Wed Sept 23 - mostly Blithfield Reservoir

 It's been a while, just over 12 years in fact, since I last visited Blithfield Reservoir. As an autumn destination there were few places to rival it in the West Midlands, and for over 20 years I made regular trips up there. On my last visit, 2nd June 2008, I joined up with Graham M and we found a Turtle Dove. Today, Graham was still there, but there hasn't been another Turtle Dove since.

The weather this morning was vile, with heavy rain which would have forced me into the hides if they hadn't been closed as a Covid precaution. So I just got wet. On the other hand, virtually the first bird I saw as I reached Tad Bay was a Great White Egret. You didn't see many of them in 2008 (well I didn't).

Great White Egret

It was soon joined by a Little Egret, one of four I noticed around the reservoir. They were around in the early 2000s but they didn't fit my image of Blithfield.

Great White and Little Egrets

Tad Bay looked much as I remembered it except for one detail. Where were the thousands of ducks, and where were the waders ? I eventually located four Curlew and two Snipe before the rain intensified and I beat a retreat. It was quite good for Cormorants I suppose, I counted 82.

At Admaston I met up with Graham and we had a catch up. He confirmed what had become apparent, the wader numbers have fallen off a cliff in the last 20 years. He hadn't seen a Ruff here this year, a mind-boggling fact given how regular they used to be. He had seen a small party of Ringed Plovers and Dunlins which I somehow contrived to overlook in my enthusiasm to see a Grey Plover which had been present for a few days.

Grey Plover

As with most of the arctic waders, I have not seen very many in the UK since I started concentrating on Morton Bagot.

I walked down to the Blythe Bay as the weather rapidly improved, and it was certainly not birdless. At least 150 Meadow Pipits, over 50 Alba Wagtails, and a flock of 130 Linnets were flitting around the short turf and adjacent field, while the bay itself was plastered with geese. A count gave me 1016 Canada Geese, and 668 Greylag Geese. The latter have increased tenfold since the olden days, whoopee. A Blithfield tick swam into view; two Egyptian Geese. I dutifully rang Graham just in case they were rare here, but they weren't. A flock of 117 Wigeon went some way to improve the wildfowl count, as did at least 202 Tufted Ducks.

So I left with two site ticks and a feeling of sadness that the place I remembered had changed, and I would say for the worse. I had a similar experience at Draycote this winter, and I believe its a symptom of the havoc mankind is reeking on the planet.

Finally some local news. The ringers went to Morton Bagot on Monday evening and caught 13 Meadow Pipits and a Chiffchaff, while Lyn and I were wandering around Morgrove Coppice seeing a fly-over Yellowhammer, hearing a Green Sandpiper which was presumably on the pool I haven't found yet, and seeing numerous Siskins flying around.

Silver Y

We also had a good view of the migratory Silver Y moth to finish up.