It turned out that a day journeying to the next county below us in Worcestershire was a good move bird wise. Having seen 2 Penduline Tits during the morning we spent the rest of the say wandering around in the stunning Forest of Dean, looking for a couple of birds in particular. At least 2 Great Grey Shrikes had made the forest their winter home, and one bird in particular had been known to show fairly well on occasions.
With a vague location and a will, we searched, and soon we managed to find out location. Atop one of the scattered dead trees, a familiar white shape sat sentinel. What we had been looking for.
The bird continued to show well as we watched, watching from its high perch before it eventually dropped down to the ground, flying back up with a Mouse almost the size of the bird! With a quick flick of its head, the rodent was dispatched and the bird flew off to cache its food at its larder.
The real Butcher Bird!
In the hour we watched the bird, it then went onto catch a Wren, flying up into a nearby tree to impale it, and then devour it in front of us. An awesome sight and something I have never had the privilege to watch before!
A weekend in Norfolk with the crew is always a highly
anticipated event. The promise of scarce bird species, good company and
conversation is always a top draw event.
So with a trip planned months upon months in advance, it was
going to be hit or miss as to whether we would have the trip planned to
favourable weather conditions. Time passed, plans were made and possible target
species identified. And as time grew nearer, and nearer, the weather seemed to
get more and more tasty for some migration and with only 2 days to go, it
happened. A large fall hit North Norfolk. Score!
16/10/15
The Friday came, and onwards we went. A very early start
from our midlands homeland had us finding ourselves pulling into a layby at
Beeston Common. An Isabelline Shrike
(ssp L. isabellinus isabellinus)
had been found at the site a few days previously, and with it being a lifer for
everyone in the car, it was perhaps no surprise to head here first. Within a
few minutes, we had the Shrike located, flicking around in the densely
vegetated hawthorn stands. With its plumage being a mix of sandy and reddish
colours, it actually proved to be a very attractive bird. Shrikes are always
highly prized birds, and to start off our weekend with a bird of this class
certainly boded well.
Very aware that we had arrived at simply the perfect time
for migration, itchy feet soon took hold. Firstly by a look around the habitat
on Beeston Common for any further migrants (Marsh Tit and hundreds of inbound Thrushes) and later by thinking
about our next place to go.
As well as the passerine migrants, we were also away that
the weather conditions looked decent for seawatching. With the midlands lacking
‘some sea’ seawatching is a task we don’t manage to achieve often, so while
being so close to the known seawatching hotpot of Sherringham it would have
been rude not to drop in. In the grand scheme of things, it turned out to be
fairly quiet, however we quickly added 7 Common
Scoter, 5 Red-Throated Diver, 5 Great Skua, Mediterranean and Little
Gull to an ever growing day list. The Skuas in particular were greatly
appreciated, with me having had a significant lack of them in the past.
As we sat in a crowded ‘seawatching shelter’ on the
promenade, I received a text. ‘Olive Backed Pipit still at Muckleburgh Hill’…
On our group chat the night before, I was quoted on saying that it wouldn’t be
around by the Friday, and with an afternoon of no reports, it certainly seemed
true.
After wiping off some egg from my face, we jumped in the car
and headed west. Finding the hill, a new site for all of us, proved hard, but
we managed it first try, and quickly made our way up the sandy slope of the
hill. With Thrushes still streaming in off the sea we made our way to the top
of the hill, where a small clearing had been made among the Bracken. The scrum of
twitchers easily giving the site away as where we need to be.
After seemingly an eternity of failing to get onto the bird,
which was showing very briefly and often hidden I finally managed to get a
brief view of the bird as it picked its head up from the vegetation and stood
proud. Olive-backed Pipit. Wow! That
face pattern!
Slowly and stealthily the bird crept through the bracken,
and as the crowd grew, the bird became continually more and more confiding.
After about an hour with the bird, it was creeping around a mere 20ft away.
Absolutely crippling views!
With Wells Wood/ Holkham seemingly being the epicentre of
the fall, it was no surprise to head here next, and it truly was dripping with
birds. Those birds being mostly Goldcrest
and winter Thrushes, but we all knew there were some rare birds lurking in
there! A Blyths Reed Warbler had been knocking around in the Dell, however
after a fair amount of time searching here, this drew a blank. A Short-Eared Owl flew in off the sea and
over our heads before we decided to head further into the woods to try and
locate some of the other autumn migrants.
