Excellent Midlands birding!

5/01/14

Remember how in the last post i said i saw some pale looking Redpoll's with a Goldfinch flock on the Golf Course at Lineholt?

Well it turns out that an hour or so after we left, a local birder went on to find a stunning flock of Mealy Redpoll!

I wonder!

Anyway, i returned the next day, and i was treated to decent views of them as they fed in the tops of birch tree's along the southern edge of the Golf course. It was hard to estimate numbers in some very dense tree's, but while i was there a flock of 25 Redpoll were present, including at least 18 MEALY REDPOLL!

Most were of the 'greyish' kind, but there were also around 5 really stunning pale birds (Check out the 2nd bird in the video!).

Looking into the setting sun made it hard to get anything other than silhouetted or 'darker than real life' photos, but as usual i tried!

8/01/14

My first visit to Sheepwash this year was rewarded with a good flock of 35 Goosander. More impressive though in my opinion was the 29 Tufted Duck, one of my highest counts from the site! 2 Shoveler and 16 Pochard completed the list of 'highlights'.

I was shocked by the lack of Pochard on the lake, as usually by this time of year the flock is nearing 40! Sadly, as shown by the recent WeBS survey, it seems as if numbers of this red-headed diving duck have declined hugely in the UK. Reasons for this are fairly clear, and perhaps more-so this winter. Mild winter temperatures throughout Europe means that many of our winter species don't have to travel as far to reach a reasonable winter climate, and many of 'our' birds are now regularly wintering on the continent.

9/01/14

With the year list off to a flying start, Neil Duggan again offered a morning out birding in Staffordshire and north Birmingham. Our reasoning?

A seaduck that continues to elude me, as well as a whole host of excellent species!

Aqualate mere was playing host to a good number of ducks, so arriving at dawn we took the relativly easy tack towards the hide. While walking down the fenceline however it became clear we were quickly going to regret our decision, the boardwalk was under 2 ft of water!

Reluctantly we continued walking, we had come to far not to search! And within a short distance, both of us and our boots were inundated with water. Even my wellies were not enough to keep my toes from getting wet!

Our suffering was rewarded along the boardwalk when 2 WILLOW TIT were feeding along the hedgeline feeding and calling. After a few seconds watching, we continued on. 

The Mere was very full of water, but our task had become even harder than thought!

Every one of the ducks were on the very far side of the lake, and because of that were very hard to view. For an hour we scanned, in which Neil expertly picked out a drake Pintail (which i couldn't pick up until much later), but neither of our target species were showing!

With time passing on, and with us both needing to be in Dudley by 2, we took the decision to move on, and we were soon pulling off onto the backroad at Gailey. Again our confidence was taken from us when we were told out main target had flown out half and hour or so before! Not only that, a seriously heavy rainstorm then hit, and as well as being birdless, we were now soaked from head to toe!

Luckily, the GREAT-NORTHERN DIVER was showing as we scanned and sheltered from the sailing buildings. The weather was truly awful by now, and here is a photo of the Diver to give you the idea!

We chose that as our time to leave. Not much longer after that, we were pulling into Engine lane, just outside Brownhills where the GLOSSY IBIS from had reappeared from the previous year was currently residing!

The bird wasn't too hard to locate, and was showing very well in the 2nd paddock, feeding around the feet of the horses and in the deep mud!

It was somewhat surreal to think that the bird, originating from somewhere on the Iberian Peninsular had somehow found its way to rainy, and somewhat dreary Brownhills, and then chose to spent the winter there!

I can tell you, if i had wings, Brownhills would certainly not be my first choice of Winter home!

With Stubbers Green being on the way home, it would have been rude not to have a look. And a few minutes after, we were pulling up adjacent to the pools. Worryingly, there were very few gulls present throughout our visit, with no more than 80 large gulls at a time. A adult YELLOW-LEGGED GULL dropped in briefly for a wash, but it was soon off out again to feed on the tip. Just after mid-day however, the visit was somewhat enlightened by the appearance of one of my favorite winter birds!

