Clifton Pits - Long-tailed Duck

So, time for a change. I very much enjoyed hammering Morton Bagot last year, breaking my species list record by recording 122 species there. But I have decided that this year I am going to get out a bit more. After twelve years of pretty much restricting myself to one site there is an element of phasing involved (phasing is a birders term for giving up birding).

In my absence from the Worcestershire scene a gravel pit called Clifton Pits has increasing come to the fore as a birding venue, and I had never even been there.

I found the place quite easily, and was immediately blown away by how big it was. One very large former gravel pit and a second smaller one. There was also a scraped area of shallow water which looks to have potential as a wader habitat.

A portion of the larger pit

The smaller pit

On arrival I quickly noticed another birder. He turned out to be John Overfield who had moved up from Gloucestershire a couple of years ago and quickly won his spurs, finding Pectoral Sandpiper and Pied Wheatear in no time at all. Needless to say it is now his local patch. John pointed me in the direction of the pit containing a Long-tailed Duck and I headed there immediately.

The Long-tailed Duck had been here for several weeks, and it would give me the opportunity to reconnect with a species I last saw in about 2003. All I needed to do was find it. Typically this species spends more time under the water than on the surface, and it took me a good ten minutes to finally spot it. It wasn't particularly close, and that is my excuse for the following photograph.

Long-tailed Duck (with Little Grebe and Wigeon)

Being a female (or maybe a young male) it doesn't have a long tail. In fact the majority of Long-tailed Ducks which turn up in the Midlands look similar.

With the duck in the bag I started to see what else I could find. My plan is to see birds not generally seen at Morton Bagot, and where ducks are concerned this is not difficult.

Pochard - female

Great Crested Grebe

Pochard numbered at least 15, and Great Crested Grebe at least four. Neither has ever been recorded at Morton Bagot, and probably never will be now that the pool is no longer a permanent feature. More distant was a Goldeneye, which promptly disappeared. Another birder arrived and while I failed to show him the Long-tailed Duck, he failed to show me two Egyptian Geese he had noticed on the smaller pool. Fortunately we each scored later in the morning.

Egyptian Geese

Although Goldeneye is very unlikely to turn up at Morton Bagot, Egyptian Goose could do, and probably already has. Some years ago I would occasionally see a visiting birder who would tell me what he had seen. One day he mentioned Egyptian Goose. Unfortunately he chose not to submit it to the county recorder, so the record is lost.

Other birds seen here this morning included a Green Sandpiper, two Goosanders, two Shelducks, 16 Shovelers, 109 Wigeon, 26 Teal, seven Gadwall, 54 Tufted Ducks, 22 Little Grebes, 154 Canada Geese, a Greylag Goose, and 18 Cormorants. So if you like your wildfowl, this is as good a place as any in Worcestershire.

One other thing I have missed by concentrating on Morton Bagot is the craic of chatting with other birders. In addition to those mentioned I also ran into my old mate John Sirrett, and saw another four birders all firmly determined to tick off Long-tailed Duck for the year.

As I left I reflected that this was great for a change, but visiting someone else's patch isn't as fulfilling as trying to find stuff on your own. So don't worry, my next post will be about Morton Bagot.