Local Waxwings!

25/11/12
After a very uneventful visit to a flooded patch, i recieved news of a small flock of Waxwings that had been found in the next village across. At Chaddersly Corbett.
It didnt take much convincing, and soon after, we were heading over to Rowberrys Nursery.
Without even pulling up it was evident that at least one of the birds was still here, as it was perched up in a small tree adjoining the road. A local 'twitch' had evolved, and the crowd featured the local blogging 'face' of the Doorstep Birder, who quickly informed us that the reported 3 birds had now increased to 8!
And this was justified when the flock of 3 was boosted by a further 5 which flew in from the village direction. The WAXWINGS landed upon an oak, and we were given nice views as they spyed on the small crowd from above. As you would expect, i spent a long time watching my favorite species, and this was followed by much photo taking.

 

And it was while scanning through the flock that i noticed a bird with the stunning primary pattern of an Adult male! Just look at it! A stunning bird!

  

 

 

 

The rest of the flock was made up of a mixture of 1st winters and Females, all stunning, but lacking that stunning pattern on the primarys.

The sun occasionally was hidden by clouds.

 But when it came out agian it illuminated the birds very well!

 

A nice start to the winter of Waxwings that no doubt is about to come! (And as you regular readers will find out) there are alot more to come!
MB

Some short ones.

17/11/12
An early morning visit to the patch was very quiet, and the only bird of note was a single female Goosander whcih flew north upriver.
Following this i headed down to the Birders Store, and picked up my new pair of bins. And following this we then popped to Grimley, and the first bird i locked onto with the new bins was a Little Egret- Not a bad way to start my 'Bin list'. A small flock of 20c Meadow Pipits were flying around. Ducks were represented by 10c Shovler, 10c Pochard and more Tufted's.
Later in the Evening, we dropped into Earlswood Lakes, where 2 Shoveler, a Grey Wagtail and 2 Goldcrest were the highlights.
18/11/12
The next day, i went for a walk out in Wirehill Woods, Redditch with 'The Girlfriend', and proberbly produced the bird of the weekend when a CROSSBILL flew east over the wood 'glipping' as it went.

19/11/12
The day following that, me and the 'Gornal Birder' went to Sheepwash, and the highlight was by far the building up of the regular Goosander flock, of which there were 16 Today, 3 of which were drakes, 5 Teal (2m) were also on show, as were 11 Pochard. A adult Great Black Backed Gull landed in the centre of the pool for some time.

24/11/12
A visit to the patch early morning revealed a build up of a Chaffinch flock, of which there was 30+ feeding in a small area of flooded woodland, giving me hope that it may attract a Brambling onto the patch at some point! 5 Lesser Redpoll were feeding on a birch tree, with an additional one (a male) on my garden feeders.
At 10pm, we were driving past a flooded field on the patch, and we could see a flock of ducks in the headlights, and i was quite suprised to see a drake Mandarin feeding with them!

24/11/12
A late evening visit to Upton Warren Moors Pool in dire conditions was rewarded with a calling female Brambling, which we watched along the west track, before moving off around the north moors. While watching the Brambling, we had the Cetti's Warbler in subsong near the gate. On the water, 12 Shoveler and 3 Pochard were swimming.
MB

Long-tailed Duck- North Worcs Birding

10/11/12
A potential new species for me had been found at Upper Bittel Reservior. Long Tailed Duck has being one of my target 'too see' species for a long time, and as one had finally shown up in the home county, it didnt take long before i was heading there.
As we pulled up, we were informed by a couple of local birders that the bird had flown to the North western end, unviewable from the Causeway, and we had to walk up the hill to the public footpath to the north.
We were the only people standing there, and it soon became aparent that this was only going to be a 'scope job'. The birdesr who were leaving as we arrived said the bird was showing well.....

 

Err, i dont think that counts as showing well...

The female LONG-TAILED DUCK remained 'stuck' into the willows at the furthest point possible from the viewpoint (about 400 metres per Google maps), feeding constantly, the bird spent more time below the water than above, and this made viewing even harder. However, a very nice looking bird, and one that ive been wanting to see for a long time!

 

From here we headed to Upton Warren. From the west hide, a drake Pintail was showing, as was 5 Wigeon, 60+ Shoveler were feeding around the islands, along with a lone drake Pochard.

A male Blackcap was showing in a bush near the feeders.

At this point, we noticed that the birder in the East hide suddenly look ferantic, and cameras and scopes pointed. That could only mean one thing.

We rushed to the other side, and there we go, a superb JACK SNIPE! We were treated to great views as the sun went down, and i was able to enjoy this first for the year.

The bird was incredibly inactive, and didnt move apart from accasionally swaying its head.

 

As we walked back along the C'way, we heard the calls of a CETTI'S WARBLER! And, added to this, we saw the bird as it flitted amonst the reeds and into a small bush, before heading off into the deeper reeds.

 

Overall, not a bad winters day birding for inland in november

MB

WAXWING FIND!

7/11/12
A 6th form visit to Keswick in the Lake District to see a showing of 'A dolls house' by Heinrick Ibsen at the 'Thetre by the lake' led to me and the 'Gornal Birder' finding a flock of 17 WAXWINGS in the 'central car park' of the town!. We had some time to spare before the preformance (It was very good btw) so we had a walk along Derwent Water, and into the town. We had a female Goosander and 2 Common Gull from the short walk adjacent to the lake, and a showy Nuthatch which was feeding a mere 2 metres from us!
Moving into the town, we had already completed a circuit before stopping in a shop, on the exit, i heard the distinctive 'trilling' of Waxwings as a flock of about 10 birds took off from a rowen! Calling GB over we rushed around in the direction the birds had flew, and upon reaching the car park, counted 17 Waxwings perched up in the tree's. Awesome!
MB

Catch Up time!

Im getting there folks, only a month behind now, and most of the next load are quite short posts, so i should be able to catch up fairly shortly for a good start to the new year!
Patch
20/10/12
Fairly quiet vismig wise, winter thrushes were just starting to move, with 8 Redwing and 9 Fieldfare, 12 Skylark and 8 Meadow Pipit. In complete contrast however was the extremly large numbers of Goldcrests in the Lickhill conifer wood, with around 30 birds been seen within a short period. This included a single flock of 15 birds!!
A pair of Raven were showing in the fog at the riverside fields

 27/10/12
Again, fairly quiet, 24 Meadow Pipit over, 7 Pied Wagtail, 5 Skylark, 5 Redwing and 3 Linnet.

Later in the day, while at the gardening job, my dad alerted me to 'odd' wader like calls he was hearing from the field opposite the house. A quick scan and i'd picked up 2 GOLDEN PLOVER! They continued to show untill they took flight, and flew off towards Wythall.

 

 

 

After this, we checked the lakes, which held a single drake Goosander, a Little Grebe and a Kingfisher.

 

3/11/12

A rather annoying morning on the patch, when i picked up a bird i am certain was a FIRECREST! I heard the bird calling for a very long time before finally seeing a crest sp emerge from the ivy covered tree the sound was originating from. In the incredibly brief view i wasnt able to note any feature other than the bird was a crest sp, as the bird was facing away from me. I couldnt even see anything on the head pattern. Annoyingly, after about an hour with only this one miniscule sighting, and the bird having now either gone silent or moved on i had to leave, and the bird wasnt seen again, despite searching by a local birder on consecutive days! One that 'got away' i guess.

MB