The return- April 2015

It was a somewhat depressing return to the UK on the 12th, the lack of birds of prey and general birdlife drained a fair bit of my usual 'spring optimism'. However, I soon tried to get back into the swing of inland UK birding.

Daily visits of Sedgley Beacon occurred, with optimism raised slightly by a couple of passage Wheatear on the 14th, followed by a decent day (in Beacon terms), with a Wheatear, 4 Tree Pipits and best of all a singing Grasshopper Warbler on 15th. Infact, the Gropper gave fairly good views, popping up on top of its temporary bramble home briefly on a couple of occasions!

A visit out to the University survey site on 16th revealed a pair of Little Egret was still present within the Heronry present there, however there was unfortunately no further breeding evidence over the summer.

This year a new joint BTO/ Natural England/ Forestry Commission survey has been set up within the Wyre forest to monitor effects on breeding birds within the Wyre over the coming years in which management work is being carried out to restore the original broadleaved deciduous forest. My Survey area is deep within the center of the forest and my first visit was very promising, despite the Douglas fir plantation (which is my survey area), the surrounding land is promising, and featured good numbers of Tree Pipits and Willow Warbler. A Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and a nice early Wood Warbler singing away next to 'my' woodland were very gratefully received.

Later the same day, the second summer Mediterranean Gull was still present at Upton Warren, together with the usual cast of breeding waders.

The patch has been fairly exiting this summer, and things kicked off early, with LRPs and Peregrines both being seen. A late Goosander still present on the river is usually a good sign that breeding could have been on the cards but unfortunately no chicks were found. A couple of Red-legged Partirdge scurried away along one of the dirt tracks while a Wheatear and a Yellow Wagtail were both the first on patch this year.

A day trip to near Reading with a University Society on 21st led to me seeing lots of Red Kites however it was on the 22nd that a real panic moment hit. While midway through writing up one of my essays (about flightlessness in the Galapagos Cormorant no less) I received news from a fellow Upton Warren warden. "Red necked Grebe at the Moors!!

Many rushed phone calls until a friend agreed to drive up from my hometown in Worcester up to my house on the other side of West Midlands country to pick me up! (massive shoutout to Rob, Legend!) And we were on our way. 

A couple of hours running up and down the west shore until superb views were had just before the sun started to set with the bird swimming about just in front of the hide, a crippling bird for Upton Warren, a reserve first no less and in stunning summer plumage!

Huge thanks to both Rob and Hughie for their help!

My first Swifts of the year, a party of 3 moved over the university site again the follow day.

A fair quiet visit to the patch followed other than breeding birds but the Upton Warren all dayer was on the Saturday (25th). I arrived fairly early, before I heard news of an absolute 'mega' in Somerset. Despite the offer being given and many others abandoning the birdrace to go see the rare yank wader I refused as I was meeting a friend on site. As always, by the end of the day, my only contribution to the day list (with others already having found everything else by the time I arrived) was a single Ringed Plover, a species that I often seen to find on these All dayers, and infact it was probably the my best bird of the day, so I wasn't going to complain!

MB

Birding the Beacon- Autumn 2014

As I'm sure many local birders would now be aware, I have attained somewhat of a bug for birding Sedgley Beacon.

There are many reasons for it, but the main one being that it has became clearly obvious that the Beacon is a regular stopover for migrating thrushes, and during the correct winds, can result in some rather spectacular vismig.

Perhaps the most significant 'discovery' has been the string of Ring Ouzels I managed to find. Through the autumn, I managed to connect with 4 of these scarce migrant Thrushes,  3 adults and a juvenile as they paused (however briefly) on the hill. The first day of October brought the first two, combined with a fair bit of vismig, as both a male and a female stopped briefly within the Hawthorn valley on the NW side of the hill. Both of the birds were picked up in flight as they dropped down calling, their harsh chacking call being very distinctive. It was by call that both the birds on the 15/10 were also picked out, but the SW winds on this day revealed a significant movement of Thrushes, with about 2500 (of various species) noted by me flying over in the morning. Further watching by another observer later in the day added another 1500 birds, so the passage was certainty sustained throughout the day (and the night by the sounds of hundreds of migrating Redwings flying over my house). The first bird dropped into the NW valley to feed, as did many of the Thrushes it was migrating with, but the juvenile flew very low along the entire length of the hill (just above head height!) before dropping into bushes below the masts.