My main target, without a shadow, was Pallas’s Leaf Warbler, a species I have dreamed about seeing since
I first saw it in a bird book a number of years before. While I had been searching for the Blythes
Reed, the group split and our walkie talkies came in handy when they relayed
news they had just seen a Pallas’s about a mile further into the wood. This
gave me an extra boost and I walked past the Hume’s YBW crowd for views of a
much better bird.
By the time I arrived with my other crew members, the bird
had disappeared, but I went about scanning the hordes of Goldcrests in the
small areas of sycamore and Oak. It was only a minute or so before out of the
leaves flicked a broad yellow supercillium and a broad central crown stripe.
“Pallas’s!”
A few views were had as it flicked along the treeline, but
then it flew across the track, and into a small line of trees on the marshes
side. For the next 15 minutes, the bird performed very well in a small
sycamore, often giving binocular filling views! Superb! Dreamy views.
Unfortunately I was too busy swooning over the bird and by
the time I had realised I should grab the digiscoping setup, the bird had
melted back into the dense vegetation. I again stayed behind for further views
but this proved pointless, and I missed views of the Hume’s as a result.
We headed back for further attempts to locate the Blyths
however, but this was again hard work, however at least this time we struck
lucky as while scanning a passing Tit flock, out flicked another Pallas’s Leaf Warbler, right above the
heads of the crowd! This one proceeded to flash its rump shamelessly as it
moved across the Silver Birches, before again, melting into the canopy.
As we drove out of the car park at the Well’s Wood end, we
stopped on the entrance road, where we had good, but distant views of 2 Great Grey Shrikes, both perched like sentinels
waiting for the next passing exhausted migrant. (I imagine Goldcrests were on
the agenda).
With the day quickly closing in we wanted to add some
waterbirds to our weekend tally, and so therefore it was no hard decision to
head to Titchwell RSPB. A quick loop searching for Passerines within the scrub
around the centre didn’t produce much, so we headed out onto the marshes.
The expected cast of waders was present on the tidal and
saltmarshes, swarms of Golden Plover
and winter Duck filled the skies, together with sizable flocks of both Godwit species and Ruffs. A couple of late Avocet
were a nice addition as we stood waiting for the roost. Only 2 Marsh Harriers arrived, however the
Gull roost developed, and in dropped 3 Yellow-legged
Gulls. At last light, a Barn Owl
quartered the reedbed, a perfect way to end a superb day 1 of the Norfolk
weekend.
17/10/16- Durnham Deapdale- 6:45am.
Wanting to maximise time in the field, the crew was up
pre-dawn with the intention of getting into the field by the time it got light.
As the first shades of blue emerged, the sound of Pink-Footed Geese built, and soon the sky was filled as they
vacated their roost to head to their feeding areas inland.
With the wind coming in at a strong north-easterly, and high
tides, we decided a quick shot at seawatching would be worthwhile to ‘test the
water’. If things were moving, we would stay.
We arrived on the Cley shingle bank by 7:30, and then
settled ourselves in for a shift. There was a fair bit of Duck movement, but
our targets were proving elusive, those being the rarer Shearwaters and Skuas.
A few Red-Throated Divers were
moving back and forth, and a close single Red-Breasted
Merganser flew past and along Blakeney Point.
Scanning into the distance, a Shearwater was approaching
from the east, low down across the water before wheeling up in a wide loop.
This behaviour quickly indicated we were on one of the targets and soon the
bird approached its closest point, revealing all dark plumage and long wings,
the first Sooty Shearwater of the
weekend!
The next hour provided a further 5 Sootys and a number of Great Skuas. A Sooty was tracking west
when I removed my eye from the scope, to see a dark seabird approaching close
in from the west. Quickly the lighter build of the bird was apparent in
comparison to the earlier Greats, however the bird still seemed barrel chested
and heavy. Approaching within 100ft of the beach viewpoint, it was clear we had
our first Pomarine Skua!
3 of the crew members were further east then us, so a call
on the walkie talkie tried to get them onto it, but in return we received a
message that they’d just seen a Lapland Bunting. Long story short, a walk out
there and a thorough search couldn’t relocate it and they didn’t see the Skua,
so with the continuing allure of Well’s Wood, the two members who hadn’t seen
the Lap cut our losses.
