Monday December 30

I was a bit late starting again, but at least I remembered my binoculars this time. What a morning it was too. The weather was unremarkable, rather misty again with a light south-westerly. A little cooler than yesterday, but still very mild. The only indication that today might be better than usual came from news of a short-staying Bewick's Swan at Upton Warren this morning. I have a theory that whatever it is which causes birds to "turn up" it happens at multiple localities on the same day, even in winter.

I started off by counting the thrushes in the paddocks again, getting totals of 206 Redwings, 22 Fieldfares, five Meadow Pipits, and 21 Starlings. Pretty similar to last time. Clearly the lack of frost is giving these birds an earthworm bonanza.

Then I decided to walk along the road. This produced a singing Mistle Thrush, and a photogenic Treecreeper.

Treecreeper

From the edge of Bannams Wood I surveyed the landscape and spotted a flock of 80 Lapwings over the flash field. This is the first flock for several weeks.

Down at pool (once again reduced to a puddle) I heard the Water Rail calling from almost exactly where I had flushed it a fortnight ago. A single male Stonechat appeared to be unringed, so was different to the two the ringers caught yesterday.

Approaching the flash field I noticed a black and white bird, which proved to be a Shelduck. Curiously, the first Shelduck of last spring arrived at the end of December too. Scanning to the right of the Shelduck I spotted an interesting looking duck. I thought I knew what it might be, but convinced myself to wait until I got closer. Arriving at the viewing point I was delighted to find it was indeed a female Pintail. The first here since Feb 2012.

Pintail

Although there were fewer Mallard than usual, the wildfowl present was surprisingly diverse. In addition to the Pintail and the Shelduck, there was also a Teal, a Wigeon, three Shoveler, and six Grey Herons.

Shelduck

I returned to the car reflecting on an excellent year. My total has reached 122 species (not including Feral Pigeon), which comfortably beats my previous best of 118 in 2011. Firsts for the site have been Temminck's Stint, Black Tern, and Yellow-legged Gull, while Turtle Dove was a personal site tick.

Next year I plan to relax a bit, do a few different sites, but will no doubt still be visiting Morton Bagot at least once a week.

Happy New Year.

Ringing news

The ringers attended yesterday and caught 61 birds, including 13 retraps. They were pretty pleased with their efforts, catching two Stonechats (their first and second ever) and two Snipe (second and third ever).

The full list was:

Snipe 2
Great Spotted Woodpecker 1
Blue Tit 27 (inc 11 retraps)
Great Tit 9 (inc 1 retrap)
Long-tailed Tit 13
Robin 2 (inc 1 retrap)
Stonechat 2
Meadow Pipit 4
Reed Bunting 1

My own birding today lasted as long as it took me to discover on arrival that I'd left my binoculars at home. I'll try to remember them tomorrow.

Friday night's moth trapping also drew a blank, despite a mild overnight temperature.

Friday December 27

Well with Christmas receding in the rear view mirror, I now have just a couple of birding opportunities to push the year list further ahead of my previous best.

This morning was a classic December day, cloudy and mild with a very light south-westerly. I further limited my chances with rather late start, but did at least get the scope out and went through the thrushes feeding in the paddocks. I counted 202 Redwings, five Fieldfares and a few Starlings.

Inspired by fellow blogger Gavin Haig on the south coast I decided to take my camera off auto and try some manual settings. The light was poor, so I wasn't expecting miracles.

Stonechat

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Long-tailed Tit

Roe Deer

The results were a bit mixed. I'll see what happens when the light is better.

Several feeders dotted about confirms that the ringers will be back at the weekend.

Highlights today were three Stonechats, a Peregrine, a Lesser Redpoll, 100 Greylag Geese, 82 Mallard, one Teal, and 15 Canada Geese. Gulls were thin on the ground; 17 Black-headed Gulls, and one Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Slim pickings indeed.

Sunday December 22

A pleasant, rather mild, sunny morning.

Dave and I targeted the Snipe Marsh in the faint hope of flushing the Water Rail. We weren't successful in that regard but did find eight Jack Snipe and 23 Snipe. This is probably the best count for the former this year.

Earlier, a distant swirl of 150 Black-headed Gulls gave us hope that there might be more gulls on the big pasture field, but when we finally got to where we could see properly it turned out that they had come off a distant ploughed field. A few Lesser Black-backed Gulls and one Herring Gull flew past before Dave located a possible Great Black-backed with Lessers miles away towards Redditch. By the time I looked they had gone, although I did see what may have been the flock, but too distantly to identify anything.