ICELAND GULL!

The great thing about Stubbers though, is as well as having great Gulls like this, you get really stonking views of them. Personally, these were probably the best views of an Iceland as i have had.

As well as being a very 'crisp' looking adult, what makes this bird more interesting is its life history! Every winter since it was in juvenile plumage, this bird has returned to North Birmingham, and i have managed to catch up with it in 2nd winter, 3rd winter, 4th winter and adult plumage's! It is great to think that this bird has found something it likes with the area. Maybe its the prominence of Landfill in the area? Or maybe its proximity to Chasewater to roost? Or even possibly the fact it just likes Walsall!  Whatever it may be, i'm very glad we have this bird returning year after year!

MB

Gulling with local birder's

17/02/13
Local Redditch birder Neil Duggan had kindly offered an evening out at the biggest Gull roost in the region, at Chasewater, and Matt G the Ealswood Birder and i tagged along in the hope of jamming in on some of that White winger action, and checking a few of the nearby Gulling sites in the hope of picking something up.

We were meeting at Upton Warren, and i got there early to have a check of the Flashes. A Lapwing flock was commuting between the fields and the 2nd flash, making it awkward to get a decent view from the feeder hide. Upon exiting the hide i was watching 2 Goldcrest in a trackside bush when Matt walked down the path towards me that he'd just had a Golden Plover in the Lapwing flock! We moved back into the feeder hide and started scanning the Lapwings at the back of the flash, and there it was, a Golden Plover sitting among them! We watched it walking around in the flock before taking flight and giving us some nice views. Cue a digi-scoped record shot.

Heading north, we first dropped into the West Midlands gull hotspot of Stubbers Green which was practically devoid... A few Great Black Backs and Lessers. Errr, not the best of starts.

It was still some time until the roost, so we then headed over to my new found Gulling spot, at Kingswood lakeside. At least we had Gulls this time! But again it seemed out luck wasn't there, as in the flock were only the expected Herring, LBBG and BHG. Scanning the Gulls flying up above the tip i got exited when i saw a Gull with white wing tips circling with about 10 other Gulls. Sadly however, it didn't seem to be one of the true white wingers. Despite having obvious white wingtips, the had a fairly dark grey 'saddle' on its back, obviously wrong for either of the hoped for species. The bird was at some distance however, but in good light we agreed to call it as an abbarent gull sp.

A lot of the birds were staring to fly over to Chasewater so we decided to follow in the hope we would have more luck there, and then it just got worse. The birds had obviously decided to pitch up at the furthest reaches of the Reservoir, right at the north end, making viewing from the south end almost impossible.

2 Goldeneye were showing fairly well

As was this Common Gull

A adult MEDITERRANEAN GULL was picked out of the closest large flock of BHG at the end of the dam. A stunning 90 % summer plumaged bird, with bright white primary's and an almost fully black hood. If you ask me, one of the most stunning of the small Gulls, and probably one of my favorites!

As the light got worse, i picked up another adult MED Gull, this time a winter plumaged bird, which i believe Neil got onto, but quickly disappeared within the flock (A very common occurrence at Gull roosts). These two alone made my day as it was the one Gull that i had missed on previous roosts this year, so it was nice to have caught up with two of them!

Going back onto the large Gulls they had still failed to move any closer. A adult Yellow legged Gull was showing in the birds in front of the sailing club but that's as good as it got. Many birder's didn't even bother to stay around as they knew the task was almost impossible. But the three of us soldiered on until dark, with absolutely no reward. The day got even worse later that night when news emerged on what the gullers had seen from the west shore.

So yeah, not the most 'to plan' day you could have had, and it is a real shame that we didn't pick up any white wingers, as at the time any would have been lifers for my companions. Sorry i couldn't get you them, i'll just have to owe you a repeat visit so we can get them!