Following a quick Bap in Wells Harbour, we pulled into a
very full car park by 10:30. A Red
Flanked Bluetail, found yesterday after we had left was item number 1 on
our list, so we quickly hot footed it down there. It didn’t take long for our
first view, a ‘Robin shaped bird’ dropping down out of the tangle of bushes
followed by a strong flash of blue as it flicked back up.
The crowd here was huge, surprisingly for this increasingly
common migrant. The bird moved, and the crowd shifted. I managed a few more
brief, obscured views (while most of the crowd, and the rest of the crew
managed great views), but after having seen the wintering Avon bird a number of
times, I wasn’t going to chase better views of this one.
After this, we didn’t strike lucky with any of the rarities
reported within the woods, and with it being 1:30, activity was dropping off on
the passerine front, so again, we decided that Titchwell would be a good shout.
We were still missing a number of species from our trip list that we could fill
in.
Although it was much the same as the day before, with large
flocks of ducks and waders, we managed to find a few of our targets. Pochard and Red-crested Pochard were well represented, with 13 and 9
individuals. Good numbers of both. Our main reasoning for missing them the day
before being that we didn’t visit their favoured pool.
Beyond the pools, the beach held the expected variety of
shoreline waders, with Grey Plover, Knot, Sanderling, Turnstone
and Bar-tailed Godwit all being
represented. As we had walked towards the beach, we had been treated to rather
good views of Spotted Redshank. And
again on the way back, we connected with the same bird, although this time it
was feeding right beside the track with a couple of Black-Tailed Godwits. Phenomenal views!
With the early mornings catching up with us, we decided to
take the rest of the evening off, enjoying food and drinks in a nearby pub.
18/10/15
We again were out for dawn, this time with the intention of
finding something for ourselves. We had racked our brains the night before
about where to head with the best options of finding birds, but being able to
avoid the majority of the crowds. Wells, as it had been all weekend, was packed
with birders, so if anything was in there, you’d imagine it was found, so where
else? Cley? Stiffkey?
We chose Burnham Ovary marshes and dunes. A good variety of
species can be found, and indeed we found many. The roadside fields were
covered in Geese, pink-Footed, Greylag, Brent and Egyptians.
Smaller numbers of ducks and waders were present in the fields. We checked the
pool and the estuarine mud after wading through hordes of Goldcrest to the seawall, adding Little Grebe stalking the edges of the reeds.
We walked further, and another Short-Eared Owl flew over our heads as it came in off the sea
before dropping into the Sueada on the saltmarsh. A Greenshank
flew past calling among the omnipresent Redshanks
and a number of Common Snipe flew
out of the vegetation as the tide approached. We reached the dunes, with Reed buntings, Robins and Thrushes all
scattering from the bushes but these seemed fairly quiet. (If only we had
checked the same area of scrub a little further west- we may have found the
Little Bunting seen later in the day at the same site!). A single Wheatear was
flicking around We settled on top of the dunes and scoped the sea for a while,
and also scanned the roosting wader flock. 18 Common Scoter flew past as well as 3 each of Red-Breasted Merganser and Red-Throated
Diver. A Great Crested Grebe-
our first of the weekend, sat out on the sea.
A number of Gannets were passing offshore, and sure enough,
after a while, a number of Great Skua
started moving past. An hours watch produced 15, including a flock of 6 which
lumbered offshore before settling on the sea, including some fairly good views.
As A Skua lumbered west, a more ‘flappy’ bird further out at sea immediately
drew attention. The bird flew nearer and nearer until it revealed itself to be
an ‘Eared Owl’. Although we had seen a number of SEO coming ‘in off’ we had not watched one struggling across the
waves until this point. Clearly exhausted, the bird tried its best to shake the
attention of a party of passing Gulls until it reached land. We had been
watching it or about 4 minutes before it finally struck land, flying over the dunes
and dropping into the long grass on the marshes.
We walked east, which honestly was all a bit quiet, with
only a few hundred winter thrushes, Meadow Pipits and Goldcrest to show for the effort. We walked all the way to the western
end of Holkham wood, where a quick scan revealed the Great White Egret was still present, feeding in one of the pools
there, although very distant. A number of Raptors were also in the sky here,
with 4 Marsh Harrier, 2 Buzzard, Kestrel and Peregrine.
