Saturday May 4 - RED LETTER DAY

With Dave away in Yorkshire and Mike joining the Earlswood team, I found myself competing in the WestMidsAllDayer as a team of one. So I arrived on site at 04.30 and started a pre-dawn walk below Bannams Wood. First bird singing was Skylark at 04.30 and I soon added Cuckoo and Song Thrush (birds I had not heard when birding my normal hours on Thursday).

It was cold, a gentle northerly which was to increase to brisk later, did nothing to bolster my optimism. Most annoying of all was that the one species I normally rely on was not calling at all. I refer to Tawny Owl. My usual routine on these long days is to bird for two hours from before dawn, go home for breakfast, return at about 08.30 and stay until midday, go home for lunch and a kip, then return late afternoon to mop up any I had missed. Today though, Lyn had unwittingly booked us tickets to go to the Stratford Literary Festival to see Andrew Davies speak (he is a screenwriter who adapted among others Les Miserables and Pride and Prejudice for the small screen). So it looked like being a shortened day.

It was starting to get light when I got to Netherstead. The Sedge Warbler was singing, but as expected there was no sign that the Grasshopper Warbler was still present. A Cuckoo was calling, and for the first time this year I actually saw it. It turned out that another one was calling back in the distance. It would be stupid to try to photograph a Cuckoo before it got  properly light, so I did.

Cuckoo

Around this time I added a mammal to the year-list. A Fallow Deer stuck its head up on the ridge but ambled off before I could get a meaningful shot.

I made my way to the Flash Field, seeing the sun rise at 05.48. A Willow Warbler was singing, one of two on site today. Although the change in habitat away from arable towards young woodland has got rid of the breeding population of Yellowhammers, different species like Willow Warbler are moving in to replace them.

So here we go. I got to the Flash Field and quickly noticed that the Shelduck was still present. A pair of Mute Swans was also on the nearest flash, and a pair of Teal were still present. Very handy for the day list. I couldn't see the Gadwalls which had been here on Thursday, nor any waders other than Lapwing. So I switched to the scope and soon found what I was looking for, a Little Ringed Plover. In front of it was another bird, another plover? No, this was smaller. Alarm bells started going off. It turned to reveal itself as a TEMMINCK'S STINT. My first locality tick since 2017, and a very rare bird regionally. The day changed.

Temminck's Stint

I tried phoning people, forgetting it was still only 06.30, so started texting. The bird was behaving as they typically do, crawling slowly around feeding on the mud. This is a Scandinavian migrant which has drifted westwards to the UK on its way back from Africa. In the last ten years, just two have been seen in Warwickshire. Two drake Tufted Ducks flew over. With little deep water on site this year, they were a species I thought I could miss.

By 07.00 I had to go home, so I missed Neil Duggan's arrival as the first person to twitch it. He is part of his own team at Salford Priors Gravel Pit, but wasn't going to miss this. Once Lyn was up I was back at 08.30 and found that Mike had arrived with the Earlswood team; John S (my moth guru), Matt Griffiths and a.n other. It was clear my team was going to expand during the day. They left and I decided to resume my original circuit.

I reached the furthest point along the Kingfisher Pool and saw a small duck fly in and land. It was a drake Mandarin. Although they breed on the Arrow, this species is barely annual here. Initially overhanging trees blocked my attempts to get a shot, but eventually some stealthy creeping paid off.

Mandarin

Nearby both Goldcrest and Treecreeper sang. These can both be easily missed. Best of all, a Nuthatch was calling from Bannams Wood. I somehow failed to record this species on either of my last two alldayers even though several pairs breed here.

A final sweep of the south end failed to produce the Mistle Thrush which had been singing on Thursday, or indeed anything else for the list. I had to go home for lunch.

The afternoon session comprised chatting to various birders, and failing to see the Stint. it had evidently become very elusive, and when I left, it hadn't been seen for almost an hour. I later learned from Steve Haynes that it had reappeared within ten minutes of my departure. Gavin Peplow had heard a Coal Tit at the church, and Black-headed Gulls on the Flash.

I had to leave once more. Andrew Davies was very interesting, or so I was told. I slept through most of it. At least we weren't on the front row.

I returned to the patch at sunset. Long-tailed Tit, Black-headed Gull, and those elusive Tawny Owls were added making my final tally 60.

The sunset wasn't bad either.