A couple of male Stonechats were in the usual place, while the flash field played host to over 100 Mallards, seven Teal, and five Grey Herons. A couple of Lesser Redpolls and a distant flock of about 50 probable Meadow Pipits rounded off a quiet visit.

The dragonfly pool looks in good nick for next year though.

Merry Xmas

Tuesday December 17

I threw back the curtains this morning and was pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn't foggy as forecast. A couple of hours later and about a mile nearer to Morton Bagot I discovered that the weathermen had got it right after all.

My plan was to walk through the Snipe Marsh (as I've now decided to call it) in the hope of counting Snipe and Jack Snipe. In fact the first notable bird was the Peregrine sitting in the dead tree.

Peregrine

As I followed the footpath down into the Snipe Marsh field I became aware of birds mobbing something in the Tawny Owl tree.

Tawny Owl

All in all things were going quite well. A male Stonechat popped up onto the hedge and then proceeded to follow me around in the manner of a Robin.

Stonechat

Then I entered the marsh and things got really interesting. The first bird I flushed was a Common Snipe, and almost immediately a silent Snipe-sized bird. I got onto it expecting to see a Jack Snipe even though it had flushed at a greater distance than they usually do. The bird I saw didn't look like a Jack Snipe, in fact it wasn't a Snipe at all. It was a rail or a crake, presumably Water Rail.

In all honesty the view wasn't great. Rear end only, no white in the wings which looked unmarked brown (as the bird was flying away I couldn't have expected to see a white leading edge), and there was a hint of buff at its back end. Almost immediately it disappeared into the juncus, and I headed towards where it had landed. There was no further sign of it.

After tramping around for a bit I kicked up 12 Snipe and three Jack Snipe in a different part of the marsh, all of the latter behaved normally, flying a short distance before arcing round and dropping down into the marsh. Inevitably the doubts started to set in, shouldn't I have seen trailing legs?

The Flash field was fog-bound and on the walk back to the church where I had parked I counted flocks of 50 Meadow Pipits, and 50 Redwings.

Back home I was encouraged by finding an internet image of a Water Rail flying away from the photographer (admittedly probably in the process of landing) where the legs could not be seen at all.

I nevertheless decided to return at dusk in the hope of hearing it call. The fog was even denser and as dark descended I only added a calling Yellowhammer to the day list. Eventually the Snipe started flying out, each one calling as they flew over. But no Water Rails squealed, so I will have to settle for the views I got in the morning.

Sunday December 15th

Mostly sunny, although a large black cloud produced a few spots of rain. A very light westerly. After feeling so uninspired by the weather and the lack of change on the patch recently that I didn't bother to go in the week, Dave and I needed a decent bird to pick us up. And we got one.

Initially it all seemed similar; three or four Stonechats in the hedge bordering the pool, Dave had counted about 200 (I forget how many he said) Redwings before my late arrival, and the Flash field gave us three Grey Herons, a Little Egret, and a few Mallard. It also contained a lot of gulls. We decided on 87 Black-headed Gulls and seven Lesser Black-backs, a lot more than usual.

This very wet autumn has left all the parts which could flood well flooded, and this often attracts gulls. However after I shouted Little Owl a bit too loudly (one flew past us) all the gulls took off and that seemed to be that.

A little later I was half way up the slope to the raptor watch point by Stapenhill Wood when I stopped to scan a few large gulls which were drifting past, and I immediately got onto a rather dark grey mantled Herring Gull type. Alarm bells rang immediately and I alerted Dave to see the bird. I was thinking Yellow-legged Gull, although the chances of claiming one on flight views seemed optimistic. Dave got onto it (it helped that the only other gulls we could see were Lesser Black-backs) and after initially only flying away it started to drift back, and get lower. Could it be going to land? We lost it behind the trees and hot-footed it to a place we knew we could get views of the large field we thought it might be in.

Fortunately I still carry a scope and tripod, and sure enough about 30 Lesser Black-backed Gulls had settled, and there was a paler one with them. But it seemed to be a Herring Gull. I passed the scope to Dave and he agreed. Confusion. I looked again and suddenly the gulls shifted revealing the front half of a second pale gull with a white head. This was the bird. A Lesser Black-backed then stood in front of the Herring Gull, and the putative Yellow-legged Gull remained sitting down and partly obscured.