I'm sure more regular watching over the coming years could lead to more records as I'm pretty sure it must be a regular stop over site for the species!

Female Ring Ouzel- Despite being a poor photo, note the very pale wings and if zoomed in, the pale edging to the belly feathers.

As already mentioned, I also logged all the regular thrush species, and often in good numbers, with the 15th proving to be by far the best day!

Vismig was regular, and included my first Golden Plover for the site (15/10) and regular movements of Meadow Pipit and Wagtails. This included 2 Tree Pipit (3/09),11 Grey Wagtail (1/10) and the first real 'finch push' of the year, with 70c Chaffinch, 2 Brambling, 40 Linnet, 2 Redpoll sp and 5 Siskin going over on a 9 'finch species day' (15/10). A single Hobby gave stunning views on 1/10 as it migrated at eye height over the plateau of the hill at about 30ft range. As you can imagine, leading to some rather stunning views as it glanced at me as it barreled past.

Tree Pipit (Trust me!)

Away from vismig, there was also a good number of Passerines, with Redstarts present on 3/09 (x2) and 15/09 (1) with a Spotted Flycatcher also present on the latter date (And another nearby but off the Hill) 

Redstarts

A pair of Stonechat appeared on the 15/10, giving great views from my vismig point.

Male Stonechat

Combined with decent movements of regular species, it often led to some very enjoyable birding, so rest assured, I will continue birding the site!

MB

Amazing patch birding. Non stop migrants!

 August 2014 must surely go down as one of the best birding months I have ever had on patch. Despite there being no rare birds, I left each visit feeling happy with a superb variety of species, both migrants and residents, and a fair number of surprises.

 

Foremost what must be mentioned was the superb showing of REDSTARTS throughout the month. As regulars will know, they in previous years have been hard to come by, so I was overjoyed with a single female on the 9th, but the next couple of weeks proved to be extremely productive, and on 16th I found 2 more Redstarts, including a stonking male but then it went crazy!

 

17th saw a mass arrival of these stunning blue and red jewels as I found an unprecedented 5 Redstarts in various points around the Lickhill meadows section of the patch (3m, 2 fem/juv). This included 2 birds which were feeding on fence posts adjacent to one of the permissive roads that runs through the fields. Luckily I have access, and was treated to stonking views!

 

 

 

 

As well as the pair of Redstart, the same section of fenceline was often also the perch of a migrant Lesser Whitethroat, enjoying the suns rays.

 

 

 

 

The arrival of these birds coincidentally coincided with a planned week thrashing the patch and I spent nearly all of the daylight hours out thrashing the bushes and vismigging. The 18th had 4 Redstarts and the 19th 3. Both the 20th and 21st then had one each and then they were gone!

 

No doubt this week will end up being known as Redstart week for me in future years!

 

It seems crazy to think I mentioned Redstarts before a patch first, but their sustained presence was wholly unexpected, but the arrival of my first patch WHEATEAR (A female) which was present in some horse paddocks early on 21st was gratefully received non the less. However it could not be relocated later in the day. A Wheatear has been long coming, so I wasn't hugely surprised to pan onto this bird!

This was followed by a male bird on the 25th and 3 present on the last day of the month (31st). So much for a patch mega!

 

 

But wait!! I have another patch mega!

 

And another first for patch infact, as a LITTLE EGRET flew over south during drizzle on the 25th! No doubt the bird I had seen earlier in the month feeding on the river at Bewdley, but it was certainly very welcomed to have seen it within the patch boundaries!

 

Semi- regular Yellow Wagtails were also found, with birds being found on 6 dates, with a maximum of 3, but most of the records related to multiple birds. A female and a juvenile perched on a fenceline in the Meadows, and despite having a broken camera (broken screen) and not being able to see what I was photographing, I got lucky and got this one pic which showed one of the Yellow Wagtails.