With a long journey home, we walked back to the car, with
our plan to find something interesting unfulfilled. A Bunting that if we had
walked 30 meters in the opposite direction may have shown itself to us, and a
brief probable large Pipit sp seen by one of the crew, which despite further
searching couldn’t be refound (A Richards was found in the exact same spot the
day after). As we were about to drop over the seawall, a superb Merlin gave a cracking flight view,
before perching up on a post on the saltmarsh.
With our weekend drawing to a close, we drove west, with a
last ditch stop at Choesley Barns to find a few farmland species. Sadly we
couldn’t find any of our targets here, huge coveys of Red-legged but no Grey Partridges and no Corn Buntings. A large
mixed wader flock were there to greet us goodbye to end the trip on a cheery
note.
Overall an excellent weekend. Considering we had planned the
trip months in advance, and not last minute due to weather conditions, we obviously
struck lucky. Lots of great birds, great company and lots of birdy chat. What
could be better!
16/02/14
With the sun shining, and spring truly been in the air i was getting a little worried. All of our wintering birds would soon be getting an urge to head back north to their breeding grounds, and time was fast running out to find them!
With that in mind, the decision to head to one of the bigger of the regions reservoirs was taken!
It has been such a long time since i had visited Draycote Water, it has been rather 'quiet' for a very long period but this winter it really has pulled in a few goodies!
Heading along the M42 it would have been rude to have not dropped into Hopwood on the way over, and the GREAT GREY SHRIKE was soon located feeding in its usual spot near the fenceline, distant as ever.
Not too much longer after, we were pulling into the car park atop the hill overlooking the huge expanse of open water that is Draycote. Actually it was almost the exact spot that we parked on my very first visit! Much to my approval however, the weather was far nicer, and not freezing cold as you expect with this place, and soon i was walking around to Rainbow corner in bright sunshine!
It was while scanning a large flock of Tufted Duck and Goldeneye from on of the fishermans car parks i picked up a small, pale duck at the back of the flock. A few seconds after and it was in my scope, and i was able to confirm that i was watching the rather pretty 1st winter male LONG-TAILED DUCK in the distance.
Moving a little further around, we were treated to great views of a few of the large numbers of Goldeneye, many of which were displaying and calling loudly from very close in to the shore, regardless of the huge numbers of walkers and screaming children! What stunning ducks!
Walking even further around, we were soon adjacent to the LONG-TAILED DUCK, and we were treated to absolutely stunning views of this seaduck as it happily swam about with the Tufted Ducks and Coots! Surreal!
As regular readers will know, my previous experience of 'LTD' as they are affectionately initialised to, was of a female bird which was so far away it was nothing more than a dot in the scope, so to have one this close was amazing, and i truly savoured every second!
Walking a little bit further a single bird sitting atop the hedgeline proved to be a TREE SPARROW! A bird that is now sadly very rare within my home county of Worcester, and therefore it was great to catch up with one of these stunning red-heads! It sat up on the hedge for a minute or so before it flew off into the adjacent fields! It really is hard to imagine that i used to get this species in my urban garden just outside Dudley! How long ago that seems now, as now i perhaps only see a couple of these birds a year!
With this corner of the reservoir being very productive, i was reluctant to leave, but soon we headed off around onto Farbourgh bank, and about half way along a small flock of Goldeneye appeared, and while scanning them as they flew in a 'white' duck was tagging along with them. I was shouting out SMEW as a stunning looking adult drake flew in, which was greeted by some odd looks from some walkers by, but luckily the bird then went onto drop onto the water just in front of us!
A little bit of swimming.
Followed by a little bit of a stretch
And then one of the motorboats from the sailing club approached, and soon after sent the bird flying a long distant to the north shore of Toft bay!
For the sake of complete-ness, we continued up the bank until the point where we could scan into Toft bay distantly, the Smew was located with the same flock of Goldeneye, and further scanning revealed the last 'target' of the day when the GREAT-NORTHERN DIVER swam across, preened and flapped on the far side of the bay. Having had decent views of many 'Great- Northerns' this year, i chose to turn back to the car.
With a fair bit of daylight still left, we chose to drive over to Coleshill to get some views of the HUME'S WARBLER, which was showing well upon arrival, meaning i could properly study its plumage. I later moved up to the road bridge where i was treated to amazing views of this stunning Leaf Warbler as it fed in tree's down to about 15ft in front of me, where i tried to get some digi-binned pictures before it dropped into denser vegetation!
