Red-footed Falcon twitch Saturday July 11

After announcing I wouldn't be twitching the Red-footed Falcon north of Stoke yesterday, I duly did a complete U-turn and went to see it today.

The journey up the M6 was as tedious as I had suspected, particularly the return journey. Lyn had considered coming with me, but I wasn't sure whether the bird would be easy to view from a wheelchair at Chatterley Whitfield Colliery, so she decided against it.

As it turned out she would have seen it easily as it was viewable from the entry road without difficulty. I took my sketchbook in case it was distant, but it was easy to photograph.

West Mids tick 296

The bird was a first-summer male, and perched on fence posts, periodically flying down to a lawn in front of one the colliery buildings. On the other side of the fence was a sloping pasture field containing a couple of horses. Having brought the sketchbook it seemed a shame not to use it so I started sketching. Half way through I became aware of a fat old bloke walking through the field clapping his hands. The falcon flew off. Thanks mate!

While waiting to see if it would return I noticed a little flurry of activity as someone spotted a distant Black Redstart. It was not a great view, but you could see it was a female/immature (probably the latter) bird. I heard a Siskin fly over.

The Falcon was relocated back down the road, but more distant, so I resumed sketching activity, before I decided it was time to head back.

Earlier this morning the omens had been good when I found a bathroom-tick in the form of a moth which I eventually identified as a Small Phoenix. I caught it and let it go in the garden. It promptly flew to the brickwork on the side of the house.

Small Phoenix