 

 

 

2 Tree Pipits flew over, one on both the 16th and the 24th, and numbers of general vismig species, such as Pied and Grey Wagtails, and the first few Meadow Pipits of the autumn increased as the month passed.

This increase was also juxtaposed with an increase in Hirundine numbers, and triple figure counts of all 3 common species were regular! And with the large concentrations of these brought very regular interest from at least 3 HOBBY, which were present most days!

All the 'regular' warbler species were present, with the only real disappointment being a real lack of Willow Warblers, but a few sulphur yellow juveniles added a massive dose of colour! Particularly impressive though was a sustained presence of Lesser Whitethroats, with 4 present for most of the month, and often showing very nicely! Certainly one of my favourite warblers, and they never fail to give me a thrill as one flicks onto the edge of their favoured hedgerows!

 

Not to shabby for an area of meadows, paddocks and hedgerows tucked up in NW Worcestershire!

 

MB

 

An Eagle and Stilts!

21/06/14

What has this spring been like! Hot, muggy, you'd think you were in the Mediterranean, and I'm sure the birds did too!

With the appearance of a mobile but long staying Short-toed Eagle, multiple breeding pairs of Black-winged Stilt and now we hear of successfully fledged Bee-Eaters, it has been a summer to remember, whether you take that as a good or a bad thing.

Needless to say though, with a 3rd for Britain now touring much of the south coast, and one as highly impressive as a stunningly pale Short-toed Eagle, it wasn't too hard a decision to take up an offer and head down with a car full of the Next Generation Birders!

After a quick check of Sheepwash before catching my train, I then met up with Espen in Birmingham New street, before catching out next train out to Rugby for our base for a few hours, at Matt, our drivers house.

I have been on a twitch with both of these guys a few times previous and I have never missed a bird, so optimism was high (Baikal Teal, Ivory Gull). With our train having being cancelled, we arrived in Rugby fairly late on, and following a few preparation tasks, we chose to stay up and drink coffee rather than suffer the horrible feeling of  grogginess you get after only a hour or so sleep.

But, in the early hours, we started on our way down, and the miles passed...

Our final stop before heading for the current location of the Eagle in Ashdown forest was to pick up Josie from her house, which rather remarkably gave us our first bird of the day as we could hear a NIGHTJAR churring from the road outside the house!

With that bonus, we continued on, and before long the sun started to rise, illuminating the sky in red and purple.

It was a increasingly long and nervous wait as we pulled off the main roads and turned into small, overgrown forested road as we arrived near Ashdown, and then a large area heathland appeared from behind the tree's and the Gills Lap carpark appeared in view.

We set up our scopes and camera gear and waited....

A TURTLE DOVE purred from the opposite side of the road, one of the species I had hoped to catch up with on this 'southern' expedition, and following some fairly regular calling, 2 Turtles then flew up the road giving stunning views as they flew past with one in pursuit of the other. My only Turtle Doves this summer!

With the bird obviously not roosting in the open as it had done on a couple of occasions, we chose to have a look around, where we were entertained by a number of Tree Pipits, Garden Warbler, Stonechats and a colony of Heath spotted Orchid. All nice stuff, but upon returning to the crowd we only grew more anxious, there were now a large number of cars and birders present.

With it just starting to warm up, with a few of the suns rays beaming down on the heath, a shout from behind us had multiple people scanning onto a huge bird of prey which had just appeared over the ridge of tree's. Bright white, massive, but very distant, but no doubting this was the 2nd summer SHORT-TOED EAGLE!

A mass exodus of the car park followed as all the twitchers moved down the road to the opposite end of the heath, and soon enough, still distantly, the Eagle could be seen perched up on the tops of a few tree's!

A Woodlark on a tree next to us was almost ignored, but soon after the eagle took flight and flew along the heath, giving much better views, showing what a truly stunning bird it was!

