Tuesday October 6 - Foster's Green

 In a departure from the norm, yesterday I visited one of the very few Worcestershire Trust reserves to be found within the Circle.

It doesn't look that exciting does it? However, its unassuming appearance disguises a wealth of wildlife. Not birds particularly, but plants. 

At this time of year most are underground or in a vegetative state, but there were a few autumn specialities to find. My target, though I didn't find it, was a crocus-like flower called Meadow Saffron. To be fair I hadn't a clue where to look, but the noticeboard assured me it should be there. Maybe I was too late (or too early).

Fortunately other plants I hadn't seen before were available.

Devil's-bit Scabious

The other plant highlighted on the board was Devil's-bit Scabious, and I eventually found a single flower spike.

I'm rather new to botany. Previous attempts have tended to start in February and peter out by the end of April, so I have to say I'm finding it hard. My phone app helps a bit, but is rather unreliable. At least it cuts out leafing through pages and pages of a field guide trying to match what you are looking at with an image.

Here are some plants I have identified using a mixture of the app, field guides, and the excellent Nature Spot website.

Pepper-saxifrage (slightly gone over)

Rough Hawkbit

Lesser Hawkbit

Agrimony (in seed)

I plan to come back in spring, and again in summer when the place should be transformed into an oasis of olde England set against a backdrop of green "improved" pasture which modern day Britain has become.

I did see and hear a few birds while I was staring at my feet; Skylarks and Meadow Pipits were going over, a Blackcap and a Goldcrest called in the hedge, and a Siskin also called as it headed south.

Sunday October 4 - Morton Bagot

 This morning I visited Morton Bagot for the second day in succession. It was fine and sunny, and I was keen to meet up with Dave, fresh from his annual Scilly holiday, and to see how the ringers were faring.

Tony and Sam were concentrating on catching Meadow Pipits, and they seemed to be doing pretty well. They had even caught and colour-ringed one of about five Stonechats present today.

Dave and I wandered off to the flash field where we observed the usual fare of Teal, Snipe, Lapwings etc. Only a Shoveler provided something different.

On our way back however, we got lucky. I flushed a Grasshopper Warbler into the hedge we were walking along. It had come up from under my feet, so I only had flight views initially. Was it a Gropper or a Dunnock? Fortunately it was just about visible in the hedge and remained in more or less the same spot for about a minute allowing us to confirm it was indeed a Grasshopper Warbler.

Now then, a little research has led me to the conclusion that this is the latest ever Warwickshire record. I had hoped it might be the latest West Mids record, but it was beaten by two in Staffordshire (Silverdale CP on 11 Oct 2015, and Essington Quarry on 6 Oct 2019). It just needs to stay another week.

Bearing in mind the lateness of the bird, and the need to eliminate Lanceolated and Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler from the equation, I attempted to photograph it. 

Grasshopper Warbler

OK, I know its challenging, but if you stare long enough at the centre of the photo you should be able to see the thick black chevrons on its long under-tail coverts, and the bird's beady eye peering back at me from behind the bramble stems which divide the bird in two. 

Unfortunately it quickly disappeared from view entirely.

We stopped at the ringers' pitch 200 metres away for a gloat. But that back-fired as they saw a large Egret (probably Great White) flying away as we made our way back to the cars oblivious.

Meadow Pipit on Saturday

As well as the above Meadow Pipit in the hand, on Saturday I had seen a Peregrine, and was early enough to see 300+ wildfowl (Mallard, Greylag Geese, and Canada Geese) on the flash field where they roost prior to departure.

On Thursday night the moth trap had detained 22 moths including a Merveille du Jour, and a Beaded Chestnut which were both new for the year.

Merveille du Jour

Beaded Chestnut

The Garden Moth Survey concludes at the end of this month, but I may be tempted to keep going if it stays mild.

The ringing results for the weekend are as follows:

Snipe 1

Blue Tit 60 (20)

Great Tit 18 (6)

Marsh Tit 2

Long-tailed Tit 9

Chiffchaff 1

Goldcrest 2

Wren 2

Robin 4

Stonechat 1

Dunnock 1

Meadow Pipit 73

Greenfinch 1

Goldfinch 1

Reed Bunting 3

Although the ringers didn't catch any, we noticed at least five Song Thrushes in the hedgerows, plus 12 Skylarks, a Siskin, and a Grey Wagtail over. All hinting at the start of the autumn migrant arrival.

Tuesday September 29 - Earlswood Lakes

 With the weather rather grey with a hint of rain in the air and a light southerly, I decided to visit Earlswood Lakes today.

I began by pausing along Springbrook Lane to see whether the recent Stonechat was still present. It was.

