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 

Patch birding, Hangers on.

30/10/11
Here we are, a couple of day before the start of November, Summer a distant memory, No more Warmth, no more Cuckoo's, Swallows or Swifts, the Icons of Summer.
Bring on the Winter i say, i want it to snow! For selfish Patch reasons really, but i am genuinly looking forward to the winter!

But anyway, Here i was Stamping my Patch, I decided to walk south this time, to check up on the Gadwall lake, which i havent been to for some time.

There was abit of Vismig in the morning after the light fog had cleared, Mostly consisting of Skylarks, but with many Redpoll and Meadow Pipits intermixed.

I decided to walk about a hundred metres off my usual walk past the Baisins in the town centre, i usually just walk straight down the river as quick as possible to get past the crowds in the town centre, but as i was early, there was nobody about, and less and less people visit now its getting colder!

But i had a walk along the shore of the 'Big Baisin', had a check through the small amount of Gulls, but there was little else of interest, one day i will see something good here! However, i was truily shocked wher i heard a 'chittering' noise coming from above, a reminder of Summer, as a (presumably) juvenile SWALLOW flew over!, I didnt get really exited, but tbh, any 'late' summer bird is quite good, and this easilly beats my last 'latest date'.

The fact of the matter is, these summer migrants are staying longer, and we are getting more hangers on. so dont think were out of summer yet!

I continued downriver, saw a few Tit flocks flitting about.

Later in the day, i walked upriver to Blackstone, and i was shocked when i saw a seasonal MEGA! a winter adult LITTLE GREBE was feeding on the river, as with the swallow, this bird is not expected to be here at this time of year, only generally appearing later on in late december/january! It quickly swam to the opposite bank and dissapeared amongst the overhanging willows.

In contrast to the last few visit's, A female MANDARIN was presant, but in regularity with the summer, GOOSANDERS were still presant, with 2 female types (i think the 2nd bird is a juv, or at least 1st year)

The first Female GOOSANDER was showing on a fallen tree.

While the second was showing much closer just south of the road bridge, allowing me to get some headshot footage

A MARSH TIT calling was my first on the patch this autumn, having not witnessed any breeding behaviour this year.

MB

Prime time Birding.

26/12/10
i have put so much effort in to get the blog up to date and finally it is, and what a day to do it on.
christmas had been as good as usual so when a report of goldeneyes on the river in bewdley surfaced very near to the patch i just had to be there, but luckily i did briefly change my mind to visit trimply instead but being -7.5 ouside that seemed a bit much so goldeneye hunting it was...
the plan was to park in Blackstone car park then just check the area. but alot of the plan was aborted when the area of river that is actually on the patch was completly frozen ( south of the road bridge) so we walked northward, clocking GOOSANDER, after goosander, in total 14 birds ( 3drk), we very quickly logged onto 3 LITTLE GREBE right in below the bank, including a bird which we though was frozen in the ice, luckilly after a few minuites it manadged to free itself and dived to join its 2 friends.
we got to behind the high school over the metal bridge when i spotted the GOLDENEYE feeding slightly upriver with its friend a drk goosander, i got into a positing where i could video the bird and got one short, wonky film before it and the goosander was flushed by walkers on the opposite side of the river, its wings humming as it went....





we had our target bird so decided to head back to the car with the hands struggling to turn the focousing wheel on my bins, we again found the goldeneye and after a minuite it was flushed once again by walkers on the opposite side of the river ( a major problem today), we decided that the bird had already been flushed twice so we left it to its own devices.

we crossed the metal bridge again and came to a small gap ( heading back downriver btw), where the bird of my patch dreams was,

In all its 1st winter splendor

A DRAKE SMEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A drake smew OMG, seriously DRAKE SMEW, sitting in front of me about 4-5 metres away, a drake smew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, before i even put my scope down i grabbed my camera from my pocket and put it to my bins before this bird was flushed to, and here it is: video no-1 of the bewdley smew:




yes. really crappy, but a white drake smew!!!!!!

now i had the confirmation video, i put my scope in the middle of the path ( could give a toss if somebody wanted to get past cause i just found a drake smew!!!!!) and spent about a min struggling to find it in my scope, but when i did:




yes i know, still really crappy, but all i ask from my photo's/videos's is that you can tell what the bird is and this is a 1st winter DRK SMEW!!

