Springing into Action

I've been meaning to type out some carefully-written prowse for about the last week, but just not had chance until now.

So what's happened over the last few weekends?  Well, on Sunday 7th April I had arranged to meet a chap from Walsall to receive a collection of West Midland Bird Club annual reports, dating back to 1974.  It was advertised in the last bulletin, and I thought if they're free then I'll have them.  They will be treasured and well looked after.

And where better to perform this exchange than at the causeway of Blithfield Reservoir?  Especially as a Sandwich Tern was flying around the deep end at the time.  The bird landed on one of the floats just north of the causeway for a brief moment, which allowed for this picture of the highest quality!  Er, not really.

Also at nearby Blithbury, a Whooper Swan in amongst the Mutes.  And with the Sandwich Tern, a classic case of a seasonal crossover.

By the time of the following weekend, plenty of spring migrants were around, with Sand Martins in particular delayed for several weeks.  So it was great to see good numbers of those and Swallows, plus a single House Martin at Uttoxeter Quarry.  Also the first few Yellow Wagtails back, the males looking flourescently bright!

And onto the weekend just gone.  A gloriously sunny Saturday meant some woodland exploring to begin with.  The results of which included a Tree Pipit at Croxden Quarry, Pied Flycatcher and Redstart at Dimmingsdale, and plenty of Willow Warblers and Blackcaps back in.  Next it was to Berry Hill Fields, which revealed the two Ring Ouzels and this male Whinchat, with the bright lights of Bentilee in the background!

Finishing Saturday off at Uttoxeter Quarry, one of Andy's Whinchats was still present.  To prove that spring has been a bit of an odd one so far, with Sand Martins being weeks late.  Paradoxically, the quarry also had the first Lesser Whitethroat of the year and this Whimbrel still, both of which have arrived a bit early I think.

Finishing off with Sunday.  Starting off at the quarry there didn't appear to be much change, although a Sedge Warbler was new in, no sign of the Whimbrel.  It was at this point when leaving that those birding stalwarts of the Potteries, Mick Hurst and John Booth, arrived.  So it was onto Blithfield, where all the Terns from the causeway looked like Arctics to me.  Especially this one.

Eventually a wader was spotted towards the Watery Lane end of the causeway.  It was the Knot which was present the previous afternoon.  That's lucky, might even be able to get a decent picture of it with the Panasonic camera.  No digscoping here!

Whilst walking back to the Admaston end of the causeway, John and Mick had arrived and informed me of a Greenshank at the quarry.  Doh, I missed that but I'm glad they told me.  Before heading back was a quick check of Branston Gravel Pits.  Which, alas, was a bit quiet, the sandy pit in particular is rather full of water at the moment, it's not going to attract too many waders like that.

Uttoxeter Quarry on the other hand currently has plenty of shoreline, although not much of it is that muddy.  But enough for the Greenshank to stick around on the way home.  When it comes to taking pictures, and digiscoping in particular, I think I have a new catchphrase.  "Distance makes the difference!" (similar to "Catches win Matches"), because this is awful, but at least you can make out it is a Greenshank.

Big Mag

Oh by the way, there'll be some birds on here soon.  When the weather finally warms up a bit.....

What?  Maggie Thatcher gone?  Well, my first thought onto hearing the news was "do we get day off work?"  Well, no we don't.  Well I could've sworn we did, thanks to either Tony Blair or Gordon Brown, of all people!  But alas it's not to be, and we could've all had a day off work to do as we wish, not necessarily to watch the funeral on the telly.  Or do a day's work, it would've been up to you.

I have always made this nonsense completely unpolitical as possible, and very deliberately so.  So, if you're a Conservative supporter then this is for you:

But if you're a "red under the bed" or a Lib Dem like Nick "Norman" Clegg then this might to take your fancy, despite John Peel playing the mandolin, "Wake up Maggie" maybe a little bit out of order:

I suppose the abiding memory of the 1980's is of Spitting Image.  This link says it all really

And there is this one:

2013, the story so far...

I am still here.  It just felt that at the end of 2012, after five years of blogging and pretty much non-stop, the time was right for a bit of a break.  But not a birding break, certainly not.  Isn't winter a drag?  I'm just glad that we're now back into spring, and enjoying the lovely spring-like weather!  Ah.

