Migration!

31/08/13

 

Migration, don't you just love it!

That twinge of excitement as you wake in the morning to see if that clear spell overnight has brought anything with it. You anxiously await the text to confirm the presence of a rarity down the road while thrashing the patch in attempts to find your own 'mega'.

 

Sadly, mega's were lacking. In other words there were non, however, a nice scattering of migrants fresh in is enough to keep this midlands birder satisfied.

 

Following my work at Earlswood, I headed down the road to the lakes where a stunning juvenile BLACK TERN was showing. Within a few minutes I had picked up the bird feeding along the south shore of Engine pool, however repeatedly dropped onto pipes adjacent to the 'island' to perch, which, from the shore, gave stunning views!

 

 

I watched the bird for some time, being much closer than the bird I found at Blithfield Reserviour, both in flight and 'on the deck' before moving onwards to the Causeway between Engine and Windmill pool. From here I has stunning views of the Tern, at times down to a mere 10ft as very strong headwinds pushed it closer to the bank, directly passed where I was standing.

A Grey Wagtail was the only other 'Of note' bird, just because it strolled past me at around the same range as the Tern flew.

 

From here it was the roost at Upton Warren, complete with a nice array of Waders. The juvenile Little Ringed Plover and Ringed Plover remained (The adult had departed mid-week). Beside the residents, 4 Green Sand, 4 Common Sand and 2 migrant Snipe were also found probing the soft mud around the edges of the flashes. As we sat, a party of 3 Yellow Wagtails flew over south calling, as did a Common Tern.

 

The next morning (1/09) that feeling arose again, and it was straight to my phone to see a local 'grapevine' text. LITTLE STINT at the flashes.

As you would expect, patch birding was delayed slightly so I could catch up with this scarce inland arctic wader. As with most autumn LITTLE STINTS it was a juvenile bird and initially was feeding exclusively at the back of the flash among the base of the reeds, with the occasional Green Sand of Teal walking past, revealing just how miniscule of a bird it was.

Some time later, after having not very satisfying views the bird started to wade along the shoreline, before flying onto the near side of the 'channel', slowly working its way closer and closer until eventually it creeped out from beside the 'main island'

 

 

Completely worth the wait, Juvenile Little Stint is a stunner of a bird, but sadly one that is not guaranteed on a county yearlist this far inland. Needless to say, I left a happy birder.

Overnight, a single Green and Common Sand had left, leaving 3 of both, and the 2 Snipe remained, but new in was a Redshank, the first I had seen at this particular site all year!

 

3/09/13

Another grapevine text, however this time in West midlands county revealed the presence of a juvenile Shelduck at Sheepwash Urban park, which, being the site rarity it is warranted a fairly impromptu visit, within minutes, the Shelduck was located, feeding on the only suitable section of habitat on site, (note the litter also present). Also recently arrived was the first Pochard of the winter, a drake which was asleep in the favoured wintering area.

 

4/09/13

Yes I know, I'm ashamed, I twitched a Shelduck, but the real laughing point was that I dropped in again the next day with the scope to get some photos, with the objective to give a digi-scoping demonstration to another birder. While walking along the raised track, a familiar call had me looking to the sky to see a superb RING-NECKED PARAKEET circling above me, calling constantly, before after a short time flying off north. Another new site bird for me! As luck would have it, my digi-scoping companion was just around the corner at the time, and also heard it calling as it flew around.

Amazingly, the Shelduck remained, as did the Pochard, but a surprise was given when an adult HOBBY flew over the pool and proceeded to hawk dragonflies over johns lane pool. All in all, one of the better days I've had at Sheepwash recently!

MB

Highlights from late April

20/04/13
Patch
A early morning stomp around the patch was rewarded in the form of stunning views of the pair of Mandarin Duck (The long staying pair) which were feeding in paddocks on the riverbank. At least 2 Willow Warbler were singing, as were 4 Skylark. 2 Lapwing continued to show. A few Starlings were also showing very well in the sunlight.

Later that same day, i received news that the male Ring Ouzel was still showing near the lakes at Earlswood, and being just down the road, i't be a shame not to drop in. So once i had finished my jobs for the day i decided to have a short walk down the road, across the Causeway, down the side of Windmill pool to the paddock along the Gypsy lane, to be greeted almost instantly with a view of a stunning male RING OUZEL. couple of birders appeared, and i had a quick look though one of their scopes (Thankyou) and get a couple of pictures.