The gull flock

Second right from the crow

We decided we needed to try to get closer and started down the slope. Fifty metres on I stopped to scan, and noticed that all the gulls had stood up. We ramped up the magnification on the scope and started to believe. Suddenly the gulls started to take off, in the distance some dog-walkers had entered the field. The bird took flight (oh no), but while the Lesser Black-backed Gulls flew off, our bird circled round and landed again. Through the scope we could see its legs were yellowish. Also it had an encouragingly attenuated rear end.

Yellow-legged Gull

Yellow-legged Gull

We were happy with it. Yellow-legged Gull, the first ever seen at Morton Bagot. My bridge camera isn't really powerful enough to replicate what we could see through the scope. I've tried hitting the "enhance" button to improve the shot on the last photo, but the above photos were the best I could manage.

Pretty soon it flew off and we thought it could be going to the flash field so we headed back there. Sadly there was no sign of it, and we decided to make tracks.

Sunday December 8

A cloudy and rather breezy morning, south-westerly, produced very little of note.

The shooting has had no affect on the Mallard numbers, which actually increased to 124. On the other hand there were no Teal or any other ducks. Four Grey herons was a little more than normal.

We spotted a flock of Starlings in pasture a couple of fields from the patch and went over to count them. Dave estimated 280 to 300, but my camera counts could only muster 221.

Some of the Starlings

There were still about 85 Redwings and 40 Fieldfares, mainly in the paddocks. Our only wader was a Snipe which flushed from the strip field.

All pretty grim really.

Tuesday December 3

Light cloud at first, but then sunny. Most of the pools contained some ice. A very light southerly breeze.

The area around Netherstead was quite productive, with about 100 Fieldfares, 130 Redwings, at least nine Meadow Pipits, a pair of Stonechats, and 24 Linnets around the paddocks. It wasn't just me watching them. A Sparrowhawk appeared twice during the morning.

Sparrowhawk

I continued on my usual route, sidestepping a photographer who seemed intent on getting shots of a second pair of Stonechats. Further down the same hedge a couple of Song Thrushes paused briefly.

Song Thrushes

The pool looked peculiar as ice which had formed overnight was left high and dry as the water has continued to flow away through the pipe.

The nearest I came to an unexpected sighting was a drake Wigeon which had joined the 12 Teal and numerous Mallard.

Wigeon

Later on I spotted three Mallard corpses lying on the ice, so clearly some duck shooting took place yesterday.

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.

Wednesday November 27

I arrived just as the weather took a turn for the worse, the intense drizzle keeping me in my car for about 30 minutes. A Sparrowhawk was the only bird worth seeing. Fortunately it stopped and I was able to start birding.

It was still pretty mild, although colder weather is forecast, and the six Stonechats I saw were all chasing gnats when they weren't chasing each other. Colder weather will be bad news for them.

There were still plenty of Fieldfares and Redwings about, maybe 150 in total. I often wonder how many you might have to look at before you see a rare thrush, a lifetime's worth probably. The flash field contained the usual Teal and Mallard, plus a drake Shoveler and a Common Snipe.

On the return journey I found myself contemplating whether to pick my way through the brambles and rotting wood of Stapenhill Wood in the hope of flushing a Woodcock. I decided not to bother, but at the last minute went in anyway. I flushed a Woodcock. This is the first time I've seen one in this apparently ideal habitat, and only my third on the patch. They do occur in the surrounding woods in winter, and should probably be regarded as a very elusive winter resident. There was no chance of a photograph, and to be fair I only just saw it at all as it flew through the trees.

The wood also served up a mystery in the form of an animal skull which imagined would be easy to identify.

Badger skull - thanks to the twitter community

It was about four and a half inches long, and not in very good condition. Maybe a Grey Squirrel skull, but it didn't really fit anything I could find on the Internet. (ps I'm told it is a Badger skull).

Returning to birds, there weren't many finches around; nine Lesser Redpolls, 25 Linnets, a dozen Goldfinches, and a single Siskin. An adult Peregrine was haunting the pylons as usual, and seemed to sense I was trying to photograph it, flying off before I could press the shutter. A second Sparrowhawk, a very small male, landed above me in the wood and also didn't hang around.

The Woodcock has taken me to 119 species for the year, extending the record closer to the magic 120. Can it be done?

Sunday November 24

A dull misty morning with drizzle at first. A very light south-easterly.

