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.