It dropped onto multiple treetops, where a few digi-scoped images were possible, despite the distance.

 

 

The bird hunted back and forth over the heath, dropping down out of sight and at one time came up with a Snake, and proceeded to eat it on the wing!

 

Me and Espen lost the others, so we decided to move our viewpoint back towards the carpark as the bird was flying that way, but unfortunately, after a brief hovering session at closer range, the bird then moved to the other side of the heath where we watched it distantly in our scopes.

 

 

 

Having been watching the bird for nearing 3 hours, we agreed to head off to our next location, to a newly formed RSPB reserve where a pair of Black-winged Stilt had raised 3 chicks.

 

Even in its very early stages, you can see this reserve has huge potential, with the ever present Avocet's being on most of the pools, and Little Egrets dotted around. We moved our way onto the shingle beach, where numerous Sandwich, Little and a single Common Tern were flying. 6 Mediterranean Gull were also moving back and forth before an altogether bigger bird flew over as a rather impressive RAF C-130 Hercules flew over the reserve and out to sea!

 

 

 

We continued along, and a party of Lesser black backed Gulls flew low over and area of dense sedge and weedy grass, and in doing so, up flew a strikingly black and white bird as one of the adult BLACK-WINGED STILTS flew up to mob them, and it was soon joined by its mate as they chased off these unwanted visitors, proving beyond doubt that they were still caring for chicks in that dense foliage! We just couldn't see them.

 

Elated at this brief, but very good flight display we waked up to a estuary mouth a little further up, which gave us a nice wader showing, with Little ringed, Ringed and Grey Plover all being present, alongside Lapwing, Dunlin, Turnstones, Redshank and a single Bar-tailed Godwit! We were also treated to some outstanding Little Tern flypasts here as they flew within 30ft of us as they headed back out to sea!

Away from Avian highlights, 4 Clouded Yellow butterflies were seen, including one which flew out to sea, but non of which landed for a photo.

 

We returned back to where we saw the Stilts, and enjoyed a few further brief views on the deck and in flight but with us all starting to tire, we decided to head somewhere where we could sit down and get some rest, so we dropped in Pagham Harbour.

Birdwise it was all a little 'samey', but also present here were a number of Little Terns, Sandwich Terns and again a single Common Tern, all of which were appreciated as  they flew across the waves of the sea.

With us all now fairly birded out, and with a still long drive back ahead of us, we decided to head back, after what was a great, but very tiring day.

Note to self- Always go to sleep before you go on a twitch, even if just for a short time!

MB

Creatures of the night: Take 2

14/06/14

After having such a great time out looking for Nightjars a couple of weeks previously I quickly took an opportunity to head to the same site again in the hope for the same selection of birds. Feeling somewhat indebted to the generous deed from Liz, Rob and Luke back in April in a journey up to the Mynd for the Dotterel flock I was quite happy to return the favour and show them the location of some of our nocturnal species.

A pre-dusk walk around the same location followed before moving over towards the Nightjar site, and during so managed to find a number of Tree Pipits and a singing male Garden Warbler. Similarly to last time, a number of Cuckoo were partaking in their namesake and 'Cuckooing' regularly, and Willow Warbler were the most common warbler.

Our first target of the trip had failed to show which wasn't a huge surprise, but again with the light fading it was time to move onwards, and in doing so a surprise followed as 2 Mallards were roosting on the edge of the heather and gorse.

We arrived with time to spare, but soon our first Woodcock of the evening appeared, and then another, both roding in wide circles over the extensive heathland. A few gave a repeat performance of last time and flew straight over our heads. With the precursor event underway, and the horizon turning various shades of red and orange it wasn't long before one of our main targets piped up, and the same 'squeeky gates' from the pine plantation were the first indication that the LONG-EARED OWL'S were now active, but as last time, deep within the impenetrable wall of coniferous trees.

And then the NIGHTJARS piped up, first a brief chur like last time, the occasional contact call, and then the male started churring properly, and the reasons for his efforts were obvious, he was chasing a female!

