an upton tick

it shown well even if the photos dont show it(it was next to the island to the right of the hide,the one with lots of vegitation on it).it wasent long before i was onto a dunlin(juv) at the back of the flash.not long after my dad decided to join andy by the bench and i decided to stay in the hide to log a bit more stuff.at the back of the flash there was a curlew,wait a minuite,isnt that a dark eystripe and bold supercilium and an all dark/short bill.WHIMBREL.only the scond whimbrel ive seen and this record was confirmed a few days after when i was told someone else had seen it that night.2 curlew flew into the flashes at dusk.at this point i decided to join my dad.there was a much larger crowd now about 30/40 birders.

while scanning the incoming gull flocks someone called a little egret,i got onto it flying across the flashes but i decided it was too dark to get a photo(about 8:10 pm).not long after this a birder called the sabine's flying in from the north with a big gull flock.about 5 seconds later i was onto it passing high over the hen pool.i watched it flying lower and lower untill ity dissapeared behind a tree on the 2nd flash(LIFER 189).i joined the hourds of birders as we sprinted for the hide. i got a look in and watched an amazing bird through my scope wth what looked like a full hood(it was very dark).i quickly got out my camera and fired away 1 film:

this shows how dark it was.i let a woman look through my scope and surrendered my position so someone else could get a look.as i got tothe end of the 1st bourdwalk,someone asked me if i was midlandsbirder and i replied in amazement 'yes'.how can someone recognise me without seeing a picture.i guess its to do with that im a teenager and there arnt many more young birders that visit upton.he introduced himself as the pokerbirder (nice to meet you).the rest of the night was spent on a high,i would love to say what my friend andy replied saying after i said i'd seen the sabines gull.and i didnt even send him the supporting cast(well not untill the next day anyway)

highlights are:

1 little egret

1 LRP

1 dunlin

10c green sand

2+ common sand

2 curlew

1 whimbrel

800+ BHG's

1 mediteranian gull(juv)

1 SABINE'S GULL(lifer)

5 common tern

3 stock dove

what a day!

MB

by the way the title comes from what a birder said while walking with him to the flashes.he called it the 'holy grail' of a gull

nothin special

17/08/09
as the title sudgests nothin special was of note at sheepwash,5 little grebe,5g c grebe,ruddy duck,1lapwing,258 BHG's,1 common tern,1 kingfisher,2 linnet over
MB

purple patch

15/08/09

8am: awoke to the sweet jingling of a charm of goldfinch.a robin was tacking near the feeder,a 'yaffel' was laughing in a nearby tree,the high pitched 'see see' of begging young blue tits,a lone great tit was shouting for help 'teacher teacher'.the occasional honk of a passing goose flock(canada of cause)this is the sound i awake to in a mouning at my dads,and i will say,WHAT A SOUND TO WAKE UP TOO!!!

instead of turning on the tv like a NORMAL teenager i decided to stick my nose in one of my many bird books(had to be the colins bird guide),flicking through the pipits,i felt a viberation on the seat next to me, ah, a text.andy wouldent be up this early,and my friends dont oftern text me at this time,so that left brian with a rareity update,proberbly a med gull down at the flashes.

i opened the txt and died(then came back to life,cause i wouldent be wrighting this if i was dead,derr) male MONTAGU'S HARRIER flew over upton flashesflying NW at 7:40.to say my exact words would be wrong so i will include a cencored area

'S**T'

i grabbed my bins,told my dad i will be back soon and ran onto moorhall field this area gives the best viewing of the whole area and i waited,if it was to follow the river it will pass here.i know it is a long shot but as rob prudden said later that night at the flashes'it has to go somewhere'.

after a hour and a half i gave up hoping it would return to the flashes(or moors),but there was no other sign of this bird anywhere.so that's my day ruined,or was it.

later that day i was sitting in the car as my dad was mowing the lawn(i have nothing to do when he does the grass.anther viberation in my pocket was another txt from brian,was it the monties,no it bloody wasent,spotted crake from the west hide moors pool.run out to my dad show him the txt and after he finished the mowing i was on my way.i headed for the west hide,climbed the steps and there was nobody in the hide.i checked the log book and it said it was showing from the water rail hide,so i left my dad in the feeder hide(he waited before somebody called it and he would come down as he knew it would be cramped.a birder was walking towards the west hide and i just said 'the spotted crake is showing from the concrete hide.little did i know i was talking to andy warr(only just found out recently).we both squeezed into the hide,as i took up my position a birder asked if i wanted to see it.i said yeah and i sat on the bench.a birder next to me said its in the cut reeds where he was pointing i had a good view of it and went out to collect my dad.he came in and we watched it for about 30 mins untill it dissapeared into the reeds not having got any photos(because every time i got the camera on the bird someones head poped in the way.i decided to leave knowing there would be some pics on the net.the only other thing i noted in the hide was a juv water rail.and there was even less around the moors.

highlights here were

common duck species

1 water rail

1 spotted crake

(photo: pete walkden)

4 OYC

10c common tern

onto the flashes,on a high from the crake,i happily got out the car.on the south shoe of the sailing pool i saw a birder it often talk too runnin the opposite way(he owns a yellow vaxhall vx220 if it helps) having just heard of the crake at the moors.i havent saw him since then so i have no idea wheter it shown for him.i wished him luck and carried on.after taking my place i was guided onto a common gull(upton 1st for me).i got a few photos of him but he spent all his time asleap and only awoke twice briefly:

all the gulls flew up and it left a long billed wader standing in shallow water not far out in the flash.it was a black tailed godwit and much closer than any other birds ive seen(well untill 27/08/09),the wood sandpiper was still giving decent if distant views at the back of the flash,and joining the wood sand at the back were 9 snipe and a few green sands(and the usual BHG's)

highlights here are:

400c canada geese over(at very least)

200c lapwing

1 wood sand

10c green sand

4 common sand

1 B T godwit

42 curlew

9 snipe

800c BHG's

1 common gull

10c common tern

15c stock dove

MB

SUMMARY

as im very far behind on my blog,ive decided to just do a list of highlights just to catch up so:
2/08/09
lickhill
2 kingfisher
1 sparrowhalk
1 pheasant(f,11 chicks)
2 buzzard
3 goldfinch
1 nuthatch
2 goldcrest
and 1 souther hawker dragonfly
3/08/09
sheepwash
4 teal
1 pochard(female)
1 ruddy duck
3 lapwing
1 common sand
5 common tern
1 stock dove
8/08/09
upton warren
3 shoveler
28c teal
1 hobby
150c lapwing
1 dunlin
1 wood sandpiper
10 green sand
3 common sand
37 curlew
4 snipe
16 common tern
6 stock dove
3 cettis warbler
1 linnet
1 reed bunting
same day earlswood
2 nuthatch
3 goldcrest
and a load of butterflys including 26+ peacock and 2 painted ladys
at bewdley
1 cormorant(very good views)
9/08/09
lickhill/blackstone
2 lesser whitethroat
1 common whitethroat(female,in same bush)
6 blakcap(2 in whitethroat bush)
5 comon buzzard
1 kingfisher
2 stock dove(very good views at blackstone rock)
1 sparrowhalk(juv,landed on dead tree behind me,saw me and flew off)
10/08/09
sheepwash
1 pochard(male)
1 ruddy duck
1 lapwing
7 common tern
1 kingfisher
1 garden warbler
3 blackcap
14/08/09
lickhill
from note book:9:15pm
tawney owl seen and heard,seen in flight twice from 9:15-9:20
and again calling 10p onwards
normal survace in next post.
MB