Quiet again. The Peregrine, two Stonechats, and at least eight Lesser Redpolls were seen on HOEF land, and we also heard a Tawny Owl hoot as we sheltered from the rain.

Lesser Redpoll

Lesser Redpolls

There were actually quite a lot of small birds in the hedgerows, including at least 30 Blue Tits, three Marsh Tits, 100 Redwings, 127 Fieldfares, and a Yellowhammer.

The flash field produced 20 Teal, 113 Mallard, and five Snipe.

Some might say another day of dross, but I wouldn't be so rude.

Wednesday November 20

Mostly sunny, with a light south-easterly.

It was pretty quiet today. I don't think I saw anything which was new for the week, let alone the year. The most notable birds were the Linnets, a flock of 154 was confirmed by photographing the flock in flight and counting the dots later. This method always proves that I underestimate the number of flying birds once I get past about 30. I would have said there were about 100 until my camera told me otherwise.

Some of the Linnets

Other than that, the adult Peregrine was on a pylon, three Stonechats, 12 Lesser Redpolls, and at least 101 Redwings were present.

Sunday November 17

A grey damp morning with no breeze, in other words a proper birders morning.

There is something about this sort of weather which seems to squeeze birds into existence, and with autumn migration probably not quite over we were quite optimistic for a change. Sure enough the plantation at Netherstead was alive with birds. Redwings poured out of the tree tops and below them the understory was full of tits and Goldfinches.

Eventually our diligence was rewarded with a decent bird. Blackcaps are rarely seen here after the middle of October, so the presence of a male in the bushes on the far side of the main road was a cause of minor celebration. Three Siskins tried to crash the party, but flew on after landing very briefly.

Blackcap

We then headed for the pool, and were distracted by a gathering of very noisy Magpies and Jackdaws in a distant hedge. Suspecting an owl, we headed that way but found only silence and an absence of any cause. We did see a couple of Stonechats though, and since we were there anyway decided to walk through the sedge in front of the pool. This produced 32 Snipe and six Jack Snipe, an improvement on the singleton of the latter I kicked up at the end of last month.

We reached the flash field which was pretty full of water, and also contained 123 Mallard, a female Wigeon, a pair of Shovelers, five Teal, and 19 Lapwings.

The walk back was also lively. Dave glimpsed an egret, and on further exploration we confirmed it was as expected a Little Egret.

Little Egret

Finally we turned up a flock of at least 14 Lesser Redpolls, and back at Netherstead 25 Meadow Pipits enjoyed the mud and gloop turned over by the horses. Our final tally was 62 species of birds without really trying for a big list.

Garden moth ticks

A relatively mild night, although rather wet. I put the trap out and this morning discovered two moths, one on the window and the other in the trap. They were both garden ticks.

The one on the window was a Mottled Umber. It was not a lifer because I saw one on the side of Selfridges in Birmingham in November 2018, but it was new for the garden.

Mottled Umber

The one clinging to the perspex inside the trap was a lifer; Feathered Thorn.

Feathered Thorn

A quick look at Moths of Warwickshire confirmed that, as I had suspected, these are not scarce moths.

Wednesday November 13

Sunny intervals with a very light northerly breeze.

The late autumn birding doldrums continued despite my trying to shake things up by walking along the road from the church to Netherstead and then back across the fields via the flash field edge. All this innovation gained me absolutely nothing new, and I can therefore report only the following minor triumphs:

Two Mistle Thrushes, two Stonechats, two Shovelers, a Little Egret, and the Little Owl in full view for a change.

Little Owl

In fact the most remarkable event was the complete absence of any Teal at the flash field.

It was still a nice morning to be out and about though.

Sunday November 10

Sunny and cold with a light northerly. More overnight rain has filled the pool up.

I have to say it was a pretty dull visit. New for the month were two Mistle Thrushes and a Marsh Tit. The flash field contained only 44 Greylag Geese, two Teal, and about 12 Mallard. Beyond it we noticed a Buzzard feeding on a corpse. The main discussion centred on the identity of the carrion, was it a deer or a goose? I favour the latter theory.

Buzzard

Friday November 8

Sunny with a light north-westerly following heavy overnight rain.

As we get get ever deeper into the year, so the chances of seeing anything new or unusual diminish. You end up grasping at straws, such as seeing 15 Magpies to beat my patch record count for the species.