MB

Glauc and Ice, Gulls, Gulls, Gulls

5/01/13
Gulls are very high on the agenda in January, and because of this, we decided to 'hit' one of the biggest roosts in the region, at Chasewater. However, we headed out early, so that we would be able to check a few of the local sites earlier. As luck would have it, both Martyn Y and Kay D had the same idea (Be sure to check out both of their blogs after reading this), and were checking through the Gulls there when the came up trumps with a superb Glauc!

Our journey from Kidderminster to Cannock was quite tedious, but we made it there! We decided to drop into the West Mids Gull capital of Stubbers Green for a quick check and go. And we were in luck, as just as we had pulled up, the assembled birders had already clocked a YELLOW LEGGED GULL. A nice well marked 2w bird, and, as usual with Stubbers, we were getting fairly good views!

I cant claim to have extensive knowledge regarding this age, so it was nice to be able to study one. It was nice to have the bird adjacent to all GBBG, LBBG and Herring Gull for comparison  and this bird fits in nicely between Herring and Lesser.

As winter is 'THE' time for White-wingers (and with news emerging of both Glauc and Iceland) we decided to shoot off there before the Gulls switched over to Chasewater to roost. We pulled up at Kingswood soon after, and after a scan of the small amount of Gulls viewable from where we were parked, we were told that both the 'white wingers' were perched up together on the roof viewable from the other side!

As you would expect, we quickly shot around there, joined the birders, grabbed a look through one of the scopes and bam! GLAUCOUS and ICELAND GULL sitting adjacent to each other on the factory roof! Can Gulling really be much better than that?

While setting up my scope however, the call went up that the Glauc was flying, and coming straight for us, ditching my scope, i put my camera to my bins, aimed at the twisting and turning Glauc as it flew directly over our heads! Getting around 10 pictures in the time. Once the bird dropped below the bank, i picked up the camera. All but three of the photos has only sky in them. One of the three a translucent wingtip, picture two a out of focus Glauc, and Pic 3. This one!

A 2nd winter GLAUCOUS GULL.

A digi-binned flight shot of a Glauc!

Moving my attention back to the Gulls atop the roof, i had a look at the adult ICELAND GULL, which was a very neat looking bird. Infact, it was my first adult type bird, as i dipped the bird when it was present last winter! Unlike the Yellow leg though, there is less to'study' on adult white wingers, so i just chose to enjoy the views of the bird. After a while, it also took flight back over to the tip for a pre roost feed. 

 Can you see it?

What about with this slightly cropped version?

Following this, it was onward to the Roost, which mopped up the rest of the 'scarce large gulls'. Luckilly, the Gulls had chosen to land fairly close to the south shore, giving awesome views! Not long after we had arrived, i picked out  a stunning adult CASPIAN GULL, and after guiding people onto it, people seemed to agree about its identity. Following this, i picked out the GLAUCOUS as it swam about in the throngs. A wait ensured before the ICELAND was picked out, and eventually news filtered to the other end of the crowd, and i was able to spot it. I was quite struck by this particular bird, as it seemed to have a very 'attenuated' rear end. I know this is a common feature with iceland, but i found it particularly obvious in this bird. Its small size was also very evident, it was miniscule! However, it always remained fairly far away, so therefore, i could only take some pictures of the Glauc. However i'm not complaining! Look at that beast!

To finish off, i also picked out 2 further YELLOW LEGGED GULL's

Always an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon in January!
MB

Fill In

4/02/12

Called in at a frozen Stubbers Green lake.

No interesting gulls in the 30 mins we had before the weather got too bad to withstand!

MB

Another Gulling sesion!!!

4/02/10

With the last gulling sesion at stubbers and chasewater being quite bad ( but there was other birds that day) we had decided that we would do Stubbers again as the iceland gulls was seen again.

After school we headed up there, and it was horendous, the wind was litterally so strong, my scope was constantly being buffeted about, this combined with the light being against us ment that photographing the gulls was a hard task, and i didnt come away with any decent shots despite taking over 100.