While standing here, the similarly long staying Siberian Chiffchaff was calling, and also showing briefly in tree's on the opposite side of the road, further adding to the warbler interest of the site! And even more than that, as i was trying to relocate either of the warblers a small flock of 9 Redpoll flew in and landed upon a silver birch in the centre of the clearing, and when i got on them, was struck by 4 very bright, icy couloured Mealy Redpolls! A little further scrutiny revealed each of those 'pale' 4 also had nice white wing bars. One in particular was particularly pale, and really was a looker! We stuck around until the light started to fade, but both warblers refused to show, but the Redpoll's stayed on view, but somewhat more distantly.
What a day in the midlands! As i have said before, i can't remember many winters where birding has been this good around the midlands, with decent birds present all over the place! Lets hope it continues into the spring, summer and autumn!
MB
The first day of the new year. Dont you just love it!
From the moment the clock stuck midnight i parted with the company of Biology revision to spent the next 1 1/2 hours searching the local woodland for Tawney Owl. But having slogged my way around it was obvious the wet conditions had prevented me getting Tawney as number 1 for another year. So with sadness i slogged myself into bed, awaiting the new beginnings of the morning.
And i awoke, at a fairly typical teenage time of around 10:30, and i then proceeded to spend the next hour or so reading. No birds for me...
Why?
While lying awake in the duvet, i conjured an elaborate plan, and my quest for Tawney Owl as number one changed. It was now Great-Grey Shrike for number one!
So, with headphones blaring some overly loud rock music, and with my eyes looking nowhere other than the floor it was towards Bittel.
It was a very hard task, and i managed to get to around the M42 when a sudden lapse of concentration had me inadvertently looking up, and in doing so my worst fears were realized, as a Carrion Crow flew past....
Aggghhh!
So with the first bird now having been positively identified, i went into full 'tick' mode. And soon i had a small but growing list. On arrival at the destination a single scan of the intended field was enough to reveal the presence of the gorgeous GREAT-GREY SHRIKE, but again it remained distant at the back of the field, and after a short while watching it from the road in what now was becoming fairly heavy rain we decided to have a quick look at Lower Bittel, having been tipped off about the presence of some sea-duck.
And immediately upon arrival at the causeway, a quick scan of the nearest Tufted Duck flock was enough for me to locate the 1st winter drake GREATER SCAUP, which was feeding actively.
Slowly the bird moved out into the middle with the flock, and i scanned the remainder of the reservior, where i picked up a female SCAUP feeding in the NW corner, with its white blaze and rouded head standing out very well, even in the driving rain.
Optimism was quickly diminished though by the rain, and after locating a female Goosander, 15 Pochard, 2 Wigeon and 2 Kingfisher among the expected species we took a hasty retreat.
The ever worsening rain stopped me from finding anything more, but with a big day out planned for the next day, i couldn't run the risk of getting ill.
Having being part of the Next Generation Birders since its foundation last year has come with many bonuses, meeting like minded folk of a similar interest from around the country, nearby and also good dose's of banter, humor and information!
In fact, i have been part of it since before its foundation having also been part of the group since it's precursor 'Young Birders' which remained an outside public view group of young birders for its duration.
Back in early December, i received a message from two of the members of the group who were going up for the drake Baikal Teal near Southport and wondered if i wanted to join them. After a little planning i agreed, as the bird looked a good candidate for a wild bird.
So at an early hour in the morning, the 3 of us, Sean from Portland (our driver) and Espen from Hereford set the sat-nav for Marshside!
A few hours later, we found ourselves scanning thousands of Wigeon and Teal moving up the 'coast road' adjacent to the estuary looking over towards Blackpool tower. Pink-Footed Goose were flying around and calling everywhere, but our main focus was admittedly on the ducks. We located a since drake Pintail on the saltmarsh side of the road but our main target eluded us and negative news was emerging.
Oh no!
We walked a fair distance along the road until we saw the twitch on the seawall. From here there was lots of activity, hundreds of Golden Plover, Lapwing, Wigeon and Teal, with smaller numbers of Black-tailed Godwit, Dunlin and a single male Ruff.
