Yellow-Brow finally comes out to play!

17/02/14

The amount of time i have spent in Uffmoor Wood has been unreal. And it was all for no reward. It is probably one of the most dead woods i have ever been in, and not to mention the fact that it is a very shady area to be hanging around in, particularly early morning and late evening.

And it was exactly the latter that i was doing today. I had been walking around at the far end of the woodland for a couple of hours, with nothing more than a few Goldcrests to show for it! 

With the light fading, i walked down one last time heading north along the furthest track, and walked down the steps at the end until i reached the stream. Finally, there was some bird activity here, and a decent flock of around 7 Goldcrest were frantically feeding before they were dropping into roost in the adjacent Holly bushes. 

Sensing the opportunity, i thought it would be worth spending the last dying 10 minutes of light searching for the elusive little Siberian gem here. A short time later, a bird caught my eye as it dropped from the top of a holly covered tree trunk down into a section of the holly adjacent to me. A second after, it jumped out onto a branch no more than 15 feet away from me, and there stood a bright yellow supercillium and double yellow wingbars! THE YELLOW BROWED WARBLER!

Any bad thoughts were immediately overridden as i savoured close views of this stunning little bird after so much effort to try and see it, that long supercillium contrasting to the darker eyestripe below! The mossy green upperparts contrasting to the silky white underparts and yellow legs! What a Stunning looking bird!

It really does make seeing birds so much better when you have put a large chunk of time trying to find them!

Like the Goldcrest's, soon after, the Warbler flew into the area of adjacent Holly, and didn't re-emerge, probably heading off to roost, and with that, we chose to beat a hasty retreat!

You don't want to be in Uffmoor in the dark!

MB

A little bit of Wyre birding

9/02/13
A trip into the Wyre was needed as so far this year i had not bothered looking for the Hawfinch's. But today that would be rectified.

The walk out to Lodge Hill was extremely quiet, such is the way that birding in the Wyre goes. Some days your surrounded by a hive of activity, others nada.
While just heading up the track i raised my bins to see a female HAWFINCH sitting on the bottom edge of a hawthorn bush, before dropping down a few seconds after not to be seen again. While waiting for the bird to fly up again (which it did not), one of the residents of the farm walked past, and upon entering the garden flushed a LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER off the feeders, another hoped for year tick! The bird flew directly over our heads and flew into the tree's to the north of the orchard, and sadly disappeared  While looking for it again, we had many Nuthatch. A Marsh Tit  made its way through the bushes in  the orchard before quickly moving on. 3 Finches landed upon one of the taller trees in the area, and a look at them revealed them to be 3 BRAMBLING (2 Male).
Moving back alone the railway line, we were treated to stunning views of a female Goldcrest (1 of a pair) down to about 6 feet!
MB

Goosanders on Patch

25/01/13
A early morning visit onto the patch was fairly rewarding with awesome views of a flock of 10 Goosander (7 drake) on the river. Despite being bitterly cold, i was able to sit on the bank opposite them for about 30 minuites as they went about their buisness. They are stunning looking ducks, and one of my most anticipated winter visitors on patch.

As expected, the birds were flushed by a dog walker, and flew off low north.

A stomp around the dryer parts of the patch gave me very good numbers of winter thrushes, c30 Redwing and 100c Fieldfare were showing in a single flock on the riverside fields.

However, this little gem gave superb views on the ground. As regular readers will know, Goldcrest is only off my all time favorite birds, no matter how many i see, i always still have to stop and have a quick look. Gladly, this bird was showing well, and even posed for a Digi-binned shot.

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 

Wyre Forest

21/04/12

I started by photographing birds in the garden, where a Siskin and 4 Goldcrest were showing, i even digiscoped one of the male Goldcrests.

We then moved onto the Wyre.

 A quiet visit here in the early afternoon with occasional rain showers, not the greatest weather to try and find summer migrants, and that was shown by the lack of them, However, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Blackcaps were now back in numbers.

Between the frequent showers, we got bouts of sunshine, and in that sunshine we were able to find a male Tree Pipit singing.

We then walked into the wood looking for Redstart, Wood warb and the like, however, there was no sign of either of these.

As compensation, while walking along one of the tracks, another Tree Pipit flew up from in front of us and landed in a tree nearby, allowing for some decent views!

Soon after, with storm clouds starting to build around us, we headed for home.

Another visit into the Wyre is needed very soon!

MB

Am i a photographer? Or do i just like Firecrests?

24/02/12

With my last couple of visit producing dire pictures of the Firecrest, i wanted a record shot for my Note book, so therefore, on a Friday, i walked home from 6th form (1 1/2) miles, and then walked the remaining 5 miles over to Penn Common, where the FIRECREST was still residing.
After getting abit lost on Penn golfcorse, i eventually found myself back on track, and was soon at the area the bird was in, Light Wood.
I was quite proud of myself, as Google maps predicted my journey would take 1 hour 1 minuite, however, i got to the site in just over 40 mins walking, so i was quite happy!
And as i arrived, i scanned over towards its favored hedge, and within 30 Seconds, i was watching the stunning male FIRECREST, flashing its orange crown as it went about its buisness.

It soon flew into a tall tree and started climbing, zipping between branches. Here i got a few photo's which show its orange crown.



Even in this relaxed posture, the orange is easilly visiable on the bird, i watched for about 20 mins before it moved off into the wood, and i informed a couple of birders who appeared from no-where that it was just showing while they were looking in the wrong place!

As time went by, there was still no sign, and both birders left, leaving me along again, soon, as is the luck with birding, the FIRECREST popped out on the edge of the holly not far away. i took a couple of snaps and looked down at the screen,

YES!
A photo of a FIRECREST!




As i had been watching the male bird earlier, i didnt look at its crown stripe, presuming it was the same bird, and just kept the above photo because it was the 'sharpest'. Despite having suspitions as to there being a pair of then on site, having seen a seemingly yellow crown striped bird on my first visit! With the light dropping, and the Firecrest having again dissapeared, i went looking for a bird i had heard calling all day, a flock of 15 YELLOWHAMMER, including 6 males which perched on the hedgeline further south of the wood, also mixed in was 4 Bullfinch and 10 Linnet.

However, over a week after seeing the bird, i finally uploaded the 'full set' of photos that i took and i went through them, and i was shocked when i came to this one. In the same 'set' as the picture above, pic 1 was blury, very blury, pic 2, again blury, pic 3, the photo below, pic 4 the 'good' photo, Pic 6, the bird dissapearing into the hedge.

On reviewing picture 3 i finally came to checking the colour of the crown stripe, and saw this!




A completly yellow crown stripe!

Could this mean that i was right, and there are 2 FIRECRESTS at Penn Common? please leave a comment on your thoughts.

I remain fairly certain there are 2 birds,
I know the stripe can 'change colour' when the bird is adjitated, or exited, however, i have seen the male bird in both 'relaxed' and 'exited' state, and both times you could see significant Orange tones (As seen in the relaxed first picture). Having said that, i also (not wanting to sound to far up my own arse) have quite good 'experiance of Goldcrests and their changing crown strpe after many years of close study on the patch (were lucky enought to see over 30 birds regularly!).

Having said the 'pluamge' side. the birds habits also stuck out, the male Firecrest often fed high in tree's, and often showed for long periods of time, however, this possible second bird was ALWAYS low down in the Holly bushes, and was alot less showy, only apperaing briefly each time.

Having summed up the pro's and con's, i cant see how there can only be (or WAS only) one Firecrest at Penn.
Your thoughts would be much appreciated,from people more 'in the know' than me?

MB