Sunday December 1

I'll begin this post by referring to a year-tick I got the day before, from the car, on my way into Birmingham. Half a mile south of the M42 junction I noticed a flock of about 30 Golden Plovers wheeling around over a large cultivated field. Yes, its true, that really was a year tick. They haven't occurred at Morton Bagot this year, so I hadn't seen any.

This morning was bright and sunny with a very light north-easterly. No amount of staring at the horizon would induce any Golden Plovers to fly by, so we had to make do with what was available on site. The paddocks which in April had provided a stop-over for two Ring Ouzels was now covered in rather less unexpected thrushes. We counted 195 Redwings, 90 Fieldfares, and a few Starlings along with one or two Song Thrushes and Blackbirds.

The rest of the morning was even quieter. Just two Stonechats remain, a couple of Snipe, about five Teal, 53 Mallard, and a lot of geese.

Greylag Geese

We counted 140 Greylag Geese and had estimated 50 Canada Geese before the latter disappeared.

Stonechat

In a last ditch attempt to see something more interesting we stumbled around in Stapenhill Wood. Our only success here was rescuing a Song Thrush which had become caught in the fold of an old Pheasant pen fence.

My only other decent bird today was a Peregrine, not at Morton Bagot, but seen from a car while I was heading out of Redditch to collect my Mum.