The shortest day saw me picking a spot within the Circle more or less at random, and spending a couple of hours there. I was pretty sure I had never been to Tanworth-in-Arden, a very small and attractive village about four miles north-east of Redditch, but Birdtrack suggested otherwise.
This morning was grey and almost windless, there was supposed to be a very light easterly, and after parking near the church I walked a loop out towards Umberslade Farm and back through Danzey Green.
There were no real highlights apart from yet another Red Kite which was the only raptor I saw. But a flock of at least 265 Woodpigeons was an impressive sight, while 72 Redwings and 14 Greenfinches in the field and hedgerow beyond the doctor's house were worth recording.
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| Red Kite |
The locals seemed pretty friendly and I had a nice chat with a dog-walker at the church. He asked me if I'd seen "the Redpolls", and in fact I did later hear one. He also mentioned that last year he had seen a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker on the feeders in his garden. It would be nice to think he had correctly identified it, and that the species is still present around there.
What else is out there in the wider countryside untouched by regular birders?
Oh, I nearly forgot, I checked my Birdtrack records and my sole previous entry for Tanworth-in-Arden was a Cuckoo on 27 April 1988. Now my memory has been jogged I do vaguely remember stopping at the side of the road around here and hearing it. I wonder if one will still be around this spring.
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