Of three Cormorants seen, one landed and immediately stretched its wings. I'm not sure what the current thinking is on this one, the last I heard it was considered to aid digestion. That won't please the Morton Springs Fishery.

Cormorant

Red-legged Partridges don't get mentioned very often on this blog. They used to be released here every autumn for shooters to practice their aim on, but happily the HOEF has put a stop to that. As a result I generally see small coveys now, and the typical view is of flushed birds disappearing across the fields. So when I happened across 23 chilled out Red-legs enjoying the feeble November sun, it had to be worth a shot (with a camera).

Red-legged Partridges

In a bid to find a Woodcock I picked my way gingerly through the brambles and nettles of Stapenhill Wood. I don't know why I do this each winter because I've never seen one there. It just looks as though they should be there. As usual I drew a blank, flushing only Redwings, Blackbirds, Pheasants, and a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

What else can I tell you about? Two Stonechats remain in residence, eight Lapwings rose from the furthest flash, but very few ducks were visible there.

Clutching at straws.

PS: Moths. I put the trap out during the evening as I have finally decided to take part in the National Garden Moth scheme's winter moth survey. You are supposed to trap every Friday night whatever the weather, so with temperatures forecast to fall to sub-zero overnight I did not have high hopes.

However, this morning (Saturday morning) I found three moths clinging to the house (actually the December Moth was lying flat on its back having succumbed to the frost). The survivors were a November Moth ag (possibly Pale November Moth), and a Sprawler.

November Moth ag

Sprawler

These moths are tough cookies.

Wednesday November 6

Its been an interesting morning. I had a very pleasant meeting at Middle Spernal with Sophie, an ecologist employed by the Heart of England Forest.

Most of the land on which I birdwatch has been acquired by the Heart of England Forest, a project begun and originally funded by the late Felix Dennis. Apart from initially receiving confirmation that I had permission to birdwatch there, I am slightly embarrassed to say that I have had little contact with them over the last 12 years.

Sophie is keen to change that, and for my part I am very happy to supply them with bird records, particularly breeding data covering the last dozen years and on an ongoing basis. I just have to knuckle down to extract the data.

I was very pleased to learn that the Heart of England Forest team are anxious to improve biodiversity across their whole land, and that they appreciate that some land accords with this aim without necessarily being planted on. They also do not appear to be responsible for the draining of the pool, and may be unaware of the pipe through which the water is draining away. I am hopeful that something can be done about that.

After the meeting I went for a quick stroll around the patch. The birds present were pretty much the usual ones. The pick being at least 68 Fieldfares, 11 Snipe flying around, a Stonechat, and 42 Black-headed Gulls (more than usual).

Fieldfare

I bumped into Sue for the first time for months, and learnt that she and her husband were moving to Devon. I'm very sorry that Sue, the champion of the Netherstead House Martin colony, will no longer be around to keep an eye on them.

Finally, I have been tinkering with my blog list, and have added my new favourite blog; Not Quite Scilly to the list. Its much funnier and better than mine, so if you haven't already done so I suggest you check it out.

Sunday November 3

The day began cloudy with a very light south-westerly breeze, but the sun started to break through during the morning.

Dave and I opted for the traditional circuit, and things progressed quietly at first. An adult Peregrine was perched on a pylon, while four Stonechats and five Yellowhammers occupied the ridge field. We arrived at the flash field and counted 76 Teal, 75 Mallard, two Shovelers, two Lapwings, and two Grey Herons were pretty much standard fare (although the Teal count was a good one).

The day fired into life when four dog-walkers accompanied by about five unleashed dogs ambled past. I have to admit I gave them a less than friendly grunt of greeting, because I knew that their dogs were about to cause havoc. Sure enough all the ducks panicked and started to fly around, and with them was a Little Egret.

Little Egret

I'd like to think we would have seen it even if it hadn't been flushed to the furthest flash.

A few minutes later we observed that instead of heading up the footpath, the group of walkers had chosen to follow pretty much the route we were intending to take. In the distance they flushed a Buzzard and we decided we would let them get further ahead of us. Fortunately Dave was still scanning the horizon, because the next thing I heard him say was "Short-eared Owl". There followed several seconds of anxiety as he tried to get me on it, eventually saying "its below the Buzzard" I locked onto it and thus broke my patch year-list record with a bit of a belter.

It was pretty distant but I managed to get some record shots, and even some film of it, as it circled over the ridge before getting higher and higher before we lost it entirely.