A couple of birders dropped in and out, (most from the chase GG shrike), we picked out a YELLOW LEGGED GULL after about 30 mins, and when i was staring to feel the wind through my 2 jackets an interesting gull dropped in.

mmmmmmmmmm

small dark eye, pear shaped head, a very faint 'shrawl', 'Herring gull shade back colour', long bill, with a small dark mark on a greeny/yellow base colour.

this looks good.....

I waited for a birder to arive and 5 mins after a birder duely appeared and confirmed that i had indeed found an Adult CASPIAN GULL

(yes i accept the photo just only looks like gull, but this was the caspian)

As time wore on, i kept noticing a gull which just looked odd, the bird in general reminded me of a first winter Glauc but the markings were much darker, and the bird had dark primarys, the plumage seemed to be intermidiate with herring, this lead to me believing the bird to be a Herring x Glauc hydrid, and further reaserch after online and in the helm GULLS, has made me think this even more, i know the photo again is hardly anything to go on, but for conparison, for anyone who owns GULL'S, photo 240 on page 203 strongly resembles the bird that was in front of us, but the head was paler being the only visiable difference, i mean i just couldnt see any bird showing that Bill with not having some Glauc influence. the birds size also was noticable, with it being bigger that the herrings. i have a stong feeling that this bird was a 1st winter Gluac x Herring but without better photos i dont think i could prove it.

20c COMMON GULL were about ( most being 1st winter) and 2 GBBG, 3 Teal, 20C Pochard, 5 tufted duck and 40c lapwing and there was 8 Goosander (3 drk)

At this point we decided about going over to highfielfds tip were the caspian had dissapeared to, we had litterally just put my scope down and i dropped directly onto an ICELAND GULL (3w), i had actually totally forgot about this bird, grabbing for my camera, the bird was 'put up' by the working machienary which was being used on the landfil site, the bird didnt land again and after 20 mins the bird flew north (ish) with a flock of 50c gulls and we decided to call it a day with us both now being quite cold and windswept.

MB

Yet more waxwings!!!!!!!!!

13/01/11
It was while on my dinner break at school, that i heard a flock of my favorite birds flying over, and it was quite a big flock, they circled over the Holoway road for a minuite before flying off along stickly lane, as i was walking back to school as lunch had only 10 mins left i relocated the flock ontop of a birch(???, not very good at tree id) only 50 metres from where i found a flock of 3 in early 2009, as you would expect i had a count through, and i was amazed that there was infact 42 birds!!!!
Doubleing my previous largest flock and adding 2, the birds then flew off west towards Baggeridge Cp and despite having a look after school there was no sign.

14/0/11
A Planned trip to stubbers green after school on the friday ( i break up at 12:45 on fridays as we do just under an hour longer at school than other schools every day) looking for a couple of gulls.
well the word fail comes very much into mind here, there was only 50-100 gulls down, and non were white or even hinted at caspian, so after an hour of watching common gulls and a flock of 16 goosander we headed over to highfields tip, where again the word fail springs to mind, not because there was no gulls (there was 1000+ here), they were all circling above the tip because the workers were working there, and as a last ditch Chasewater was calling......
via brownhills that was, but there was no sign of any waxwings on the many berryless tree's, we were on the south shore, and i (yes note the word i) picked up the Adult Drk SMEW diving at the back of the large centre pool, no more than a mere dot, but you could still see it was a gorgoues bird, it did eventually move closer with the 7 GOLDENEYE (3 m) that were present, lots of meadow pipit flew over, but all focous was on the lake, and despite leaving at dark, no birds other than the usual LBBG, HG,BHG,GBBG and common gull were seen. and it turned out that a few yellow legged gulls had roooted that night, it wouldnt have harmed them other gullers just to say they had one instead of keeping stump!!!!!
MB

DUCKING & DIVING

06/03/10

OK you all confortable, cause this is gonna be a big one............

martyn from blurred birder had kindly offered my a day out and about, i agreed and this is how the day pans out.........