Stonechat

On arriving at the Malthouse carpark I headed straight for Engine Pool. I quickly located four Shovelers, which seemed to be new. Then I heard a single call which sounded like it could have been made by a Rock Pipit. Unfortunately I didn't see the bird, and it didn't call again. I mentally filed it under "possible".

A Little Egret took flight, but there was no sign of yesterday's Great White Egret. Once I reached the dam I noticed John Oates approaching, and we were soon chatting. He had seen the small flock of Teal at the bottom end of Windmill but not much else. Four Swallows flew south, and were clearly in a hurry to get to Africa. I mentioned my possible Rock Pipit, and John said he had thought he'd also heard one this morning. 

A few minutes later, I was half way down Windmill when John rang to say he had found the Rock Pipit. By the time I was back at the dam, so was the Pipit, and unfortunately I flushed it before I saw it. It flew off strongly, calling, and I followed it in my bins as it headed south before becoming too distant to see.

John has let me show his photo of the Rock Pipit here:

Rock Pipit - John Oates

Also present on Engine Pool were the two Yellow-legged Gulls, so I took the opportunity to photograph the second calendar year bird.

Yellow-legged Gull on right

I'm always impressed at how predictable migrants can be. Stonechats are always attracted to the fence line bordering the brook at Springbrook Lane, while Rock Pipits tend to turn up at exactly this time of year, and invariably on the dam or causeway.

BUT......birds can also be unpredictable. At 17:27 a Whatsapp message from John had me abandoning Pointless and hurrying back to Earlswood.  He had found a Ruff just off the Wood Lane car-park.

I arrived in fifteen minutes, and duly ticked it off. Typically, if you are going to see a Ruff around here at all, it will be a juvenile in late August or early September. This bird had chosen to arrive at the very end of September, and was thus not predictable at all.

Ruff

It was a really big one, so a male. Not all that much smaller than a Black-headed Gull. The neat pattern of its upperparts suggested it was a first year bird, but its underparts were the whiteish grey of winter plumage. So I'd go for first-winter male.

NB: John O has pointed out that with a full set of juvenile feathers, it should be better described as a juvenile.

A fine end to the day.

Sunday September 27

 We got back home on Friday so I took the opportunity to put the moth trap out. The following morning 36 moths of 11 species were located in and around the trap. These included three species new for the year; Northern Deep-brown Dart, Brindled Green, and Garden Carpet.

Also present was a single caddisfly called Limnephilus lunatus. 

This morning dawned rather grey with showers. I had to decide whether to go to Morton Bagot or to Earlswood. I made the wrong call.

At Morton Bagot I came across about 100 Stock Doves, while the Chat Field for once contained some Chats, namely four Stonechats, plus at least six Reed Buntings and several Blackcaps. The flash field contained Teal and Snipe, but they were hugging the weedy edge of the nearest flash and so were hard to record accurately.

Meanwhile at Earlswood a couple of Common Terns were followed by a fly around Grey Plover. The latter was a real coup, but was only seen by John and Matt before it headed off. Later a Great White Egret had settled in trees on Terry's Pool. 

As luck would have it, late in the afternoon a consolation prize was on offer when Matt found 11 Golden Plovers in the "Plover Field" between Forshaw Heath and Inkford. I decided to try for them as I hadn't seen the species this year, and rather to my surprise managed to locate them.

I'll settle for that.

Tuesday to Friday Sept 22 to 25 - North Wales

 This week Lyn and I did something we rarely do nowadays, we went on holiday.

Technically a mini-break, our destination was a friend's house half way up a mountain close to the tiny village of Llanllechid, near Bethesda. We were actually staying in a Premier Inn on the outskirts of Bangor, and commuting. It was something of a working holiday as we had volunteered to help our friend in clearing stuff prior to a possible down-sizing move next year....maybe.

Inevitably there were challenges (the Premier Inn room did not contain certain important facilities, and access to our friend's house involved slopes, a rocky driveway, a wheelchair ramp and stone steps) but we just about managed.

Importantly I got some birding in.

On the first morning, while exploring the garden I was surprised to hear the call of Choughs coming from the slopes above. Eventually I counted six birds in flight and got some distant flight shots. Later on I had another look and tracked down a pair in a nearby field.

Chough

My big day out was scheduled for Thursday. Back in the early 1980s, I used to visit Aber, just south of Llanfairfechan, where huge flocks of Curlew and Oystercatchers roosted at high tide. This week I managed to get there while the tide was still high, although I still needed my scope to count and identify the waders present.