Short-eared Owl

This was only my second record here, my last being a pair in December 2013. However, Ivan Sansom  saw and photographed one here this April, so its actually the second this year. I suspect Short-eared Owl are more regular than my own records suggest. We tend to walk around fields rather than across them, and I have heard several accounts from shooters of flushed owls which were likely to have been this species.

So I guess the dog-walkers did us a favour. We'll never know whether we would have seen it without their unwitting assistance.

Thursday October 31

Today was a momentous day. I am now officially a gentleman of leisure. My retirement send off yesterday went very well and I ended up in a pub playing darts before staggering off home. So I was feeling a tad delicate this morning.

This morning's weather couldn't have been much better for birding, a light north-easterly and high cloud. Thrushes were piling in all morning and I ended up with totals of 267 Redwings and 155 Fieldfares. With them came a Brambling, 16 Lesser Redpolls, 25 Meadow Pipits, and two Siskins.

It was one of those days when you suspected the big one was out there if only you could find it. I couldn't, or it wasn't.

Never mind, I did decide it was time to have a kick through the marsh. I had suspected that the lack of Snipe on the flash field could be a result of them all being in the marsh. I was right; 45 Common Snipe and two Jack Snipe were flushed without too much effort.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

The camera didn't have much of an outing, but there's always tomorrow, and the day after that, and the next day etc etc.

Just kidding Lyn xx

Sunday October 27

Following two days of unremitting rain which has raised water-levels throughout the patch, today was a day of wall to wall sunshine. After scraping the ice off my car this morning I was relieved that the roads were completely free of icy patches.

Dave arrived promptly and we set off along the road, for a change. As usual this tactic failed to deliver anything worthwhile, and once back in the fields we discovered the ringers packing up their stuff. They assured us that they hadn't caught anything unusual.

The highlight of the first hour was a dozing Roe Deer by Netherstead copse. The usual view is at best of an anxious looking animal ready to flee within seconds.

A chilled-out Roe Deer

The field behind the pool was pretty lively; 150 Linnets, about 15 Skylarks, at least four Yellowhammers and about a dozen Reed Buntings periodically broke cover to swirl above the stubble. We also counted four Stonechats.

At the flash field most of the action was on the nearest flash. 48 Teals awoke as we peered at them, and before long took flight, only to disappear behind the sedge. Less concerned by us were six Shovelers and two Little Grebes. On the furthest flash we could see a few Lapwings, and earlier we had counted 33 of them flying over. We assumed these were the birds we could now see.

Our highlight for the morning was two Bramblings which flew south over the ridge field. We also heard the odd Siskin and Redpoll, but saw very few Fieldfares and Redwings.

Despite the bright sunshine, I had not photographed a single bird by the time we were back at Netherstead, so a preening Great Tit had to suffice.

Great Tit

Rarer birds are available, but not at Morton Bagot it seems.

Juniper Carpet - garden

I only caught two moths, a wasp, and a cranefly last night in the garden. Scarcely worth the electricity (Lyn said), but I would counter that one of the moths was new for the garden; a Juniper Carpet.

Juniper Carpet

Juniper Carpet is described as local, but widespread. It seems to have spread due to the proliferation of cultivated junipers, and is often found in suburbia. My most recent distribution reference for Warwickshire shows none near Redditch, but that was published in 2006.

The other moth was a Barred Sallow, fairly regular in our garden at this time of year.

Wednesday October 23

Thick fog this morning caused a very delayed start. I arrived just before noon as the fog was finally dissipating to leave a largely sunny afternoon with a very light south-easterly.

It didn't take long to find my first Fieldfares of the autumn. About 15 were discovered at the south end before heading north-east and being rediscovered in trees bordering the flash field.

Fieldfare

At least 70 Linnets were also present, along with three Yellowhammers, about eight Reed Buntings, six Stonechats, and at least 24 Meadow Pipits.

Yellowhammer

As I approached the flash field I heard the distinctive calls of a Brambling. It seemed to be coming from an oak tree, but as I searched for it I heard a Chaffinch calling in flight, and with hindsight I suspect the Brambling may actually have been flying over with the Chaffinch.

The flash field itself produced the usual 200 or so Greylag Geese, 23 Teal, a few Mallard, and five drake Shovelers. Further along the Morton Brook I discovered that the Little Grebe was still on the Kingfisher Pool, and I got a shot of it as it sheltered among the branches of a partially immersed tree.

