Saturday May 5

Up with the lark, well actually before the lark because today was the annual West Midlands Alldayer, when various "teams" try to count as many species as they can in 24 hours. Dave couldn't make it so I recruited Mike Inskip who was to join me at 05.50. I started at 04.20, and appropriately the first bird was a Tawny Owl which it was just light enough to see in silhouette before it hooted to confirm its identity. A minute later the first Skylark was singing, Pheasants were calling, and a Cuckoo was cuckooing. All this activity being audible from the edge of Bannam's Wood where I had parked.

I then drove to Netherstead with the intention of walking towards the Flash before returning to await Mike's arrival. The walk was quite eventful. Two Sedge Warblers were singing from the reedbed, and as the light slowly improved I witnessed a Goosander flying off into the gloom. It was starting to get misty, but this fortuitously cleared for a few minutes just as a Barn Owl flew by with prey in its talons.

I met Mike along the road and he drove me back to my car before we headed for the Flash field retracing my earlier steps. The Little Grebes were still on the pool, and the species score slowly mounted. The ploughed field failed to produce any Wheatears (they were a bit of a long shot) and it appears that this year has been a very poor Spring for them.

The Flash field gave us a Shelduck, three Gadwall, and two Little Ringed Plovers. We found a tiny Lapwing chick, and later in the day I was to find a second brood (of three older chicks). I suppose you are always hoping for a passage wader to add a bit of spice, but unfortunately we were to be disappointed.

At 07.30 I headed home to see Lyn and to get some breakfast while Mike headed to Middle Spernall Pool to see if he could find anything there. Our patch for the day was a combination of Middle Spernall and Morton Bagot.

I returned at 09.00 am and stopped at Church Farm, seeing a couple of Swallows on the wires and adding House Sparrow, Pied Wagtail, Collared Dove, and the only Starling to be seen on the patch today, in the process.

Swallows

Mike had added a Reed Warbler at Middle Spernall, plus a Lesser Whitethroat, although we later heard the latter at Morton Bagot. I decided to walk down the road so that I could meet him on his return. This proved an excellent plan. A bird was singing from the hedgerow, and to my delight it popped into a small sallow where I had a clear view of it, a Garden Warbler. We failed to record this species here last year. Remarkably I continued to the end of the road where I heard another one, although this time I didn't see it.

Mike joined me after 15 minutes and we walked along the hedge hoping to refind the now silent Garden Warbler. We failed to do so, but did add our only Yellowhammers of the day (they are getting scarcer here every year), and heard a Willow Warbler.

We chose to walk along the road with the intention of adding some missing woodland species, and duly ticked off Long-tailed Tit, Mistle Thrush, and Coal Tit before we headed down the fields towards the pool once more. Back at the flash field there appeared to be no arrival, but then Mike spotted the Little Owl staring at us from one of the trees there.

Little Owl

We also heard sounds of mobbing followed by the hoot of another Tawny Owl. By now we were starting to run out of available species. There was no sign of the Treecreeper I knew to be nesting, so we had to content ourselves with watching the first Large Red Damselflies of the season, about ten of which were on the wing.

Large Red Damselfly

As the temperature rose there were now a lot of insects on the wing, and our hope of a tick was briefly elevated by the sight of a falcon catching and devouring insects in flight. It was rather silhouetted, but always looked long-tailed, and we were forced to conclude it was just a Kestrel exploiting an unusual food source.

Kestrel

However, at Stapenhill Wood our luck improved dramatically. I spotted a small bird on top of a distant ash. A Spotted Flycatcher. I got Mike onto it and attempted a record shot which I took just before it leapt into the air to catch a passing insect before returning to the tree, but lower down and out of sight.

Spotted Flycatcher - a true record shot!

We blundered into the wood trying to relocate it, but were unsuccessful. To give this some context, this is the earliest here by about 20 days, and as far as I can work out is my earliest in the UK for about 33 years.

By the time we got back to the car we were hot and thirsty. We went to the pub.

Mike had to leave at 14.30, so I birded on alone. We still needed Sparrowhawk, Marsh Tit, Nuthatch, and Treecreeper. At this point I will admit I got distracted by the fantastic little dirt bank beside the track which leads to the beehives. It contains a diverse colony of solitary bees, any of which would be new to me if I could only identify them. Here is a selection from the day.

Blood Bee spp - Sphecodes spp

Bronze Furrow Bee - Halictus tumulorum

Nomad Bee spp - Nomada spp

Eventually I got back on track and returned to the base of Bannam's Wood where I at least managed to see and hear a Marsh Tit.

I returned home out around 16.00 and promptly fell asleep. I awoke to the extraordinary news the West Brom aren't relegated yet. Their fantastic last minute win was a shot in the arm and I resolved to head back to the patch for the evening shift.

This produced the final bird for the day, an immature Peregrine on the pylons.

Peregrine

So our final total was a creditable 68 species (67 at Morton Bagot). Species missed included Sparrowhawk, Nuthatch, Treecreeper, and one or two others which on another day might have been seen, like Goldcrest, Black-headed Gull, Cormorant, Sand Martin, Little Egret, Hobby, Herring Gull, and Swift. Blimey if we'd got all those we'd have beaten Upton Warren!

PS Many thanks to Steven Falk for assistance with the bee identifications.