This was the kind of morning which reminds me why I keep coming here. All the elements were there; a warm muggy overcast feel with the odd shower and some sunshine. Wader migration season - mid August, perfect. No other people (apart from Dave, who doesn't count), ideal.
All we needed were the birds. After a steady first hour with all the usual warblers, we reached the pool field and quickly located two Whinchats.
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| Whinchat |
A bit of a Morton Bagot autumn speciality, not particularly rare but scarce enough to make any day. There is still no main pool in the pool field, but you can't have everything.
Better was to follow.
We got to the flash field where the nearest flash now looks in excellent condition. It soon became clear that the birds thought so too. Numbers had more than doubled since my last visit, 23 Teal, 10 Snipe, 12 Green Sandpipers, and best of all a Common Sandpiper. Yes I know, just a Common Sandpiper. But this species is barely annual here. We're always knee-deep in Green Sands, but Common isn't common.
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| Common Sandpiper |
For those uncertain of the difference, Common is distinctly smaller and its white belly rises up almost to its shoulder. On Green Sandpiper the white belly meets its grey breast with no sign of extending upwards. The next shot shows the two species together.
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| Common and Green Sandpipers |
Unlike at certain other Midland sites, Black-headed Gulls remain at manageable levels, i.e. hardly any, and although I like a gull as much as the next man, their absence makes the place much more peaceful. Noisy buggers, gulls.
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| Green Sandpiper, Teal, and Black-headed Gull |
As you can see in the above photograph, it soon started to rain. Luckily, we were under the trees overlooking the flash at the time, the nearest thing to a hide at Morton Bagot.
Rain often drops waders in - is a mantra popular with birders. It is certainly true of big reservoirs and well-watched (pre-covid) sites like Upton Warren. It never happens here though. Well almost never. We were just about to start yet another attempt to upgrade our Green Sandpiper count, when a wader called and something shot across my line of vision. Seconds later we got onto them, two Ringed Plovers, an adult and a juvenile. Fantastic. Similar in status to Common Sandpiper here, and two of them. Make that three. Just as we were preparing to leave Dave astutely observed that he was now looking at two adults.
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| The adult Ringed Plovers |
The juvenile, which I do have a blurred image of from when it stood behind some sedge, then decided it was time to go. It flew around calling, landing for seconds before taking off again. I just couldn't get a shot of all three together, and after thirty minutes the shower abated and they all circled ever higher to continue their journey from the Arctic (or maybe just Scotland) to West Africa or wherever.
Migration in action is absolutely thrilling to witness.
We weren't finished. The journey back along the Morton Brook took us past a discarded walking stick (if anyone's lost one we can tell you where it is) to Stapenhill Wood. Here, first one, and then another Spotted Flycatchers flew up into a stunted tree, pausing just long enough for me to get a couple of shots.
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| Spotted Flycatcher |
A bit more convincing than the dot on a hedge I thought might be this species on Tuesday. They quickly disappeared behind the wood and we did not see them again.
Instead we reached the edge of the ridge field where at least 137 finches were counted on the wires. About a hundred of them were Goldfinches, the rest being Linnets plus a solitary Reed Bunting.
Insects didn't get much of a look in today, but I did notice a Silver Y moth, which I mention because, like the birds featured in this post, its a migrant.
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