Both birds were flying about us, the male in pursuit of the female, showing off his white flashes like the poser he was. He followed her every move, and they gracefully hawked moths and other flying insects from across the clearing.

(video from my previous visit)

With the light now getting very low, we took our leave,  but having walked only a hundred feet or so to the other side of the plantation, Rob spotted a silent shape flush of the path behind an area of trees. It flew down the side of the plantation where it was joined by another, which was hunting low over the heather bank opposite us. It was a pair of LONG-EARED OWLS! And actually showing well!

One sat on a fence post quite distantly down the track, flying off to hunt at the opposite end of the plantation, but the other flew in towards us and dropped into the low vegetation giving jaw dropping views of these elusive birds despite the low light. Once in the scope, the long ears were obvious as it sat on its catch, a minute or two passed, and following stare off and a few bobbing movements, this bird flew off low into the plantation, rounding off yet another great evening out looking for birds of the night!

MB

Nightjars be Churring!

31/05/14

It was as I was driving back through mid-wales I got a message asking if I wanted to meet up in a few hours and want to head off to look for some heathland specialities. With the weather looking as good, and as calm as it was, it looked a perfect evening for Nightjars, which would be our main target.

I had barely sat down back at home before I was on the move again, and I then went onto meet Mike, Mike's son and Jarad before continuing on. We had planned to arrive well before when the Nightjars would be churring, so went and checked out some habitat nearby.

Immediately upon stepping out the car, a sweet melody was ringing out from a lark high above us, proving to be my first Woodlark of the year. I was not expecting to find this species on this visit, as, despite them singing 'almost' year around, their main time to sing is early morning, so to have one singing at around 7pm on a calm sunny evening was unexpected.

Infact, I do think that Woodlark may be one of my favourite of all songs, perhaps even more so than Skylark, the notes and phrasing create a superb liquid sound that is very pleasant on the ear!

3 Tree Pipits were also singing away at various points around our walk but as the sun started to head down towards the horizon though, it was time to move our location. Soon after the sound of roding Woodcocks filled the air, silhouetted by the red sky. They were passing over at frequent intervals, and at one point 3 birds were up chasing each other at the same time!

We stood on a raised track some distance from a pine plantation, a likely location for a roosting Nightjar, but we were intrigued by a variety of 'squeaky' noises originating from said plantation, it didn't take long for us to figure out that it was juvenile LONG-EARED OWL'S, and there were at least 2 of them calling from in front of us. Sadly though, they proved impossible to see, so we went back to our task in hand.

But as we stood it got darker, and darker, and darker, and then a brief snippet of a distant Chur had me and Jarad having heard out first NIGHTJAR of the evening!

We moved out position, back onto the track on which we had walked through, and soon after, we were treated to stunning flight views of a male NIGHTJAR as it swooped around us, showing off his bright white tail corners and primary spots. We got literally binocular filling in flight views until it moved off towards the opposite side of the clearing.

But then it flew back in, and perched right on the edge of a Poplar tree adjacent to the track, and right out in full view, giving what can be described as no less than stunning views! Despite having been 'mocked' for carrying my scope across the heathland, it came in handy now, and I was able to scope it as it perched up, and churred his heart out until we decided to leave!

What an experience!What a way to spent a summers evening! Absolutely stunning!
MB

Summer in the Wyre Forest! Woodland birds and butterflies

18/05/14

The Wyre forest in spring is one of my favourite birding destinations. Despite the hoards of ramblers, 'extreme' cyclists and marauding dogs, I always find that a walk in the Wyre is a great way to 'get away' from everything, just looking for birds and butterflies.

Today was no exception, and I went in hopeful to snag the entire plethora of our regular summer migrants.

First on the list, although I had seen two already was a singing male SPOTTED FLYCATCHER, already a good start, as a few years ago I truthfully struggled to find any throughout the summer. Luckily, the last couple of years has been more productive for them, and they seem to have also had much better breeding success! I found another singing male in another area of the Wyre also.