A stunning adult male, a jet black bird, with possibly the largest white blaze you can get slapped on the front! Stunning!

24/04/13

A trip into my 'Undisclosed' woodland was incredibly rewarding. A male PIED FLYCATCHER was singing in the same spot as last year, and was giving great, but brief views. Personally however, my highlight goes to, after a total of nearly 30 hours searching, i finally caught up with 2 LESSER-SPOTTED WOODPECKER as while listening to the males high pitched Green Woodpecker like song, i managed to pick up the female in my bins as she fed on a dying/dead silver birch tree, her pecking could be heard. A true moment of elation! All that time finally come good!

The Tawney Owl as usual was sitting on his tree.

But i was surprised when a Water Rail emerged in front of me adjacent to one of the pools, in late April!

25/04/13
An afternoon visit to Sheepwash was rewarded greatly! A little rain before the end of my lesson certainly helped Sheepwash, and there were actually some decent birds around! I was again surprised when scanning through the Gull flocks on the rocks, the 2nd summer YELLOW-LEGGED GULL re-appeared after a week of not being seen. As a matter of fact, it was almost a week to the hour!

I grabbed a few Digi-binned shots before the bird was flushed by a dog jumping into the water, the joys of urban birding. 2 Common Sandpiper were around the pool, one sharing the rocks with the Gull, the other on the other side of the pool.

 Moving on to the other side of the canal, i imminently picked up a stunning male Wheatear on the lower slops of the mound, which i gladly took a few pictures of! My first at Sheepwash! Walking up to the 'top' i was amazed when as i walked around, Wheatear after Wheatear appeared in front of me, and after around 30 Minutes, i was certain i had at least 8 birds scurrying around the mound! Awesome!
At least 3 of the birds seemed to be of the Leucorhoa race, better known as 'Greenland' Wheatear!

With a backdrop of Dudley Castle

MB

Some short ones.

17/11/12
An early morning visit to the patch was very quiet, and the only bird of note was a single female Goosander whcih flew north upriver.
Following this i headed down to the Birders Store, and picked up my new pair of bins. And following this we then popped to Grimley, and the first bird i locked onto with the new bins was a Little Egret- Not a bad way to start my 'Bin list'. A small flock of 20c Meadow Pipits were flying around. Ducks were represented by 10c Shovler, 10c Pochard and more Tufted's.
Later in the Evening, we dropped into Earlswood Lakes, where 2 Shoveler, a Grey Wagtail and 2 Goldcrest were the highlights.
18/11/12
The next day, i went for a walk out in Wirehill Woods, Redditch with 'The Girlfriend', and proberbly produced the bird of the weekend when a CROSSBILL flew east over the wood 'glipping' as it went.

19/11/12
The day following that, me and the 'Gornal Birder' went to Sheepwash, and the highlight was by far the building up of the regular Goosander flock, of which there were 16 Today, 3 of which were drakes, 5 Teal (2m) were also on show, as were 11 Pochard. A adult Great Black Backed Gull landed in the centre of the pool for some time.

24/11/12
A visit to the patch early morning revealed a build up of a Chaffinch flock, of which there was 30+ feeding in a small area of flooded woodland, giving me hope that it may attract a Brambling onto the patch at some point! 5 Lesser Redpoll were feeding on a birch tree, with an additional one (a male) on my garden feeders.
At 10pm, we were driving past a flooded field on the patch, and we could see a flock of ducks in the headlights, and i was quite suprised to see a drake Mandarin feeding with them!

24/11/12
A late evening visit to Upton Warren Moors Pool in dire conditions was rewarded with a calling female Brambling, which we watched along the west track, before moving off around the north moors. While watching the Brambling, we had the Cetti's Warbler in subsong near the gate. On the water, 12 Shoveler and 3 Pochard were swimming.
MB

Catch Up time!