I was quite relieved to find that the Curlews were still present in vast numbers. The species has been declining as a breeding bird in Wales, but I counted 1780 Curlews plus approximately 700 Oystercatchers before the receding tide led them to disperse along the Menai Straits.

Sorting through the plethora of larger waders I picked out 25 Bar-tailed Godwits, five Black-tailed Godwits, 15 Knot, many Redshanks, and an unexpected juvenile Ruff. About 50 Dunlins were counted on the wing, while offshore there were lots of Wigeon, and 180 Pintails. Bear in mind this was the first time I'd seen the sea for about five years.

Some Black-tailed Godwits in flight

Curlew and Oystercatchers (mostly)

Unfortunately the light was on the dull side, and the waders too distant for any decent shots.

My plan was to walk from Morfa Aber to Morfa Madryn and back, looking for birds on the way, and plants on the way back. Obviously I was hoping to find a rarity, but that didn't happen.

Wheatear

Rock Pipit

Other birds seen included a few Sandwich Terns, numerous Rock Pipits, a Ringed Plover, a Wheatear, a Great White Egret with about 20 Little Egrets, and a Common Sandpiper.

The botanising gave me lots of new plants, all very common in Wales but not necessarily in the Midlands.

Rock Samphire

Weld

Maidenhair Spleenwort

Other creatures seen include a Clouded Yellow, but arguably the highlight of the week was a large bat which flew through the open front door to the house in Llanllechid and proceeded to fly around the living room before it was eventually persuaded to leave. Our friend, Carol, showed a remarkable turn of speed as she rushed to another room in panic. 

Sunday September 20 - Morton Bagot

 After a cloudy start, the sun came out and the day warmed up.

My attempts to find unusual birds were again largely unsuccessful, although I did manage a new "latest date for Morton Bagot" when a Sand Martin was picked out from a small flock of House Martins and Swallows which were hawking insects over the field next to the Morton Brook. Although it was quite close at one stage I failed to manage even a record shot. The previous latest was 16 September 2011.

Other birds present which I didn't photograph included 28 Meadow Pipits, six Blackcaps, nine Chiffchaffs, a Grey Wagtail, three Green Sandpipers, and at least six Shovelers.

To be honest I got a bit bogged down examining plants and finding invertebrates. Even then there was nothing new, but I did at least photograph some of them.

Garden Spider

Hairy Shieldbug

Small Copper

Dragonflies on the wing included at least six Willow Emeralds, a Common Darter, and a Migrant Hawker. The last hurrah of summer perhaps.

On my way off the site I met Tony and Leigh who had dropped in to do a bit of Meadow Pipit trapping now that HOEF have mowed the grass in the favoured field. They had also been present pre-mow on Friday for a more traditional hedgerow mist-netting session. I was in time to see the first Meadow Pipit they caught.

Meadow Pipit - Tony & Leigh

Their full weekend results were:

Great Spotted Woodpecker 1

Skylark 2

Blue Tit 37 (18)

Great Tit 8 (4)

Sedge Warbler 1

Blackcap 11

Chiffchaff 7

Robin 2

Wren 2 (2)

Dunnock 2 (2)

Meadow Pipit 5

Goldfinch 21 (1)

As always, the figures in brackets relate to re-traps, suggesting resident birds. So at this time of migration none of the warblers and pipits were re-traps, strongly suggesting short-staying migrants on the move. 

I'm off for a short break next week, so hopefully I'll have something different to report next time.

Friday September 17 - Weekly roundup

It's always a bad sign when I title a post "weekly roundup". What it means is that I've tried my best and come up with not a lot.

On Tuesday I walked around two of the lakes at Earlswood and saw nothing better than a Little Egret and the 5cy Yellow-legged Gull. I did at least take a photograph of a bird.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Morton Bagot on Thursday wasn't much cop either. I counted 45 Meadow Pipits heading south, and 49 House Martins which were basically just feeding. There were still at least seven Shovelers on the nearest flash, but this time the cows didn't help me out so I had poor counts of Teal, Snipe etc.

When the sun came out I spotted a Willow Emerald damselfly dangling in the hedge by the flash field.

Willow Emerald

Our garden somewhat bucked the trend as I found a new bug, Cinnamon Bug while I was gardening on Wednesday. 

Cinnamon Bug Corizus hyoscyami

My app identified September Cranefly Tipula paludosa in my moth trap this morning. There were 51 actual moths, 26 of which were Lunar Underwings (new for the year).

Lunar Underwing

Going back to birds, Tony Kelly caught a remarkable 54 Blackcaps (and 12 Chiffchaffs) at the sewage works earlier this week. It always amazes me how many Blackcaps are caught in mist nets in autumn compared to the number I actually manage to see.