In the distance i picked up a GREAT-WHITE EGRET, but when i say distant, i mean distant, but its yellow bill made it stand out quite well.
The crowd on the sea wall was becoming restless. Only 1 person had claimed the bird and that was a lot earlier. At this point it was somewhat surprising to see my two recent stalkers, Martyn (Now back into the Blogging scene) and Kay who had apparently 'missed' their turning for Cannock Chase and turned up at Southport! Bit of an overshoot there!
Having been battered by rather heavy winds for only around 10 minutes, Martyn came up to me and proclaimed it had just been pagered as being seen on Marshside, where we had just walked from!
A mass exodus occurred as the scrum walked, jogged and ran back to Marshside.
A seemingly long walk had us arriving at as relatively small gathering of Twitchers scanning a flock of Wigeon (One of the flocks that were too distant from our earlier point of view) and were quickly guided onto the bird, which proved a little difficult to pick up at first glance, but soon, everyone settled down to enjoy this stunning Siberian duck.
No doubt absolutely shattered from its long flight, the bird spent all but around 20 seconds of the time we were watching it asleep. Drake BAIKAL TEAL must surely be one of the best looking of the worlds wildfowl, with that stunning black, green and yellow head pattern and those stunning drooping orange back feathers.
After our fill, we bode farewell, but it would have been a shame to have not gotten a crowd shot, so we did.
15/12/13
A true failure of a twitch down to Severn Beach, the Desert Wheatear had left overnight, and a distant, flying silhouetted, no calling view of 3 Finches flying from the Saltmarsh were about as close as we got to the Twites, but there is no way i would claim them on that sort of view. A pair of Stonechats were about the only things about.
21/12/13
News of a GREAT-GREY SHRIKE emerged from Hopwood, and we duly headed over there, to get distant views of it perched in the field behind the first field from the road. Not at all good views, but my first in county Shrike so worth the effort for one of these wintertime specialties.
From here we did the roost at Bartley, which was very quiet, with no rare gulls despite a fairly large roost. The 2 long staying SCAUP (1W Drk + Fem) were compensation though for the freezing fingers and the dog crap on my Converse.
22/12/13
The next day we, (that being a selection of the Next Gen Birders) had planned to head up to the Mynd, but having returned from my birding foray the previous day the day plan changed somewhat!
Yorkshire was the destination. Why? One of the very elite of Gulls. One of that band of 'ultra' Gulls which stand head and shoulders above the rest. Most of which live in the far north.
A band of Gull's so sexy that only the likes of Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis rival them. Yes folks! Really. That good!
So, having being picked up by James and Espen we headed over to the home of Matt, the voted chairman of the NGB's and then set on our way to Patrington!
A big set back on the way up followed, when news came though that the bird WAS NOT present....
Errm, really not good!
However we failed to let our driver know in fear of turning back so we plowed on Patrington bound!
Just before Humber came into view a quick check of RBA revealed the bird to have been found somewhere near Spurn Point, no doubt feeding on one of the many Seal carcasses that would have been washed ashore following the Tidal Surge that destroyed the Eastern coastline.
Soon after it flew off westwards and arrived for the waiting crowds at Patrington.
We were soon parked and the walking began.
Walking out to the water building and then overlooking the Humber we were led onto a bright white IVORY GULL sitting on the rocks! Awesome! Sadly, with the freezing and strong winds we struggled to see much more than just a completely white Gull as it sat preening on the rocks.
I must say though, i became distracted by the many thousands of waders that were present out on the mudflats! Being bad at estimating numbers i generally underestimate, so 100 Oystercatcher, 50 Grey Plover, 1000 Golden Plover, 1000 Knot, 1000 Dunlin, 300 Redshank, 40 Bar-Tailed Godwit and single figure numbers of Ringed Plover, Turnstone and Black-Tailed Godwit represent absolute minimums among a decent number of Lapwings!
Despite the IVORY GULL being stubborn, the crowd refused to leave, and once everyone had passed the threshold of freezing (like the point when you would be seriously be considering a trip to the hospital for treatment of Hypothermia or missing body parts!) most took shelter behind the buildings.
It took a long time, but when it did everything came clear, and the IVORY GULL flew towards us, and the crowd fell silent. The bird just seemed to hang in the air above us for an age, seemingly in no rush to do anything. It teased us to a few low flypasts, but refused to land until the 4th circuit.