Out of the house by 7:15 and on our way for our first tick....

we arrived at the top barn actvity lake at around 7:40, we scanned from the road, SLAVONIAN GREBE (lifer 204), we moved closer to the bird and it came at us, the bird came closer still untill i could no longer focous my scope propperly on it.

and this is why:

a frame filler of a 'slav', and what a bird, and what a way for a lifer to act,

come on,

this was outragelously close

martyn with his new spangle dangle camera, produced some out of the world shots, a few of which are reproduced on his blog..

we watched the bird as it ever so slowly followed its prey

along the bank in front of us, diving every 5 secs or so, and producing many fish(i didnt catch any shots though)....

even martyn was amazed how close it was, and he commented on how you proderbly would never see one so close again

but anyways

onwards and upwards

DRAYCOTE WATER being our target, in the centre of a town while stopped at some trafic lights a peregrine flew low over the car, stunning bird whenever you see them..

just as we entered the car park a YELLOWHAMMER aligted on a hedge, a bird i dont see regularly so well chuffed.

we parked at the hensborough bank car park which over looks the reserviour,

oh my bloody hell, THATS HUGE

but anyway, down the hill we went onto the side of the water, scanning as we went, 3 shoveler were picked out in the middle, and small flock of goldeneye and tufted duck were dotted everywhere.

a bit along draycote bank we picked up the 2 GREAT NORTHER DIVERS (lifer 205), apparently showing well but allas, well to far out for a decent photo, we stopped and watched these for a bit while scanning the res. nothing new was picked up so onwards we went....

in a small wooded area a bullfinch called. we continued towards the outlet and i saw a 'white' bird dive, was this him, we waited for a seemingly long time for the bird to resurface, then BANG

DRAKE SMEW(lifer 206) ohhhhh, what a stunner of a bird, it was quite close to the bank, but like the slav grebe, was diving rapidly(but you cant predict where it will come up like the slav).

i managed some photos:

but the red necked grebe was obviously not on this side, so we headed of to farnbourgh bank, we walked around to the opposite side of the res' and stopped half way up with picking up a load of GC grebes on the way up,

a male sparrowhawk was in a hunting mood and chased a feral pigeon acrosss a field but the pigeon got away, boooooooooo
a curlew called, but wasent seen
a few goldeneye were close in and wigeon, teal and yet more GC grebe were in toft bay, then i picked up the diver swimming towards us away from the boats, it got closer and closer, and closer, and closer untill it run out of water and swam past us at no more the 20-30 range, but it failed to raise its head:





the crowd quickly built as more and more birders piled in to get stunning views of the diver.

a good wait followed, we all wanted that 'head up' shot, and then it awoke, i didnt take advantage and only got a couple of 'keepers'.


after it moved from the crowd and back towards me where it did a swim past and duly fell asleap.

and just to prove a point, this is how close the diver was on 0x zoom:


hows about that then, how close is that !!!!!!!!!!!!!

out of hundreds and hunderes of millions of gallons of water in the res, it chose to go right next to the very busy path.

god bless you GND

we were near the boat club centre when the drake SMEW flew past into toft bay.

next loaction TAMWORTH:

and these beautys:



WAXWING x3

as always, the birds shown superbly atop the trees in the centre of an island, my first chance to get a decent photo of one, but the 'milky' white sky was horrible.


and all 3:


to be honest, i didnt think i was going to catch up with any this winter, so to see just a few is well worth it, and a great time watching and photographing these,

the birds started to decend on the berrys and we all poised to get the shot not agains the sky when

'ZR'rrrrrrrrrrrrrr' in comes the pair of mistle thrush to force the waxwing onto wires near the school, where they all posed beautifully:

and nice of them was they lined up from left to right: juv/1st winter, ad female, ad male, zoom in on the pics and see if you can tell how i aged them........

so its looks as if the flock of waxwings in tamworth is a family, cool........

now we didnt stop too long here as people with camera's and scopes in a public road next to a school, not the best idea.....

so onwards,

CROXALL

a pair of oystercatcer were here and a flock of 9 REDSHANK, a bit of scanning along the bank with my scope got me onto my first RINGED PLOVER of the year, feeding in close company of 2 teal, a few goldeneye,tufted duck etc were here so we moved to another hide.