i got this video then for the 2nd time in 2 week phoned up birding today to tell them of my momentus discovery, but before the phone was answered a flock of 9 Goosander took flight and the smew took off with them, as did the single goldeneye, i didnt know what to do, drop my phone or pick up my bins, the birds flew south under the road bridge ( thus onto the patch) and i told the details, we very quickly got to the bridge but the birds had gone, but knowing that there was a little bit of open water open on the patch we hung around incase they flew back up ( as the goosanders do on the patch), they didnt so we went to the car to thaw out. where 2 reed bunting were in the car park. we drove around to bewdley as a last ditch fire attempt to relocate the bird, from the opposite side of the river, but although after walking all the way to the patch bridge there was no sign of the bird and only 5 goosanders ( 2drk), but i did manadge to find the whole flock of 5 goldeneye (all drk), whcih added to the bird that flew off was the total that was seen the day previous.

another 2 little grebe were noted, and an amazing flock of 11 !!!! tufted duck were on the river ( 5 drk) in the town centre, and 2 dipper were reported here this evening also. there was alot of birds presant so i did probs miss them....

and like i said in the last post what a way for the patch to hook me back in. 3 new patch birds in a week.....

1st win drk SMEW!!!

6 GOLDENEYE

14 goosander

11 tufted duck

5 little grebe

2 reed bunting

What a couple of hours can do to a patch birder eh......

MB

Its another patch 1st

7/03/10
yes,
yet another patch 1st,
i bet your getting bored with this now arnt you
well im not

this time it wasent an unexpected visitor, 14 great crested grebe on larford lake's (viewed from opposite side of river), a patch 1st simply because i had never really had a look at the place, a few were in summer plumage.
i even walked past the place which held the red backed shrike a few years ago(gut wrenching pain, but moveing swiftly on, not one comment on this bird please, pritty please)

4 tufted duck were on the lakes (3 DRK) which is a also quite uncommon on the patch with only 1 record of a pair on 1st june '07',
the drake gadwall was still holding teritory on redpoll lake, but has yet to find a female and make history...............
3 goldcrest were showing well at lincome lock, a grey wagtail was on a factory roof near the stourport marina and a total of 8 stock dove were located.....
MB

patch!!!!!

24/1/10
i was keen on getting onto the patch today, with a new scope and on a high after the previous night's suprise..........
a kingfisher was on the aptly named kingfisher pool again( female this time, not as confiding), the stunning colours showed well in the scope.
then over to the northernmost field of lickhill, a pair of kestrel regularly hunt this field so i was hopeing to get them perched in their favorite tree, even from the other side of the field i picked out the male kestrel, and i slowly got closer, but a pair of mute swans were grazing the riverside fields, (juvs flying in pic)



i edged past them and eventually got close to the kestrel, i could see the yellow eye ring(something that usally i couldent see with my old scope), after some time watching the ketrel i went upriver
a pair of buzzards were showing well on posts but i didnt take many photos.



but the highlight was this:
where the female goosander was last week, the water had subsided but i quickly noticed a small, fluff ball with the moorhens on the river bank,
LITTLE GREBE
bloody hell, path first MEGA, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
i waited for the grebe to resurface and got a film of it with a fish(not totally in focus but still getting to grips with the scope)
(sorry once again blogger not letting me upload video)
BUT, that wasent all, after about 5 mins the bird floated out into the river and was joined by ANOTHER LITTLE GREBE. this bird (adult winter) came from under a load of overhanging willows, both birds joined up and swam under the willows and wernt seen again,
at the north end of the small lake a REED BUNTING was found, but no sign of the flock(remember this is still only the 3rd record)
back at moorhall a pair of green woodpeckers were showing well..

in the garden a female lesser redpoll was on the feeders for c5 mins before dissapearing, also siskin(m) and 15c goldfinch


but at dusk i decided to got for an owl watch and where better to go than the vismig point overlooking goose field, but it wasent the owl's, for the first time ever, i witnessed a duck roost at moorhall marsh, i can see the trees in the marsh from the site, and witnessed 326 mallard fly into roost and this also included 3 TEAL. this is a phenominon, i have never witnessed here so would be taking a huge intrest in it in the next few weeks........
a tawney owl was heard
MB
( videos uploading again now)