Sunday October 18 - Morton Bagot

 At last the winds have swung around to right direction. The boring westerlies which have blown for weeks have been deflected by a high pressure system over Norway. If you are a birder, that is exactly what you want in October.

I was up before dawn (Dave having decided to visit his Mum on the east coast), and was determined to viz-mig at Morton Bagot for that vital first couple of hours from daybreak. Ideally, you need some kind of focal point, a hilltop or a reservoir dam. I picked the highest point on the footpath and waited.

My numbers are likely to pale into insignificance compared to others, but they weren't too shabby for here: 370 Woodpigeon going south, 283 Redwings going west, and a few nice surprises. New for the year (for here), was a Brambling which I only heard, and five Wigeon which may have come from the flash field. Chaffinches just got into double figures, but there were very few Meadow Pipits and no Skylarks or Fieldfares as far as I could tell. Three Redpolls were the first of the autumn, although they landed in a silver birch so may not have been on migration. A Peregrine appeared twice, the first time chasing a startled Woodpigeon as it tried to keep up with the rest of the flock. Fortunately for the pigeon, the Peregrine gave up quite quickly.

After returning home for breakfast, I was back out by 10:00 to have a walk round. Starting at the church I headed for the flash field where I found 33 Lapwings and 24 Teal. The barbed wire fence has now been completed, but it was still possible to see the Kingfisher Pool, where fittingly enough a Kingfisher was in residence. At the moment the nearest flash is partially visible from the HOEF side of the hedge, so maybe things aren't as dire as I'd convinced myself last week.

On my way back I decided to walk around the old pool field (currently dry as a bone). This was an inspired move as I flushed a small bird along the fence, and was then gobsmacked to find that it was a female-type Redstart.

This is very late for a Redstart. A Black Redstart, though rare, would seem much more likely in October. But the pale throat, breast, belly, and flanks with a hint of orange on the otherwise whiteish undertail coverts all pointed towards Common Redstart.

I've tried a little research of West Midlands records, and there are a few Staffordshire and Worcestershire records later than this. However, I haven't found a later Warwickshire one (though to be fair I only went back as far as 1988).

Other noteworthy birds included a Yellowhammer, a Siskin, and a Snipe. Maybe it is too soon to jack it all in as Morton Bagot Birder.

Sunday October 11 - Morton Bagot

 There's lots to talk about this week, not all of it good news.

The most interesting titbit came from Tuesday, when one of Tony's Meadow Pipits proved to be a re-trap. Normally, re-traps aren't big news because they tend to relate to residents such as Blue Tits which are around all the time. It would have been unusual for a Meadow Pipit to remain for any length of time, and it turned out that Tuesday's bird had first been caught as an immature at Morton Bagot on October 26 2025. So this bird was passing through Morton Bagot almost a year later, presumably having hatched in northern Britain and on its way to the south coast or beyond. It seems almost certain therefore that this Meadow Pipit was following exactly the same route as it had 12 months ago. Has anybody ever proved such a thing before?

On the same trapping session Tony caught a male Stonechat, and although we saw seven in total today, none of them got photographed, so here is Tony's bird.

Stonechat by Tony Kelly

I suppose I'd better get to the bad news. Yesterday John Chidwick reported that the route to the best place to view the nearest flash from had been blocked by whoever owns the Kingfisher Pool. Sadly, we will no longer be able to get a proper view of the nearest flash. They are also in the process of constructing a fence to prevent anyone from going there. Of course it's their land and they have every right to do that. But from our point of view it will further diminish the experience of birding at Morton Bagot. At least the habitat will remain, we just won't have a clear idea of what's there.

The path now blocked by brushwood

The only place to view the flashes from now is the traditional spot, although that is becoming more difficult every year as the vegetation grows.

The traditional viewing place

The first Redwings of the autumn are starting to appear. I saw eight over Earlswood on Friday, and two or three here today. We noticed a small movement of Skylarks during the morning, and a single Grey Wagtail flew south.

I've been counting the moths in my moth trap. 25 on Friday night included five Black Rustics and a White-point, which were new for the year. 

I'll have to decide whether to continue blogging at the end of 2026. Maybe I should do a new blog referencing the fact I'm getting more and more interested in other wildlife (I was trying to identify grasses today!)

Morton Bagot Birder's days may be numbered.

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.