 

As always, WOOD WARBLERS were easy to pick up, with their very distinctive, and rather appealing 'spinning coin' song, and this could be heard almost constantly throughout the walk! Although many remained as 'heard only' I did eventually track down a few birds, including a pair which gave stunning views, showing off the rather beautiful mix of moss greens, bright yellows and dazzling whites on their plumage!

A total of 4 Tree Pipits were singing at various points in our circular walk, including a few which were showing nicely and parachuting from the tops of tree. Weirdly, one of the located singing birds was well away from one of the usual areas, and rather than being in a clearing as usual, had instead chosen to hold territory in the middle of a deep woodland, below the forest canopy, obviously resulting in an inability to 'parachute' display flight, rather choosing to sing from a perch.

 

 

 

As the more acutely trained of you may hear in the previous video, there was also a stunning male PIED FLYCATCER singing close to where the Pipit was, which was actively defending a nest box adjacent to the track. 

 

 

In previous years I have seen male Pied Flycatchers with small amounts of grey on the back and upperwings, however this bird really was a very extreme 'grey' bird, which at times resembled a Shrike from behind! I can't say that I have ever seen a Pied Fly like this before!

 

(Sorry about the Dog panting all over the camera in this video, as previously stated, the number of marauding dogs was extremely high on this fine summers day!)

 

 

I managed to find 3 male Pied Flys, and reports from others seem to suggest they have had a much greater presence in the forest this year, which is great news, as for the last few years, numbers have been dwindling!

 

A single juvenile DIPPER, in fact my first of the year, was located along the brook, and a pair of Mandarin did their best to try to avoid being detected!

 

As well as its birdlife, the Wyre is famed for it's Butterflies, but being fairly early in the season, other than decent numbers of Pearl-Bordered Fritilary it was rather quiet!

 

 

All in all a very successful visit, and one that would be repeated throughout the summer!

MB

The first 'official' NGB meetup- Spurn 2014

3/04/13

The first weekend in May was the proposed data for the first meetup on the Next Generation Birders, a 350 strong member group (and growing) of young birders, each of which have a common interest. birds and wildlife.

Luckily, I hooked up with local birder James from Shropshire, Justin from Carmarthenshire and Sam from Nottinghamshire, and these became my companions for most of the weekend.

As I'm sure many can guess, Spurn was chosen because of it very enviable track record when it comes to migrants, and despite being a little 'early' in the spring for passage at Spurn I remained hopeful, I was going to see birds I don't usually see in my Worcester homeland anyhow.

After a fairly uncomfortable and cold night camping, I was awoken very early on before the first few sheds of light started to appear to the sound of a Cuckoo'ing Cuckoo, my first of the year, and with the sound of 'Klupping' Avocets and piping Oystercatchers, I took that as my alarm to wake up! A couple of other NGB's, Dan and Sam, had took that as their wake up call also, so we decided to walk to the Beacon Pools via Kilnsea wetlands in the early morning gloom. We had barely got past the last house on the road before ahead of us we spotted a silhouetted SHORT-EARED OWL quartering the long grass and rape fields around us. It flew off fairly quickly though, and flew off towards Beacon lane.

Nearing the Wetlands hide, a stunning male Whinchat perched up on the adjacent rape field, giving stunning views, even despite their still being almost no light.

The pools were quiet, but we kept finding decent birds, a Marsh Harrier flew over, Lesser Whitethroats were singing everywhere and both 'Flava' and 'Alba' Wagtails were piling over in numbers.

One of the outstanding highlights of the trip on the first day however, the great numbers of both Bar-tailed Godwit and Whimbrel on the move, with decent numbers of both moving through the wetlands throughout the day, among these migrating wader flocks were smaller numbers of Curlew and a partially summer plumaged SPOTTED REDSHANK dropped onto the Kilnsea wetlands over high tide with a decent flock of Barwit and Whimbrel.

 

 

 

 

Throughout the day more birds dropped in, a Common Scoter and 4 Red-breasted Merganser dropped onto the Beacon pools in the afternoon, and the male Whinchat from the morning found a 2nd bird.