Im getting there folks, only a month behind now, and most of the next load are quite short posts, so i should be able to catch up fairly shortly for a good start to the new year!
Patch
20/10/12
Fairly quiet vismig wise, winter thrushes were just starting to move, with 8 Redwing and 9 Fieldfare, 12 Skylark and 8 Meadow Pipit. In complete contrast however was the extremly large numbers of Goldcrests in the Lickhill conifer wood, with around 30 birds been seen within a short period. This included a single flock of 15 birds!!
A pair of Raven were showing in the fog at the riverside fields

 27/10/12
Again, fairly quiet, 24 Meadow Pipit over, 7 Pied Wagtail, 5 Skylark, 5 Redwing and 3 Linnet.

Later in the day, while at the gardening job, my dad alerted me to 'odd' wader like calls he was hearing from the field opposite the house. A quick scan and i'd picked up 2 GOLDEN PLOVER! They continued to show untill they took flight, and flew off towards Wythall.

 

 

 

After this, we checked the lakes, which held a single drake Goosander, a Little Grebe and a Kingfisher.

 

3/11/12

A rather annoying morning on the patch, when i picked up a bird i am certain was a FIRECREST! I heard the bird calling for a very long time before finally seeing a crest sp emerge from the ivy covered tree the sound was originating from. In the incredibly brief view i wasnt able to note any feature other than the bird was a crest sp, as the bird was facing away from me. I couldnt even see anything on the head pattern. Annoyingly, after about an hour with only this one miniscule sighting, and the bird having now either gone silent or moved on i had to leave, and the bird wasnt seen again, despite searching by a local birder on consecutive days! One that 'got away' i guess.

MB 

Earlswood- SEO suprise

17/03/12
A long and tedious day at the gardening job was rewarded at 4:05 Pm when a stunning SHORT-EARED OWL flew past along the field, I saw the bird as it made its way across the field, flying no higher than 10ft off the ground, close in to the hedge, before flying across the farm buildings and duly dissapearing!
I was quite supprised that the bird wasnt seen again as the bird seemed to be feeding, obvously no photos from this brief encounter, But a great memory!
MB

Earlswood

25/02/12

Back to the gardening job today, where saw a flock of about 50 GOLDEN PLOVER fly over

MB

Earlswood

7/12/11
After the Gardening job had finished, we had about 30 Mins to spare before dark, so we thought a visit to Earlswood lakes would be in order.

I looked onto Windmill Pool first, where i saw a Female GOOSANDER and 7 TEAL. There was 31+ Pied Wagtails on the Engine Pool Island and then i went back to check the increasing number of BHG on Windmill pool, i Quickly caught sight of a very small bird, sitting on its own, well away from the Flock.

LITTLE GULL!

A 1st Winter Bird.

We walked around to the other side of the pool while i phoned Matt from the Earlswood Blog, who, as luck would have it, was on site at the time.

I manadged to get to the bird and take a quick, dark, record video of the bird before it took flight with the Gull flock.

We watched it Circle the Pool for about a minuite before switching over to Engine pool, where Matt saw it, i just about managed to get back to the causeway before it flew off in a south (ish) direction, and was lost behind trees.

I do love Little Gulls :)

MB

More Waders!

13/08/11
We once again dropped into earlswood lakes to see if any waders were about, and you can imagine my immense suprise when the juv DUNLIN was still probing away along the edges of the Engine pool island, however it had moved onto the near shore, and was showing a mere 40ft away, and with the light, i got some decent (for me) pics of the bird:

After watching the dunlin, we headed over to Upton Wrren, where a nice few waders were down. here is a nice little trio:

(Ringed Plover, Dunlin and Green Sandpiper)

A single Juv RINGED PLOVER was picking away around keeping close company with the adult DUNLIN, A single juv Redshank was showing, as was 6+ Green sand, and 2 Common sand.

29 Curlew roosted, and 9 Common Tern came in with the Gulls.

MB

Earlswood

6/08/11
With news that the water levels at the lakes was extremly low, and there having just been a rainstorm, we though we would check the lakes for waders:

Firstly, i found this Yellow Underwing moth on a conifer hedge while we were cutting it back, it was one of about 20 that flew out, i took a couple of snaps, then placed it into another conifer so not to be desturbed.

When we got to the lakes, it looked amazing. we walked around to the c'way and soon spotted a DUNLIN probing away in the mud, it shown well from the road, and came to within about 40ft.

