Thursday February 28

The nice weather has come to an end just in time for my latest visit. This morning was grey and misty at first, and showery from about half way around. The temperature has dropped to more normal levels.

By the time I reached the flash field the best birds on offer had been a Peregrine on a distant pylon and a Stonechat in the hedge behind the former pool. It is looking like I will be struggling to see the likes of Tufted Duck, Little Grebe, and Mute Swan this year.

At least the flash pools had attracted a few waders. Top of the bill was the first Green Sandpiper of the year, just sneaking onto the February list.

Green Sandpiper

Also present was a single Snipe, and 22 Lapwings. Three Cormorants were sitting in their new "usual tree" along with a Grey Heron, while I could see 10 Teal amid the sedge, and the pair of Shelducks. most of the Coots were on the nearest flash, the site total now rising to 13.

Snipe

As the rain started to pep up I noticed a twittering party of Fieldfares, Redwings, and Starlings in the bushes beyond the kingfisher pool, and further on counted 107 Linnets on telegraph wires above the ridge field.

I beat a hasty retreat as the weather deteriorated further.

Sunday February 24

For the first two hours of this morning's visit the patch looked pretty much like this:

Which meant that any wildlife tended to look like this:

Hare in the mist

To counteract this, Dave and I decided to walk very slowly along the road where the atmosphere didn't get in the way as much. The edge of Bannam's Wood was alive with small birds, and we counted at least six Marsh Tits and a couple of Coal Tits before we had to take the plunge and descend into the mist.

Marsh Tit

The above photograph demonstrates that the presence of a hint of a pale panel across the wing is not necessarily useful in telling the species apart from Willow Tit. It was calling just as a Marsh Tit should.

Bannam's Wood: classic Marsh Tit habitat

The plan worked pretty well, the mist finally lifting just as we reached the flash field. Unfortunately the birds the clearance revealed were pretty much the same cast of characters, although there were now three Shelducks, and a flock of 39 Lapwings.

As the temperature rapidly rose we started to see Honey Bees on the return journey, plus one or two Brimstones and my first Small Tortoiseshell of the year.

Thursday February 21

A lovely warm and largely sunny morning as this mild winter fades into an early Spring. You just know there will be a twist though.

I decided to start at the church for a change before heading down to the dry pool along the footpath. About 30 Linnets and 10 Reed Buntings perched in the hedgerow, while at the little gate I could see a couple of Coot on the small top pool.

I don't like discovering dead animals, but I couldn't avoid spotting what must have been a magnificent stag Fallow Deer lying in the ridge field. It may have met its fate overnight because the handful of Magpies which flew from the corpse had hardly started scavenging its carcass.

Fallow Deer corpse

How it met its death is hard to say, but it was 800 metres from the nearest road so I fear that it may have been shot or maybe even attacked by a dog. There are several signs in the area warning people to look out for poachers, and I have heard of overnight illegal hare coursing activity in the area, so there are plenty of unpleasant people who may have been responsible.

Anyway, changing the subject to living creatures, The Flash field contained three Shovelers, nine Teal, nine Lapwings, a Grey Heron, a Lesser Black-backed Gull, and several Coots (the total for the patch creeping up to 11). I didn't have time to look down the south end, but the area I did cover contained at least five Stonechats.

On reaching the road at Netherstead I flushed my first Mistle Thrush here this year.

Mistle Thrush

A little further along I was delighted to see two white butterflies, which on closer inspection proved to be male Brimstones.

Brimstone

So the visit ended on an upbeat springlike note, the temperature according to the car's display reaching 17 degrees.

Lets hope it lasts.

Sunday February 17

If you wanted to encapsulate the changes in bird populations that have occurred over the last twenty years, you need look no further than this morning's visit to the patch.

A pleasantly mild, fairly sunny start was brightened still further by the brief appearance of a Red Kite which flew over the Chat Field pausing only to circle once or twice above Church farm.

Red Kite

At the Flash Field an apparition of pure white emerged from behind the sedge. The Little Egret was still present.

Little Egret

A couple of hours later, as I drove home having again failed to locate any Yellowhammers, having seen no Grey Partridges among the Red-legs, the only sparrows on offer being House Sparrows, I spotted a flock of corvids wheeling around over Pooles Wood. Astonishingly at least 18 of them were Ravens.

Some of the Ravens

When I got home I reached for my latest WMBC Bird Report thinking that this could be a new Warwickshire record only to discover I was not even close. In 2016 a flock of 58 had been seen at Priors Hardwick on April 2 of that year.

How times change.

Turning back time, just to this morning at the Chat Field, the scrubby patch the Red Kite had overflown contained three out of a grand total of five Stonechats seen within my self-imposed patch boundary today.

The Flash Field contained not just the Little Egret, but also eight Teal, several Mallard, a pair of Shelducks, two Shovelers, four Lapwings, and six Coot. A Little Owl stared at us from its usual tree, and later I was able to show Dave the Barn Owl, which was still lurking in the back of its box at the south end of the site.