 

 

 

 

 

 A female Redstart was found, and that was duly located and seen, as was good numbers of Wheatear along the road between Kilnsea and the Warren.

 

 

High tide here was full of activity, with a large wader and Brent Goose flock showing on the adjacent Humber mudflats. Among the numerous Dunlin and Grey Plover were smaller numbers of Ringed Plover, Sanderling, Turnstone and a single Knot, most of which were in stunning summer plumage!

Terns were constantly moving around along the sea, and throughout the day 30+ Little Tern and 4 Arctic Tern were seen.

The rarest bird of the weekend was found in the afternoon, but was sadly not at Spurn, but a few miles up the road. However, despite the short time they saw it we decided to drive over there, we couldn't find it, but a lucky piece of mis-direction led us to find a stunningly plumaged male Pied Flycatcher.

We refound the location where the Wryneck had been, and instead head another Cuckoo and found a singing male Tree Sparrow, a fairly rare bird in my home county so I was very happy!

 

We returned to Spurn and saw the Spotted Flycatcher that had been found, which had drew quite a crowd!

 

 

 

For the sake of completeness, I walked out onto the point in the hope of relocating the Black Redstart seen earlier in the day. This drew a blank and food started to take over our minds, so we hotfooted it back to the Joly Sailers for food and drinks with the other 20 NGB's, via a very showy male Kestrel.

 

 

 

 As you can see, a full days birding left some very tired NGB'S strewn about on the raised track between Kilnsea Wetlands and the Beacon Pools.

 

 

 

4/05/14

As you can imagine, having had a good reward from getting up early the previous day, I chose to repeat that. A much better nights sleep left me feeling in a better mood, and I head out to find some birds! The wetlands held a flock of 4 Pintail, and the Pools had 2 Shoveler, a Common Sandpiper, and the female Common Scoter from the previous day remained. A number of Little Tern were feeding in the pools, giving stunning views from the raised track. A single Snipe was showing in fields adjacent to the road

 

 

 

Yellow Wagtails were moving en mass throughout the day, even from very early in the morning, and it is possibly the first time I have ever said "Just another Yellow Wagtail". 2 Marsh Harrier passed through during the day, one even hunting in the field, as view from our tent! A Greenshank flew in off the sea mid-afternoon. Migration in action!

 

 

While walking up the beach side of the Beacon Pools, I met up with Sam again, and we walked up Beacon Lane, and soon after, we were treated to great views of a male Lesser Whitethroat, and then a male RING OUZEL started 'chacking' in the hawthorns next to us, showing briefly in the grounds of the caravan site and in flight!

 

There really did seem to be Lesser Whitethroat everywhere, and while watching ANOTHER 2 near the Bluebell, a Tree Pipit flew low over our heads calling.

Just up the road, a late BRAMBLING was showing around the grounds of Kew gardens.

 

Down at the Warren, a repeat of yesterdays wader flocks was again a great sight, and it was spent scanning with Martin Garner of Birding Frontiers fame. The large Dark-belled Brent Goose flock had been joined by two Pale Bellied Brents (One shown in photo).

 

 

Wader numbers were higher than the previous day, and we enjoyed larger numbers of almost the full range of Arctic breeding waders in summer plumage. With news having emerged of a couple of migrant passerines out on the point, we dragged ourselves on the long walk across the sand out to the concrete track. The recent storm tides of winter 2013/14 had washed a significant part of the road out, making access difficult.

 

We managed to locate a male Redstart, and after texting Justin (who was already on the point) he came to have a look. While waiting for the bird to re-appear, we heard a 'Crest' calling from an area behind us, and immediately knew this was the FIRECREST we had been wanting to re-locate. Eventually, we all had great views as it came to the edge of its favoured bushes a few times.

 

With time now coming to a close on the NGB trip, we made our way back to the Warren, where we were told we had just missed a flypast Spoonbill, but a hunting Short-eared Owl gave us some compensation as we rested before starting our journey.

 

 

Despite no real rarities, (being from a midland county) I had a great time seeing decent numbers of passage migrants, and certainly saw more than I would in my home counties.

