Another Local Outing

Took the kids for a visit to Brandon Marsh today for them to have a walk around and with the hope of seeing the little gulls that had been reported.

There wasn't actually too much to see today, certainly no little gull however reports came in later in the day that some had been seen at Draycote, could be the same ones?

Managed to get a few photos but nothing major. There were a number of Shovelar present and a pair of lingering Widgeon, a pair of Oystercatcher and a single Redshank.

Highlight of the day was my first Sand Martin of the year.

Mute Swan

 

It was nice to hear the Chiffchaff singing around the reserve announcing the arrival of spring.

 

Chiffchaff

A juvenile gull was playing 'drop & catch' with a pebble which the kids found hilarious.

'Drop & Catch' Gull

 

Oystercatcher

Shovelar

As we were leaving I caught a flash of white in the screens leading to one of the hides, a bit of patience rewarded us with a Treecreeper scouring the screen for insects.

Treecreeper



Staying Local

Ok, so the plan wasn't to stay local, I've been waiting for the chance to get down and see the ridiculously long staying Great Spotted Cuckoo, I reckon a 3.5 hour drive is worth it? All week I've been checking BirdGuides for the latest news and all was well - until Thursday when it was reported dead! Typical... Later that day the report turned out to be erroneous, a greens keeper had found a dead magpie and reported it as the Cuckoo, there was still no sign of it though. Friday ended also with no reported sightings so I decided not to go as we had friends for the weekend, the misses wedding dress shopping again and me dragging the best man birding.

So I decided to keep it local, there were a number of decent reports considering I live in Warwickshire, that night when the girls had gone to bed, I planned the next day whilst the best man and I tried a variety of home-made ales, not a great mix.... So the plan was:

1. Up at 07:00 and a trip to Bredon Hill for migrants - esp Ring Ouzel.
2. Morton Bagot next for the Green-winged Teal.
3. Up to Bittell Reservoir for Great Grey Shrike and Sand Martin.
4. Pop into Earlswood - since we were practically passing.
5. A quick visit to Brandon Marsh for Little Gull.
6. Finish of at Draycote Reservoir for Great Northern Diver and Long-tailed Duck.

Excellent, planning complete we then stayed up until 05:00 finishing the home-made ales and a number of retailed bottles - out the window goes the plan...

I still managed to get up at 08:30 and decided Bredon Hill was a no go as the dog walkers would be way ahead of me. I had breakfast with the girls whilst waiting for the best man to surface, which he duly did at 09:30. Shower and breakfast over and it was out the door on the road for around 10:30!

First stop was Morton Bagot, on arrival we met a few birders who were just leaving, they were kind enough to direct us to the pools as I'd never been here before, quite appalling really as it's only 11 miles from my front door. We were told there was a juvenile Peregrine present but were unable to locate it. We did however manage to locate the male Green-winged Teal on one of the pools with a number of Eurasian Teal, the pool was difficult to view from the other side of a field with some of the pool being out of sight in the dead ground.

On the larger pool we were fortunate to find 4 Green Sandpipers, a Little Ringed Plover and a Grey Heron, Gadwall pair and a few Lapwing.

With that success we headed back to the car stopping to laugh at the spring lambs hopping around. Next stop was the Hopwood plantation next to the Bittell Reservoirs.

We parked up in the layby as per the instructions on BirdGuides and proceeded to scan the plantations for the Great Grey Shrike. My best man works as an actor so finds just about everything fascinating in the guise of learning so I took the opportunity to teach him some scanning techniques as per training received in the army, i.e. don't focus on specific points, look for slight movement, differences in tone, shine, shadow of objects etc. He takes life experiences like this as tools for his work on the stage, didn't help us to locate the Shrike though. We spent about 15 minutes scanning and decided to head over to the reservoirs to see what else was about.

We parked in the layby on the corner of Lower Bittells and had a quick look at them. Apart from the Great Crested Grebe they were virtually devoid of any birdlife so we took a walk up to Upper Bittell. On the way up we found a female Bullfinch singing, I never realised they females sang too? Bullfinch's are my favourite bird which I don't get to see that often so it's always a treat, their song is very unique and quite funky too.

Bullfinch

Found my first singing Common Chiffchaff of the year today too although it was hard to pin down as it flitted about the vegetation. A number of Wren were in full song holding territory and a pair of Treecreeper flitting around together also in full song. On arrival at Upper Bittell we were greeted by around 40 Sand Martin which are my first for 2014, we didn't get chance to see if much else was about as the skies opened up as forcast so we made a dash back to the car.

Since it was pouring with rain I decided to skip Earlswood and head straight for Brandon Marsh, we were both hungry now and it wouldn't be fair to drag my best man around a lake in the rain, this is my idea of fun, not his. The plan was to get some lunch in the Brandon Marsh café and hope that the rain stopped to allow us to continue birding.

New Blog Title + First Trip

I didn't think it would be so difficult to come up with a new name for the blog, all the blogs I read seem to have fitting titles. I was going to go for 'Bidford Birding' and maybe I will in a few years when I get to live at home full time but it didn't seem appropriate as I never bird in Bidford - except the for the garden that is. So, since all my birding is squeezed in when I have a chance and is at location of opportunity it seems I bird rather ad-hoc, so there it is, ad-hoc birding...!

So my first post:

The misses had a friend visiting and they planned to go to a wedding fayre and then drinking for the rest of the day so I took the opportunity to go birding. I thought I'd try for my nemesis bird, the Long-eared Owl which had been reported on and off at Martin Mere. It was a long journey, 3.5 hours in the car. I arrived on site to find it was a Wildlife and Wetland Trust site which is popular with families, they have a captive bird section which butts up to the wildlife lakes.

I've only ever seen Whooper Swan a few times before, the last time was in January when I saw a group of about 20, the first time I only saw 1... Today there were over 300! An unbelievable sight, here is one of my favourite shots.

Whooper Swan

 

Also present were a good number of Pintail, some Widgeon, Teal, Shelduck, Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Black-tailed Godwit, about 40 Avocet, 20 Pink-footed Goose and a number of Ruff, one of which was a male in full breeding plumage.

 

Black-tailed Godwit

Pintail

Shelduck

Widgeon

 



Star of the show though was a Ross's Goose, it spent ages asleep but finally got up for a walk about just as I was about to leave.

Ross's Goose

Ross's Goose

Ross's Goose

Ross's Goose

Whilst in the hide watching the Goose I was chatting to a local and asking about the LEO to which he seemed totally bemused, it transpires that about an hour further north is a site called Marton Mere situated in the middle of Blackpool, a bit of research on the internet confirmed this to be the site where LEO's like to roost.

As I was about to leave about 200 Pink-footed Geese arrived on the Mere.

Before leaving I couldn't resist getting a shot of the Eider in the captive pens as the males were all doing their Frankie Howard impressions for the female Eider - handsome buggers..

Eider (Captive)

A quick trip to Blackpool and a fruitless hour searching around provided nothing, I always knew it was a chance so late in the year but would have been worth it. So LEO remains my nemesis bird!