Thursday February 12 - Mappleborough Green

 I've been a bit unfortunate this week in the way that my available birding opportunities have fallen. Rain has dogged my every step. On Tuesday I finally went to the km square containing the HOEF's Gorcott Wood, only to discover that the wood itself appeared out of bounds because it was part of an educational facility. There were plenty of signs and CCTV which put me off any thoughts of sneaking in. 

There were a few footpaths nearby, which I followed. The most interesting "find" was a friendly householder who told that he occasionally sees a white owl perched on his garden fence. No prizes for guessing what species that will have been.

This morning I decided to give Mappleborough Flash an early look. I don't normally go there until the end of March when migrants are starting to move in. There were no real surprises in store. A flock of 33 Teal may include birds which visit Morton Bagot, less than a couple of kilometres away and I flushed a single Snipe.

I'm still in possession of Tony's thermal imager, and it allowed me to discover that the twittering of Siskins I could hear from a line of alders came from 39 specks of light. As it turned out, about half of the birds present were actually Lesser Redpolls. The Siskins were feeding higher up, where against the lead grey cloud they were little more than silhouettes. The Redpolls preferred to feed closer to the ground, so I at least tried to get some shots of them.

As I was leaving the site, two adult Common Gulls flew south. If only I'd seen them at Morton Bagot, they would have been a useful addition (barely annual) to the MB year list.

Sunday February 8 - Morton Bagot and Earlswood

It finally stopped raining this morning, so I joined Dave for our weekly stroll around Morton Bagot. Inevitably we ended the morning getting a little damp as the high cloud gave way to light showers. By that time we'd recorded 53 species with very little effort, so we were reasonably happy.

The highlight was a pair of returning Shelducks on the furthest flash, arguably our first summer visitors.

The Lapwing flock goes from strength to strength, reaching 147, although hardly any were actually on the ground. Indeed just a few Teal and Mallard were present in spite of there being far more standing water than usual.

Other birds seen included decent numbers of winter thrushes, especially Fieldfares, two Stonechats, another fly-over Yellowhammer, all the expected finches in very small numbers, and a couple of Red Kites.

During the afternoon I decided I really should go to Earlswood to see the Egyptian Goose which had been found at Mereside Fishing Pools yesterday. It was still present, and looked rather tame. But they all count.

Although by now the drizzle was getting heavier I decided a quick march around Engine Pool would be in order, and this plan at least produced a distant view of the fifth calendar year Yellow-legged Gull standing on a buoy on Windmill Pool.

Unlike the adult bird seen on my last visit the specific identity of this curious bird is not in dispute. John O has found a photograph of a very similar bird somewhere else on a Gull Forum on Facebook (to which I do not subscribe). That bird's bare part colour is attributed to a hormonal deficiency, so presumably the Earlswood bird is in the same situation.

Tuesday and Wednesday February 3 and 4 - Studley and Spernal Park

 On Tuesday morning I was awake early and in possession of Tony's Thermal Imager. The plan was to go to an area near the river Arrow at Studley where I understood a pair of Little Owls was in residence.

Unfortunately the weather was against me. A bitingly cold easterly and steady drizzle which rarely abated. Nevertheless I followed the directions and located what I thought was probably the right tree. In the twilight the kit confirmed an encouraging point of light exactly where you might expect a Little Owl to be sitting.

As it slowly got a bit lighter, through my scope, I could make out what did indeed appear to be a Little Owl sitting at the entrance to a hole. Then as I switched back to the Thermal Imager a second bird, most definitely a Little Owl flew into the tree and they both disappeared into the hole.

By the time it was light enough to see properly the show was over. You'd never know they were there. So no photo I'm afraid.

Little Owls used to be relatively common around here and many of the sites I have Birdtrack records for, list the species among my previous visits. But in the last twenty years they've become a lot harder to find and I currently only know of four places within 10 kms of our house where they now occur. They've certainly gone from two pairs to zero at Morton Bagot.

This morning I was keen to try the kit out in woodland, so went to Morgrove Coppice intending to walk around Spernal Park as I hadn't got any winter records for that wood. Within five minutes of my arrival the battery in the thermal imager died. Drat.

Nevertheless I struggled up the steep muddy hill to the top of the wood, and within minutes of reaching the summit, gasping for breath, a familiar call improved my mood considerably. A Common Crossbill flew right over my head and away towards Morgrove Coppice. My second year-tick in two days.

It doesn't look it, but trust me, the path through the trees was very steep

I commenced a circuit and noted several Marsh Tits, five Ravens, and a few more Crossbills. Unfortunately none of the good stuff was photographable, although I did briefly see one of the Crossbills perched in a tree.

Nuthatch searching the leaf-litter for food

Assessing how many Crossbills I'd seen was difficult, but I decided on a minimum of five. I therefore felt vindicated when, back at my car in Morgrove Coppice carpark, I heard more calls and counted five Crossbills flying from Spernal and away in the direction of Coughton Park.

It looks like more wet weather is on the cards, so I doubt I'll poke my head out of doors again until Sunday.

Sunday February 1 - Illshaw Heath and Earlswood Lakes

 This morning I chose to resume my local wandering, this time picking the countryside around Illshaw Heath. I must admit I hadn't been expecting much, but it wasn't too terrible.

The best area was a marshy field just west of the new development at Blyth Valley. Here I counted 19 Meadow Pipits, a Skylark which flew over, a Common Snipe, a Green Woodpecker, and a Reed Bunting. I don't see many Reed Buntings away from Morton Bagot.