The light however, was dire, and it had almost gone and with another shower coming in, it seemed like almost night time!

There was also a large number of around 20 Pied wagtails feeding around the shoreline of engine and windmill pool.

MB

Roost Birding

30/07/11

At Earlswood i found both Holly Blue, and Purple Hairstreak Butterfly in the Garden.

As we were quite early, we decided to drop into the Moors pool, as a pair of Little Egret had been seen there, it didnt take long to spot one as if flew from the broadmeadow pool to Amys marsh, but we had wondering if the other had flow, untill the 2nd bird flew in from the south and landed in a tree on the east side of the pool, 2 Water rail were calling and 15 Greylag geese were on the island but otherwhys it was quiet.

We had just gotton back into the car, when a text came through, Adult Med Gull in flashes roost.

Within 10 Mins we had walked down to the hide, to be told that the bird had again flown off,

however, less than a minuite later i picked the bird up flying back in, and we watched it throughout the evening, taking occasional short flights. It was obvious that the ird was ringed, and after a long time, i finally read it to say 5P5, early indications show that this bird may have come from Poland!!

The 2 Egrets flew over and circled then flew back to the moors.

A single Juv LRP was on the flashes, as was 60c Lapwing, 10+ Green sand

2 Common Sand, 31 Curlew, 5 Common Tern were amongs the Gulls, and the Little owl was showing on the chimney

MB

Twitching

After news Emerged on the early morning of the 15/05 that Matt Griffiths from the Earlswood Blog had found a Night Heron at earlswood lakes i was generally quite pissed off, i had been there the previous evening with little to show for it. and despite in the evening passing within a few miles of the lakes, i was unable to get there, and when news emerged later that evening that the bird was showing as i was driving past left me in even more bad mood.

But as the week passed positive news was released day after day, the bird was still there and some amazing photos were emerging, but i just had a horrible feeling that it would dissapear before i could get there, Saturday came, to be greeted by the news that the bird was still at the lakes, but extremely sporadic reports left me in dought that the bird would show, I walked from the norton lane Garden to the lakes at around 4pm, and preceded to walk to the causeway, where i met Kevin from 'Diary of a birding medic' who was also after the bird, after a chat i walked down towards terrys pool, as some news shown the bird had shown there a few time in the day, but after a walk around the pool, with nothing to show i walked to springbrook lane, where also there was very little of note, i walked back towards the Cway via Windmill Pool and again saw very little Bar the Mandarin which is ever present and was seen to have sexual relations with a mallard..

The Crowd at the Cway was now well into Double Figures, with many 'Famous' Birders/photographers present, most of whom tried to get pictures of the Mandarin, while there i was watching Swifts and Terns And couldnt be bothered to waste the energy to walk to the other side of the road to have a nosy at the worlds most confiding (plasitic) Mandarin.

Time dragged on, with very little to watch. Just me knowing this would be my only chance to see the bird with going on holiday the next week, i was detrmined to see it, however many time from 7:30 onwards i was threatening to leave, and by the looks of it so did most of the crowd, many people dissapeared and it was left to 7 inhumane People to wait for the heron to show. A few of their large grey cousion flew past but at 8:29, nearly 4 1/2 hours after ariving i spotted a heron flying in over windmill pool

'NIGHT HERON'

You could just feel the instant relief of the long staying crowd to finally lock onto the bird, as it flew south along the pool your could see all its major features and it was great to catch up with this species again, a british lifer.

(This photo was taken in Turkey (April 2010) but i have edited it to make it more like the Earlswood bird by flipping the image and darkening it to make it more like the scene, other than some cropping, there are no other alterations)

The sections of birders set off into two groups, and we ( Andy P, my dad and me) decided to follow Matt along the eastern bank of windmill pool, so we could view the willows on the other side, there wasnt a night heron there so we checked the scrub to the south of windmill pool where we had decent views of a male and female CUCKOO as they flew around, and perched in the area, we decided to not venture onto the Scrubland as to not disturb the bird.

Thanks must be given to Matt for finding this bird on his patch, after spending very long periods 'working the place', and his willingness to show it to other birders, a well deserved patch bird.

Keep it up

MB