 

Thanks to James G for driving, and for providing the tent, I would have been a little stuck if it wasn't for you! Also, thanks to all NGB's that turned up, for the banter, and for sharing news on birds that were being found, it certainly made a great break to endless revision!

 

MB

Dotterel, Partridges, Grouse, Flycatcatchers and a bit of Med.

18/04/14

It was late on the evening of 13th that news emerged that a large flock of some stunning passage waders had dropped onto a regular stop-off on the Long Mynd, and sensing my angst to get up there, Liz, Rob and Luke came to my rescue, and within an hour, plans were arranged for a dawn journey up onto the stunning Shropshire hills.

 

Unfortunately, I usually miss Dotterel passage, but this year the birds arrived on a day I was able to drop everything.

 

Following a bit of driving around, we soon located a suitable looking field up on one of the peaks of the Mynd, just down the road from Pole cottage, and even from a distance, a couple of birders could be seen.

 

We were soon informed that the entire flock of DOTTEREL were still present! All 12 of them!

 

Even though the light was poor, we had amazing views of the birds as they trotted around the sheep grazing field. Of the flock, 8 were males/ winter plumaged birds, but the remaining 4 were all stunning summer plumaged females, truly stunning birds,

 the mixture of slate grey contrasting strongly to that vivid orange belly and bright white face and breast markings!

 

 

 

Soon however, the sun started to come out, and the light improved, showing just how stunningly beautiful these high plateau breeding waders are!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even from early on, it was clear the birds had migration on the mind, being very flighty, taking off and circling, sometimes up to a great height, calling , but always eventually dropping down, often giving binocular filling views as they flew past the ever growing crowd.

 

 

 

While watching the Dotterel flock, a few raspy clucking calls from behind us in the heather gave us prior warning to a short fly past of a pair of RED GROUSE before they dropped back down into the undergrowth, and no doubt then going off scuttling away along the ridge.

 With the crowd now growing  rapidly, we moved on to another site in the hills, where we managed to find a nice and early male PIED FLYCATCHER, singing his heart out from adjacent to his chosen patch of trees.

 

 

 

In the distance, a spiral of soaring Raptors guided us onto a loose 'flock' of 4 Red Kite, 2 Raven and 8 Buzzard, not at all a bad combination!

 

Our last check of the Shropshire hills led us onto the Stiperstones, where we managed to 'connect' with even more summer migrants, with both Tree Pipit and Redstart singing. The heather held a few Stonechats, and 2 Red Grouse gave stunning views as they flew past us and over the ridge and the adjacent valley proved superb hunting grounds for another 2 Red Kites.

 

Moving onwards again, we moved to Venus Pool, where a long staying Mediterrenean Gull was showing on the water, a rather poorly marked 1st winter bird, but it gave good views in both flight and on the water. A single Little ringed Plover was scuttling around one of the islands and a late male Pochard was on the water.

 

 

With the pool being generally quiet however, we decided to walk around, down to the river and back. In doing so, a male Yellow Wagtail flew over our head calling.

 

On our walk around some nearby fields, a pair of GREY PARTRIDGE flushed out of the set aside ahead of us, before flying off and landing on the set aside on the opposite side of the field. It was great to see this species in particular, as it is one I do not regularly see at all!

 

As it was on the way back, it would have been rude to not drop into Chelmarsh, and we were rewarded with a singing Lesser Whitethroat, which was showing in the hedge adjacent to the parked car. 2 Whitethroat were also showing here which added to the passerine interest of the day. The reservoir had low water levels, and 4 Common Sandpipers were wading the edges. A surprise female Goosander was also roosting on the water.

 

 

Following on from a great days birding, we split our ways, but we were all reunited as soon as a few hours later, when we turned up to Upton Warren to try to see the reported Savi's warbler.

 

A couple of hours later, a few singing Sedge, Reed and a single reeling Grasshopper Warbler was all we had to show, but the banter was brilliant and ended a great day perfectly.

 

MB