On my way home I diverted to Earlswood where John O had found a female Pochard and the adult Yellow-legged Gull. I quickly saw both birds, and this time had my camera to hand. 

PS: Regarding the Yellow-legged Gull shown below. Its identity has been queried by Matt G as when he zoomed in on the orbital ring it didn't look red to him. It is thought to be the same bird we saw on Jan 6. Maybe it is a hybrid Gull. 

Unidentified adult gull. Either Yellow-legged Gull or Herring X LBBGull hybrid

Female Pochard

Friday January 30 - Morton Bagot

 This year I have been edging towards making a substantial purchase. Thermal Imaging kit is not cheap, and this morning Tony K joined me so that I could try his out. It passed the first test straightaway by being small enough to fit into my coat pocket.

The most obvious use is to locate cryptically patterned birds which hide in plain sight, so we marched straight to the scrape field.

Hiding in here were Reed Buntings, Meadow Pipits, and Common Snipe. But the target was none of these. Tony proceeded slowly, and eventually passed me the imager. A Jack Snipe was showing as an obvious white blob. Well it might have been for Tony, but I just couldn't work out where he was looking. The problem is that the landscape as seen through the imager is dark with very little definition. I just couldn't get my bearings.

We moved closer, and finally the bird was blindingly obvious. Tony intended to catch and ring it, but I just wanted to take a photograph. Now I knew where it was, the rest was very easy.

A lot of twigs and a Jack Snipe in hiding

Am I going to get one? You bet I am. Did Tony succeed with his capture? Not this time.

We parted company. The remainder of my visit can best be described as underwhelming. The Lapwing flock circling the flash field totalled 88, while 33 Teal and a few Mallard sat tight.

The low cloud and drizzle were no good for raptor spotting, but I did locate three Sparrowhawks over the adjacent woodland.

Wednesday January 28 - Morton Bagot

In years gone by I'd never had to make a special effort to record owls at Morton Bagot. There's always been at least a known Tawny Owl roosting tree I could rely on. But a few years ago the oak tree in question was damaged in a storm and the Tawny stopped using it. 

A different tree stump which had been good for Barn Owl has also become less of a shelter and seems to have been abandoned.

The only option was a dusk visit, so I resolved to pay a visit this evening. Arriving before the sun dipped below the horizon I was in time to see a few woodland species at the edge of Bannams, including a Goldcrest which was a belated patch year tick. I'd started to wonder whether I could hear them any more, but this one was audible before I spotted it so I'm ok for now.

A more pressing problem was the presence of a very loud farm vehicle strimming the branches bordering the wood. He kept this up until 17:00, by which time I was overlooking the scrape field counting the Pied Wagtails coming in to roost. 

Pied Wagtails approaching

Pied Wagtails

My highest count was 54 Pied Wags, although that assumed that each time they flew around I was looking at the same birds. As it got darker I saw twenty plus Redwings going to roost, two Grey Herons, a Peregrine, and what was almost certainly a Sparrowhawk. But no owls.

Finally, at 17:30 as I was heading back to the car, a Tawny Owl hooted from the direction of the church. Later on, another called from Clowse Wood. There were no Barn Owls to be seen, but I think the ringers saw one a month or two ago, so hopefully there will be another chance.

PS: Tony K was here ringing on Tuesday night and his thermal imager picked up at at least 120 Pied Wagtails, so I guess some of the flocks I saw were different birds causing me to under-estimate. He caught a Common Snipe and a Reed Bunting.

Sunday January 25 - Morton Bagot

For most of this morning the weather was cloudy with a light south-easterly, but the last half hour was marked by showers. Dave and I followed the usual circuit and saw most of the usual birds. By the time we reached the flash field we had a couple of Stonechats under our belts, and would go on to see two more, an immature Cormorant was perched on top of the tree overlooking the Kingfisher Pool (a favourite perch for the species), a Mute Swan had flown east, and a Yellowhammer had done likewise (this time being seen as well as heard).

At the flash field we were greeted by the sight of a substantial flock of Lapwings. Most of them took flight allowing a count to be made while only eight remained on the ground. The combined total of 121 was the best count here since 2014.

Most of the Lapwings

But let's not get too carried away, the 2014 count was over 200, and the highest count of all was 530 on 22 January 2012 just after I started this blog but pre bridge camera.

In those days wintering buntings regularly reached twenty or thirty of both Yellowhammers and Reed Buntings. Today I was quite impressed by my one Yellowhammer and a single Reed Bunting.

Reed Bunting

My 2026 list gained a couple of ticks today. Seven Red-legged Partridges were new for the Circle, and a couple of Mistle Thrushes  were Morton Bagot year-ticks. An immature Peregrine flew in, stooped at a Carrion Crow, and for a while perched on a pylon. This was new for Dave as he'd missed the one seen briefly last week.

Most of the Red-legged Partridges

Encouraged by all this ticking I decided to ignore the rain and walk along the road with Martin W who had arrived just as we got back to the cars. Martin mentioned he had had a fantastic view of a male Crossbill in the village some weeks ago (when pressed this turned out to be November 27 2025), so this was added incentive.

I was more interested in the prospect of adding a Coal Tit at the feeders set up by one of the householders. This proved a busted flush as all that was present were loads of Blue and Great Tits, but on the way there we heard a bird "tacking" from cover. I'm pretty sure it was a Blackcap, but as this would have been a first January record for the patch I chose not to count it. It's surprising that they don't turn up in winter here when they are perfectly regular in my Redditch garden.

Snowdrops

The roadside also provided a welcome sign that spring isn't too far away.