Just a couple of miles from home.  Look a little closer however, and those drifts look more serious.

So being confined to home today, it looks like a good opportunity for a catch-up on what I've seen so far in 2013.  Which included a couple of January gull roost visits to Chasewater, on New Years Day and on the 13th.  Iceland (adult), Glaucous (2nd winter pictured below) and Caspian Gulls were all seen over the course of both visits.

Saturday 5th January was spent watching the mighty Brewers at Leicester City.  But before the game I paid a visit to Swithland Reservoir, and a look at the two female Velvet Scoters that were present at the time, at the dam end.

The weekend of the 12th and 13th January was quite productive.  The major highlight was the reappearance of Uttoxeter Quarry's overwintering Common Sandpiper, which hadn't been seen since the beginning of December.  The pink legs and long tail projection still meant that it wasn't a Spotted Sand!  Alas, the bird was never seen subsequently, following the first major snowfall a few days later.

Other highlights that weekend included an adult Med Gull at Blithfield, and the appearance of a Red-necked Grebe at Belvide on the 13th, along with other year ticks like Jack Snipe, Brambling and Little Owl.

February began with an adult Whooper Swan and a Jack Snipe at Uttoxeter Quarry on the 2nd.  Then Sunday 3rd February was an enjoyable day out in Derbyshire.  It all started with a Hawfinch at Cromford, then a Great Grey Shrike on a misty Beeley Moor.  Next was a visit to Ogston Reservoir, whilst enjoying the Red-necked Grebe here there was also an encounter with master story-teller, Mr George Brian!

Onto Carsington Water was next, where one Great Northern Diver was visible.  Finishing off with some wild swans at Twyford, between Willington and Swarkestone.  5 Whoopers and a family party of 7 Bewick's finished off an excellent day.

As for March so far.  The main highlight at the beginning of the month were flocks of Waxwings making their way back north.  A flock of 35 birds in Hilderstone on the 3rd, then this flock of 18 in Cheadle on the 9th.

I was very kindly invited to a little twitch mission to the Somerset levels on Sunday 10th March with Martyn and Kay, plenty of birds to see and in a wonderful place to go birding.  The main highlight being the Pied-billed Grebe at Ham Wall RSPB reserve, which showed well albeit briefly.  Also intruiging was the bird's call, which Martyn thought was a Crane and I thought was a speeded-up Donkey!

Other birds on offer were drake Ring-necked and Ferruginous Ducks, NINE Great White Egrets at Shapwick Heath on the other side of the Ashcott Corner car park and the first Sand Martin of the year.  And all to the backdrop of Marsh Harriers, booming Bitterns and cettying Cetti's Warblers.  A fantastic area which I can highly recommend.  Also good to see fellow blogger and Burtonian, Karen Woolley.

The return journey involved a stop at Aust Warth, next to the first Severn Bridge.  Eventually the rather bizarre sight of two Twite appeared out of nowhere, circled around and landed in a Blackthorn bush for a short time, then took off.  They were Twite alright, but I can't ever recall seeing Twite in trees and bushes, only on the ground.  They are finches after all, so why not?

And so to last weekend.  A usual Saturday morning spent at Uttoxeter Quarry yielded a decent selection of birds but nothing out of the ordinary, or any summer migrants.  What on earth can I do now?  The RBA pager had the answer, "1st winter drake Lesser Scaup at Ogston Reservoir".  Hallelujah, praise the lord, that'll do, I'm off.

And surely enough, the Lesser Scaup was still present and showing well in Chapel Bay, with Tufteds and Pochards.

It turns out that this was Derbyshire's first Lesser Scaup, and only stayed for the one day on the 16th.  Finally, on Sunday 17th March, some time exploring the Trent valley gravel pits revealed 2 Ringed Plovers at Branston GP's, and with the last look, 2 Little Ringed Plovers in the flooded field opposite the entrance to the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas. Wonderful!

So despite all the snow that's currently around, the first few summer migrants are battling their way back.  Good luck to them.