But when it did, it was straight onto a nice piece of rotting Mackerel.
Yummy!
After around 10 minutes feeding, and not doubt stinking of rotting fish, the Ivory Gull decided to reinstate its sexy status, and after a good drink, Off it flew back out to preen and wash on the Estuary.
(Nearly done now folks, stick with it a little longer)
27/12/13
I dropped into Eyemore in an attempt to find a rare Worcestershire Crossbill, which failed quite miserably, with not even a Common Crossbill seen. So it was down onto Trimpley, where 12 Mandarin, 8 Goosander, 8 Tufted Duck and a Peregrine flew over.
28/12/13
Despite my failure the previous day, i quickly found the 3 TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL'S around Postemplain, which were calling occasionally and were seen in flight, but proving very elusive!
The Common Crossbills in the area though were showing well!
31/12/13
The last day of the year was taken up with a twitch for the Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll on the other side of Stourport. Sadly, i arrived about 30 Minutes to late, and following a 6 hour search i didn't see it. 5 MEALY REDPOLL were nice compensation, particularly a strikingly pale bird! Around 50 Lesser Redpoll were around, and a Yellowhammer and a Brambling were also seen.
And that was it folks! The end of 2013!
Next post will be my summary of 2013, so it will be a few days before it will be completed!
Having already dipped on the 2 reported 'Two-Bar's' in the Forest of Dean the previous week, and their extreme rarity this far inland/South-west a repeat visit was already on the agenda. However, they weren't seen again for the majority of the week.
However, the day before the planned visit to try for the Great-Grey Shrike which was also present, news emerged of a mega flock of 17 which of these stunning northern trumpeters had re-appeared, the largest flock of this rare eruptive species in modern history!
Anyway, the Forest looks stunning at this time!
Needless to say, the next morning a fair gathering had gathered. An early morning report increased my optimism while driving down but upon arriving on site it emerged that these birds were infact Chaffinch's! And from there most hope seemed to drain, after a couple of hours standing 'near' to the increasingly noisy twitchers, and with not a sniff i got fed up and went to look for the Shrike. A circuit of Crabtree hill and surrounding area's failed and we reluctantly returned to the crowd.
"Any sign?"
"No"
"Ok, bye"
And so i walked off down the track.
We walked off at a complete tangent to everyone else and ended up on the track immediately to the west of the 'main' track where the crowds were waiting. At least i was searching for them rather than most of the gathering!
(Later i learned that after 10 minutes of leaving the crowd 2 separate flocks of 3 and 8 Two-Bars appeared!)
I failed to locate any of the target species but soon the track opened onto a clearing, and at the back of that clearing stood a stunning GREAT-GREY SHRIKE!
It wasn't particularly showy however, and i didn't try to approach it, so only some distant photos.
Great-Grey Shrike are somewhat of an icon of winter birding for me, and it is always great to catch up with this species perching sentinel over its winter territory.
After a good time watching the Shrike, and having a flock of 10-15 HAWFINCH pass through the tree's behind us which was a great bonus we decided to head back to the crowd.
We approached from the Crabtree hill side to be told that only minuites before there had been a couple in the trees above them!
Bollocks!
While i was informed about this the group a hundred or so feet away frantically waved us down. A second passed and i realized they were still watching them!
A quick jog- a hard task i wellies- and one of the birders put me onto a male and female TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL perched up on the top of a dead conifer! Awesome!
Both of the birds wing bars were massive and so obviously not one of the 'wing barred' Common Crossbills that seem to be reported as Two-bars across the country this winter. The male in particular was completely outstanding, with its body colour being very different, a very attractive raspberry red/pink. Not wanting to hog the birders scope (Who turned out to be 'Username' off Birdforum) i started to set up my own, and just as i set it down, a Common Crossbill landed next to them, and they flew off deeper into the plantation. Another hour and not a sight not sound and we decided to leave. Happy that i had gotten both my 'target species'.
