Pacific Golden Plover

This weekend turned out to be all about numbers. Yesterday was great. We went to see a Henry IV Part II in Stratford followed by a splendid meal with friends in the rooftop restaurant. Marvellous. On the other hand, birding being a numbers game, one or two things were niggling away. To start with, on my walk back from the paper shop I spotted a large bird heading west over our house. I sprinted the 50 yards back to the house, found my bins, and dashed to the garden. It had gone. I think it was a Kite, but not convincing enough to get on the garden list. Then, just before our friends arrived my pager told me there was a Pacific or American Golden Plover at Middleton RSPB.  Oh heck. A last check of the pager before we set out. It was American G P , phew! Don't need it. Later that day, in the evening, I glanced at my pager again. It had been a Pacific GP. Not just a Mids tick, but a British tick to boot.

It was a warm night and our bathroom got a new moth. Marbled Beauty. I log them, but I've never bothered to count them up. Its not like they're birds.

So, this morning the PGP was still there. Off I went. It's so long since I went to the Tame valley that the RSPB reserve at Middleton didn't exist. So that was a tick too. I was slightly disappointed with it. Not enough signs (hard to believe at an RSPB reserve). A lot of my fellow twitchers looked distinctly lost. If I'm honest, the Pacific Golden Plover was a bit disappointing too. It wasn't the bird's fault, it was in stunning summer plumage, but it was also miles away. A dot, which kept disappearing behind vegetation. Too far away to photograph with my little camera. But since when did that stop me. Record shot coming up.

Its about 5 o'clock from the Little Egret !

Still a tick is a tick. Bird number 294 for the West Mids, and 436 on my British list. There were some other birds there but I was pining for my patch and by 10.45 I was back at Morton Bagot.

Strictly speaking there is nothing to report for the rest of the morning. But my competitive juices were still flowing and photo-ticks presented themselves. First up was one of two Nuthatches chasing each other around in the copse at Netherstead.

88. Nuthatch

In my now restricted morning, I marched to the flash where another species which has avoided my camera so far was waiting for me.

89. Starling

My excuse for putting this completely duff shot onto the blog is that I have lost patience with the species. There were stacks last winter, but they were all either flying over or feeding distantly on fields to the north of the patch. Amazingly none breed here, so I just get the odd wanderer from Redditch. They like to keep company with Lapwings and hence its now on the photo-list.

I did get a couple of shots of other birds which I like a bit more.

Raven

Wren

The flashes also contained 4 Green Sandpipers, 79 Lapwings, seven Teal, a juvenile Shelduck, and 34 Greylag Geese including a white one.