Little Grebe

It was warm enough for quite a lot of insects to be on the wing, and these included a Migrant Hawker and a Common Darter.

Three Redpolls flew west, the first since one flew over in June.

Pretty good for an afternoon session. The main significance of the Brambling for me was it has allowed me to equal my previous highest species score for a single year. I've managed to record 117 species on at least three previous occasions. Just one needed for the record, come on you Golden Plovers, come to Morton Bagot!

Sunday October 20

Cloudy at first, sunnier later. A light north-westerly.

I arrived a little earlier than Dave, so tried a vismig to pass the time. After 40 minutes I had counted 172 Woodpigeons, 38 Redwings, 11 Chaffinches, one Siskin, and 11 Meadow Pipits heading south or west. So not massively impressive, and I'm afraid it set the tone for the rest of the morning.

Once Dave joined me we ambled round, starting at the south end. At the side of the road were some large whitish fungi, which I am hoping someone can help identify. I have tentatively gone for Giant Funnel, but neither of us know much about fungi, so a re-identification is quite possible.

In fact I've now had a response from David Antrobus of the Warwickshire Fungus Group confirming it is likely to be either Giant Funnel or Trooping Funnel. They can only be distinguished from one another by looking at their spores under a microscope. Result.

Giant Funnel or Trooping Funnel

A Mistle Thrush was the first here for several months, five Yellowhammers further increased the largest count this year, and we also counted three Stonechats before reaching the flash field. Here the usual Greylag Goose flock was present, but duck numbers seemed lower, with just 22 Teal and about 30 Mallard present. A flock of 17 Lapwings were visible on the furthest flash.

A small surprise at the Kingfisher Pool was a Little Grebe, probably the one seen last week.

Finally, the Barn Owl was not in the barn, but the floor was strewn with pellets suggesting recent occupation.

Back garden mothing

I put the trap out last night, and soon found myself clinging to the parasol I had erected to protect it from a heavy shower. The wind had got up and I was worried the parasol would take off (as it has done in the past). Fortunately the shower passed, and I was able to remove it to allow unimpeded access for the rest of the night.

One moth landed on the kitchen window, but had disappeared by the time I found a pot. It was a largish carpet moth, and I suspected Common Marbled Carpet.

This morning I found just three moths and a caddis-fly in the trap, and the carpet moth wasn't one of them. Instead there was a Black Rustic (new for the garden), a Green-brindled Crescent, and a Large Yellow Underwing.

Black Rustic

Black Rustic was very much on the radar. While I was a member of the Warwickshire Moth Facebook Group last year (until facebook started to alarm me) I had noticed other members catching them routinely, so I am pleased to finally see this presumably widespread moth.

Thursday October 17

A largely sunny morning after a chilly night. I saw a small patch of frost beneath a hedge, but the day was soon quite mild with a light south-westerly.

After seeing a small party of Redwings over my house this morning, I was hoping this would be replicated at Morton Bagot, but actually there were just a few in the hedgerows, and no overhead passage at all.

That said, I did manage to break my patch record count for Stonechats. A total of nine comprised six in the chat field and three in the ridge field.

Stonechat

I wandered down to the south end where there are still reasonable numbers of Meadow Pipits, and I saw the first of an eventual count of three Yellowhammers. This is the largest count of a very poor year for the species here.  At one point the corvids and pigeons seemed restless and spooked, which led me to check the pylons. Sure enough a Peregrine was hunched up there.

The sunshine encouraged quite a few insects to fly around, several Red Admirals and one or two other dark butterflies, a couple of Migrant Hawkers, and one or two unidentified Darters.

Migrant Hawker

The pool still has a fair bit of water in it, while the nearest flash is full of water and ducks, and the furthest flash has a bit of an edge and was full of Greylag Geese and a few barely visible Lapwings.

The highlight was first Little Egret for a month or two, which flew towards the furthest flash.

Little Egret through a hedge.

The Wigeon seems to have gone but I counted 37 Teal, 61 Mallard, four Shovelers, and 201 Greylag Geese. So still no shooting, which is good. I counted 55 Pheasants, which suggests that some have been released nearby. At one point I heard a quad-bike backfiring its way around the strip field, so I wondered whether someone was trying to encourage them to leave the safety of Morton Bagot.

I'm currently two species short of breaking my record year list for birds on the patch, but the wait for a new bird is now stretching my patience. Its a good job its a lovely place anyway.