LITTLE EGRET

a little egret's head was pokeing up out of the tussuks

a pair of shelduck were floating about and a linnet flock was at the back of the pool in fields.

now to WHITEMORE HAYE

8 BARNICLE GOOSE were feeding away from the canada's and were quite wary, a coincidence they tured up at the same time of year as the 'wild' birds and were feeding in exacly the same spot..........

mind you i didnt even raise my camera to them

a couple of yellowhammers were heard.

but there was no sign of the pink footed geese,

we walked down the road to where tree sparrow ARE, not a single bird..........

we drove around the fields scanning the swans but nothing 'odd' came out.........

so now, a last bird to raise out spirits higher,

at a tip

only a GBBG was picked out so we quickly left for nearby stubbers green, and almost the 1st bird i dropped onto was this......

2nd winter ICELAND GULL, a very bleached bird feeding up by the sailing club side, scope views were good and i was able to savour the bird unlike last time:

a wing stretch:

another birder arived and the iceland duly dissapeared, LOL

and that just about concludes my day out with martyn

and a special thanks to martyn for inviting my on his birding day out, the day was immensly enjoyed and i will have to buy you a couple when i can go to the pub

cheers mart

MB

As cold as ICELAND!!!!!!!

30/01/10

felt a bit twitchy today, so where better to go than look through a few gulls

stubbers green here we come.........

well eventually............

finally got my dad out at about 1:30, about and hour later, we parked next to the road, a scan of the small pool produced a few common, herring and LBBG's in the numerous BHG's

there was about 5 birders on site and all at the grassy bank end. we asked had the iceland been seen, the expected NO followed.

so up the sailing club end me and my dad went, a minuite passed and then i got it

'CASPIAN'

my dad looked though my scope and saw the bird which was a lifer for him, and here it is.......

we spent some time scanning the gulls up the top end, but no iceland up there, i went down to the others to say we had the capso, when i heard one of the birder's go 'is it a 2nd winter'

in my mind i though, they have the iceland, and as usual when i get something in my head i asked, have you got the iceland, they said yes, and i looked through this 'dude's' scope at a beautiful 'white' 2ND WINTER ICELAND GULL (lifer 201), i looked for about 10 secs then said the usual thanks and went off to collect my dad, for some reason, we stopped and scanned the gull's up the top end, and went down to the other's about 5-10 mins later, and they said 'it had flown'

BULL CRAP

and the morel of the story is, always go imidiatly when a good bird is found........

anyway here is a pic my friend jim almond sent for me, thanks jim

(the pic was taken at same location, earlier in the day)

his day can be viewed here

we spent the rest of the afternoon scaning the gulls, the caspo was picked out a few times but the iceland failed to reappear before my dad, but i was well and truily gutted when i heard news of a gloucous gull just up the road.

terry hinett arrived and said that the smew was showing on the swag pool at chasewater, he give directions to where it was. we told him that no iceland or caspo(had left earlier) were in the flock, so i presume he then went to the roost at either chasewater or bartly. despite knowing where the smew was showing from and with us having about an hour untill dusk(or something like that) we could easily make it. but my dad didnt want to go.......

so i had to miss the smew again, grrrrrrrrrrrrr

well on the brighter side, he will have to take me up there again to get it, whoop, whooop

what didnt help either was the gull's were extremly skitish and therfore were quite hard to work, and after an hour and a half looking at gull's, every herring seems to be an iceland LOL

MB