10/04/11 A days Birding, in apparently gods county, where you have to work for your birds, and it is better than upton warren.. (apparently)
Bloggers day members:
Me :)
Martyn Y ( Blurred Birder)
Kay D (Brightside Birder)
Richard P (Local Birding 4 Local people)
Our first target was on Cannock Chase, where a long staying GREAT-GREY SHRIKE was present, Not long after we had got out of the car we were treated to views of a gorgeous singing male Common Redstart, There area was plastered with Willow warbler with seemingly one singing from ever other tree, a few Meadow pipits flew over in the cool morning breeze
The Shrike was picked out at distance, and we moved closer to where we thought the bird was, we Found another Male Redstart singing and showing nicely in the Sun, and we climbed up a steep track to be greated with great Scope views of the shrike.
(Great-Grey Shrike- Cannock Chase)
After we had had our fill of the Shrike we walked to another section on the area where we had 2 Singing Tree Pipit, one of which was perched up in a tree, giving quite good views
We then decided to have a check of a nearby Vally, where a flock of 4 Stonechat ( 2 M) were feeding, alot more Meadow pipits started moving, and as we were walking back up the vally, we picked up a distant RED KITE, the others got more exited than i did because you get them all the time in worcester :P
After this we headed to a little bit of open water, Blithfield Res. A single Common sand and 2 LRP were feeding near the causeway, But i was bemused by the lack of Gulls/terns, there were no terns, and maybe only a couple of BHG. The Deeps gave us 2 (??) Wheatear one of which shown well on a ledge.
(Wheatear- Blithfield Res)
It also gave us 3 Yellow Wagtails one of which was a stunning male,
(terrible male Yellow Wagtail shot)
We then moved onto a Small area of wasteland with a puddle in it, and it held, 2 OYC, a mulitude of LRP, 2 Redshank and a Wheatear.
A check of a Gravel pit nearby (name has been lost to me) had us seeing a Pair of Mandarin,a Green sand, a few duck species, a few Curlew, and teal, BY now it was getting very hot, and very dusty, and we couldnt find any birds :P
We then headed back up to Blithers where a quick check of the deep end had the yellow wags again, Then we decided to head up to Tad bay, where things livened up for the last stand of the day. A pair of Pintails were at the far north end, as was 2 Female Goosander, alot of Wigeon and Teal, and 4 Goldeneye were showing ( 2 drk) A Good few birds tbh Cheers for the day to the Bloggers MB
we quickly found our destination, parked up and started walking. a finch flock of c 100 birds emerged from the field including chaffinch, linnet and greenfinch. they settled in a nearby tree and i had a quick sift through the flock, but my mind was set elsewhere....
we flushed yet more finches(mostly linnet) and proceded to a metal gate and joined a few other birders, nobody had seen it. we stood around scanning the fence lines, telephone/power lines and hedge lines/tree tops for the bird but it didnt show, a few birders were spread around the fields and the group we were with left, a finch flock landed in a tree top and on scopeing, revealed there to be 2 YELLOWHAMMER in the flock. a ravern was cronking nearby in a field and we could hear greylag geese, a party of stock dove(8) flew along a field line.
we were joined by a birder and 4 teal flew onto the flooded area in front of us...
we started chatting and strokeing his 2 dogs and we scanned. the other birder started talking to my dad when i saw a long tailed bird land upon a tree
'SHRIKE'
i got my scope onto the GREAT GREY SHRIKE(lifer 202) and savered its beauty, what a bird!!!!
i imidiatly gotm my canera out and started takeing films/photos.
The bird showed upon this tree for about 10-15 mins and we were joined by another birder. the bird then flew off showing its white wing patches and its flight jizz~(quite direct but flappy), it flew to the other side of the field and landed on a bare tree where it stood for c 5 mins, and then again took flight and flew down the hedgerow. we lost it but i again refound the bird perched on an ivy covered tree a very long way off.
now we split from the other birders and statred walking towards the lakes, we got to the end of the field and i tured around and had a scan, a small bird was coming in
MERLIN
the female merlin flew in from a studly direction and dropped into trees along a field, but that was enough to get this year tick.
we walked back over to the birders who had walked further on, and they waved us over, at this point 3 more yellowhammer flew over calling.
we walked over and said had they seen the merlin, luckily they had seen the bird but only briefly, we scanned the hedgerows but the bird wasent seen again
the shrike then popped up on a pylon and i got a closer film:
after staying for another 10 mins, the bird again flew off, and for the last time i again relocated the bird on an oak on the other side of the field(some 100m away).
at this point, we headed back to the car as my dad was starting to feal unwell, we did want to check out upton warren, but we decided not to, but we have a whole week for upton...
