MEGA, MEGA,MEGA, MEGA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

28/07/10
Sheepwash urban park
A fine sunny day at this urban mecca with the good old friend that always accomponies me to 'sheep'.
the usual cercuit of round the main pool, onto the chemical pool, then a quick check of the mound, then down the 2nd tunnel to the marsh reeded pool's
a poor start, with 2 willow warbler and a chiffchaff, 2 whitethroat but little else, after 2 hours of trodging the area, nothing materialised, but as always the 'bird' always appears when you lose all hope. a quick last stop into the marshy pool was as always 'uneventfull', but andy stopped here to try and get a photo of an unco-opperative reed warbler, while i carried on to the bridge over the r. tame, i just appeared on view when a 'white bird' flushed from the river in front of me,
Black legs,
Yellow feet,
White,
Heron,
'EGRET'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I bellowed quite loudly to andy but he didnt cover the 30m in time before it flew behind the tree,
A whole site trudge didnt refind it, but on our 2nd drop in of the marshy pools i picked it up feeding behind the reeds
My first LITTLE EGRET at sheepwash, a lifer for andy and my first for the west mid's county:
after an hour or so waiting for the bird to come out from behind the reeds it eventually flew to roost in a nearby tree in a quiet area of the park to roost with terrible light.

A nice find, and a bit of a shock
MB

Upton Warren

17/07/10
i cant really remeber what was happening this day so just a list of highlights:
3 BLACK TAILED GODWIT (my 11th upton bird's this year)
4 DUNLIN (3 Ad, i Juv)
16 Green Sandpiper
5 Oyc
16 Greylag geese
3 gadwall (2 drk, 1 f)
5 teal (2 ecl m)
1 Hobby
2 Common Sandpiper
1 Redshank
24 Curlew
not too bad
MB

A nice evening at the Warren

10/07/10
a very pleasent few hours at the warren tonight.

a flock of LITTLE EGRETS had taken over the moors, and we had to take a look,

there was 3 egrets around the pool, 1 on the braudmeadow pool, 1 in the SW marsh, and one at the north end of the pool perched in a dead tree, there was also 3 teal swimming among the islands
a kingfisher perched on a dead branch in front of the hide:



and a fox caused havoc on the islands :




On the south shore of the sailing pool 8 greylag geese were swimming.

we had been in the main hide for only a minuite or 2 when we were joined by john belsey, who was quite pleased with himslef after twitching the WTL at slimebridge. we had a quick look in the log and found out a few nice waders were down,
A new adult summer BLACK TAILED GODWIT had replaced the 1st sum bird and was showing well, there was a large number of 17 green sandpipers spread around the flash,
a bit of scanning and i picked up the flock of 5 REDSHANK, the bigest flock i have witnessed on upton soil, and with this flock of redshank was its green legged cousin, a GREENSHANK, looking very beautiful in summer clothes:

just a shame i didnt get a photo to match.






The black tailed godwit was chased by a lapwing.
2 of the LITTLE EGRETS from the moors dropped onto the 2nd flash to have a quick fedd before moveing onto the 3rd flash




highlights ;
8 Greylag geese
3 Teal ( 2 DRK)
3 LITTLE EGRET
9 !!! Grey Heron
1 Oystercatcher
6 LRP
64 Lapwing
17 Green Sandpiper
5 REDSHANK
1 GREENSHANK
1 BLACK TAILED GODWIT
24 Curlew
6 Common Tern
1 Skylark
1 Blackcap

a very nice night i think
MB

Upton Warren

3/07/10
a 1st summer HOBBY flew through (characterised by brown tinged upperwing)
11 Green Sandpipers ( 1 at moors)

MB

TWITCHING!!!!!

27/06/10

ok, not really RARE birds, but nice to see birds

while on my way to redditch, just south of chaddersly woods, a RED KITE soared over the road, my 2nd worcester bird in 2 weeks, ( not the same as upton bird), as it flew towards upton, i found it sufficiently noteworthy to inform the guys to look up.

i got a txt in reply which read that an amazing flock of 5 BLACKWITS was at the moors pool.

At Arrow valley country park, a single common tern was fishing, reed warblers sung, but allas not much else.

while this was happening another txt popped up reading garganey at the flashes.

so after a couple of hours, my dad picked me up and on the way we were to upton warren moors.

we entered the east hide and very quickly located te 5 BLACK TAILED GODWITS, all in stunning summer plumage, as i didnt have my camera, i just watched the birds, but Dave walker has kindly donated some shots of one of the birds,

Photo- Dave walker

now we headed to the flashes for the garganey, on entering the hide i got a shock when i was told there was infact 2 birds presant, WOW,

ok not a stunning spring pair like last year, but still a bird which make you happy every time you see one, our only summer migrant duck.

Photo- Dave waker

the drake (above) flashes his wing once revealing his blue forewing.

the 1st summer BLACK TAILED GODWIT was still at the flashes also.....

birds of note were:

4 Teal ( 1 DRK)

2 GARGANEY (pair)

1 Hobby (moors pool)

2 Oystercatcher

7+ LRP

6 Green Sandpiper

2 Common Sandpiper

2 Redshank

6 BLACK TAILED GODWIT

18 Curlew

MB