The end of 2012

Well, christmas festivities are done and dusted once again.  The following few days mainly involved a piece of the dreaded DIY.  No getting away from this one, as the bannister fell off the staircase wall, suppose I'll have to stop sliding down it from now on.

The fix involved drilling new holes into the wall and new screws to attach the bannister back on, whilst being ingeniously propped up by lots of books on the stairs!  Wow it worked, usually my DIY adventures end up like this.



But as there was a bit of daylight left on Friday afternoon, there was time for a quick look round Brookleys Lake.  Sadly, a small oil spill has appeared.  It would be easy for any flood water to pick up a patch of oil and for it to make it's way into the lake, but it looked like more than a small patch.  Lets hope it doesn't do too much damage, particularly to any fish in there.  As can be seen a boom has been put up at the lake's mouth where water flows in.

Perhaps it's just as well there wasn't very many duck around at all, with 12 Mandarin, 4 Goosander and a drake Gadwall of note.

Saturday involved an afternoon at Blithfield.  A few Goldeneye dotted all around the reservoir, an absolute stack of Teal in Tad Bay, could easily have been 600, no green-winger though.  The gull roost in Tad held up to seven different Yellow-legged Gulls.

And as for today, it's just been Uttoxeter Quarry.  Which contained 179 Wigeon, 10 each of Goosander and Pochard, 1 Goldeneye.  Unfortunately for 2013 listing purposes, no sign of the Pink-footed Geese in the Greylag flock and no sign of the Common Sandpiper for a few weeks now, presumed drowned!  No I definitely hope not.

And that's it for 2012, a memorable year for many different reasons.  But can 2013 have less rain please?

On this special night..................

He's on the way you know, as long as you've been good all year!  No, I don't mean Bob Dylan.  Happy Christmas reader!

Caspian Gull, this time in technicolour!

He's not got another Caspian Gull has he?  Oh, I think he has.  Stick with it though reader, it's not a dot in the dark this time.

Even though birding time is at a premium at this time of year, restricted to weekends and approaching the shortest day.  It really is a case of not knowing what to do with yourself, things are pretty quiet, and not until January will the same birds become a year tick again.

But the weekend began with a usual check of Uttoxeter Quarry.  With Andy already around, 3 Pink-footed Geese were with the Greylag flock.  Two of those birds are definitely new in, and plenty of duck around.  But the undoubted highlight was the sight of a small, dark falcon going full pelt, a female Merlin!  Shortly after losing the bird, a flock of Starlings and Lapwings in the next field scattered themselves and took to the air.  After that little triumph it wasn't going to get any better, so time to move on. 

The next port of call was Silverdale Country Park, where recent goodies have included a juvenile Iceland Gull and two different Caspian Gulls.  On first sight of The Void, plenty of gulls were still on the ice, but by the time of getting to the water's edge and setting the scope up, the vast majority of them took off, typical.  Thankfully however, the first-winter Caspian Gull remained, and that was the bird I wanted to see, never seen a first-winter before.

A really distinctive gull, especially at this distance.  And what a massive hooter!

Gulls in Monochrome

Only out on the Sunday this weekend just gone.  Saturday was a complete write-off, due to waiting for a chimney man.  After Jackdaws nested up there this year, I'm after one of those mesh things to put on the chimney pot.  Sorry Jackdaws, but I don't want to end up with loads of smoke in the house.

Despite being told someone would appear and waiting around home all day, no-one turned up.  That's someone else added to the list when the revolution comes, it's getting a rather long list.  Anyway, hopefully there'll be better luck trying someone else, onto Sunday's birding. 

Duck numbers are building up a bit at Uttoxeter Quarry, with 26 Goosander, 63 Teal, 30 Wigeon, 81 Tufteds and 3 Pochard.  Also two Willow Tits around, and a third GBB Gull over the last few weeks.

With the wind picking up in the afternoon, it was over to Tad Bay at Blithfield and wait for the gulls to come piling in to roost.  Which they did, Tad Bay being more sheltered than the deep end.  The adult Caspian Gull was eventually found, and eventually came nearer to the hide.  However, it was getting darker:

...and darker...

...and darker!

Must admit though, I didn't realise it was getting quite so dark.  Is there a problem with the camera?  Everything's in black and white!