Little Owl

I just hope these two species maintain their tenuous claim as ever-present residents at Morton Bagot.

Shurnock - more surveying

Another sunny and very mild day following an overnight frost. My destination this morning was an undistinguished patch of farmland just east of Feckenham.

After nearly two hours of squeezing between tree boughs (to follow the footpath), ducking under electrified fences, and nervously watching bucking horses frolicking in the field the path said I had to cross, I ended with precisely nil Willow Tits.

Somewhere near Shurnock Court

There was one scrubby wood following a streamline which looked a plausible habitat, but it proved a let down.

On the way home I tried for the Black Redstart at Castle Farm near Studley Castle. Once again I drew a blank, although my arrival coincided with the departure of a photographer who had seen it this morning.

Instead I saw my first butterfly of the year, a Peacock, and a Mistle Thrush. The thrush is still eluding me at Morton Bagot, visible across the fields in the distance.

At least a nice man in India helped me to reset my internet connection when I got home.

Church Lench - Willow Tit surveying

A beautiful sunny morning once the fog had lifted. Having committed myself to surveying a few tetrads for Willow Tits over the next two years I thought I had better make a start.

The allocated area consisted of the village of Church Lench and a couple of bits of woodland. I decided that Old Yew Hill Wood looked the best bet and went to look at it, armed with my Willow Tit call playback device.

Old Yew Hill Wood

Sadly, Willow Tits have declined massively since the 1980s when they were quite easy to find in many parts of Worcestershire. I wasn't too surprised that I didn't find any, but did record a single Marsh Tit.

I had a very quick look at Morton Bagot on the way home, hoping to add some photographs of woodland birds to the year list photos. I did record Treecreepers, a Nuthatch, some Coal Tits, and a singing Marsh Tit but none allowed me a photographic opportunity. A flock of 17 lapwings and two Skylarks flew west.

Sunday February 10

Sunny intervals and showers. A light north-westerly. The early morning rain put paid to any thoughts of Willow Tit surveying, and I sat at home until it cleared up by around 11 am.

A stroll around the north end of the patch demonstrated that the area was very wet, and it had encouraged three Coots to take up residence.

Coot

The Flash field contained 15 Teal, a Little Egret, plus the usual geese and Mallard. A single Peregrine was surveying the area from a pylon before deciding to circle menacingly.

Peregrine

I found myself reflecting on the absentees. Where are the Yellowhammers, Mistle Thrushes, and Green Sandpipers?

Hopefully things will pick up soon.

Thursday February 7

A fresh south-westerly with increasingly sunny intervals, but still chilly. At least the ice has gone, allowing some of the wildfowl to return to the flash field. But only Mallard, Teal (16), Greylag and Canada Geese, two Grey Herons, and a pair of Lapwing.

I decided to take the latter as a sign of spring, to which I could later add a singing Skylark.

Roe Deer

Three Roe Deer posed nicely in the ridge field, but apart from one species of bird this was turning out to be a very dull visit.

The saviour was a Barn Owl, which was just visible in an old box. Sorry about the terrible photo, but I didn't want to disturb it.

Barn Owl

I'll probably be surveying Willow Tits in Worcestershire on Sunday, not that I think I'll see any. Google are up to something, and this blog may be affected. Hopefully I'll be posting something again next week.

Sunday February 3

Another cold and frosty morning. Such weather doesn't really do the birds at Morton Bagot many favours. All the pools and flashes were frozen solid. It looks pretty though.

At least the sun was out, and so there was an opportunity to take some photos for the year-list.

Red-legged Partridge

Long-tailed Tit

Both Tawny and Little Owls were showing, and the frozen flash still contained a single Snipe. Half a dozen Lapwings flew over (hard weather movement?), and an adult Peregrine charged about terrorising the local crows and pigeons.

But all in all it was another quiet one.

Friday February 1

There was little sign of the dusting of overnight snow, but it was bitterly cold this morning.

Stonechat toughing it out

A closer view

Very few gulls flew over, but the first to do so was an adult Common Gull. Unfortunately by the time I had untangled the camera from the binoculars and removed my gloves it was giving less than ideal views as it started to circle.

Common Gull

This could easily be the only one I see here this year.

I decided to walk along the road to the south end, and was able to have a chat with Mike Lane, one of the few other birders who visits Morton Bagot. He photographs birds over the whole of the Heart of England Forest area and told me of a Goshawk sporting old jesses near Great Alne, several Woodcocks, and a small flock of Goosanders (at Middle Spernall Pools).

The flock of Chaffinches and Linnets remains at the south end, as did a flock of 150 Starlings and several Fieldfares, Redwings, and Pied Wagtails searching the pasture in the horse paddocks. A party of 50 Meadow Pipits meanwhile had moved to the longer grass between the barns and the barn conversions.

The north end, predictably enough, contained largely frozen water courses. A few Teal were, however, sitting it out by the furthest flash which was partly unfrozen.

Teal

A single Muntjac took a while to realise I was watching it as it munched on grass stalks.

The only beast from the east in evidence today.