Friday April 29 - Earlswood Lakes

 My decision to revisit Earlswood Lakes was a bit last minute, but I'm glad I did. It was another cold and cloudy morning, only brightening at around midday.

As expected there were plenty of hirundines flying low over all the lakes, and a text message mid-morning informing me that there was a Red-rumped Swallow at Westwood (near Droitwich) had me checking them pretty regularly. I estimated at least 60 Swallows, 10 House Martins and a similar number of Sand Martins, but nothing to get excited about.

Swallow

In the back of my mind I was aware that there had been a Wood Warbler and a Yellow Wagtail at the weekend, so I chose Terry's Pool to walk around first. As usual great views were had of the common birds there, but it wasn't until I returned to Engine Pool that I started to find a few things.

One of two Common Sandpipers was standing on the bit of rubble the contractors who were working on the Lakes last year had allowed to stand proud of the water level.

Common Sandpiper

It's not exactly ideal wader habitat, but it's better than nothing.

Half way along the western boundary I noticed two terns resting on the water. They turned out to be Arctic Terns, a Circle tick for me. 

Arctic Terns

They spent several minutes floating on the water as shown. Interestingly the bills, though blood red and short as they should be, do show the merest hint of dark on the tips of their upper mandibles. This demonstrates the risk of relying too heavily on the bill colour. Its shape and length is a better guide. Better still is the absence of a grey (can be faint on Common when fresh though) wedge on the upper edge of the primary wing feathers, and the narrow grey tips to the underside of the white primaries. The birds showed this feature when in flight but it was hard to capture with my bridge camera. This is my sharpest shot...

Arctic Tern

Also present were at least two Common Terns. They were quite vocal, and eventually perched on a buoy showing their relatively long legs, and longer bills which in the case of these two birds was the classic orange-red with obvious black tip.

Common Terns

I also spotted a Little Ringed Plover flying around. You've got to feel sorry for this bird. It probably bred here last year when the lakes were partly drained, and has returned from Africa unaware that the Canal and River Trust have completed their work and there will be no more mud. Mind you, I did think I could see a shallow area just off the dam, so if it stays dry it might get lucky.

I walked around Windmill Pool, stopping to watch a female Green Woodpecker licking up ants in the yacht club and enjoyed showing the spectacle to two appreciative dog walkers.

Green Woodpecker

Both Common and Lesser Whitethroats were singing, and I also heard a Sedge Warbler near the Red Lion end of the causeway. A gathering of 38 Tufted Ducks was also more than I had been expecting to see, but there was no Yellow Wagtail in the horse paddocks at the far end.

As the cloud lifted, the sun came out and the hirundines dispersed in search of higher flying insects. I could no longer find the Arctic Terns, so I'm guessing they left too.

I think I'm going to put my moth trap out tonight, although the nights are still too cold really. So there may be a supplement to this post tomorrow.

                                 ...................................................................................................                                   

 So the irony is that although I did put the trap out and attracted five moths of three species, all new for the year, the least regular moth was actually found on the shed during the afternoon while I was earning some brownie points by doing some gardening.

That was a Least Black Arches, only the third I have seen. Presumably they live in the garden.

Least Black Arches

The evening's catch was: Swallow Prominent 3, Pebble Prominent 1, Oak-tree Pug 1. To be fair, the temperature fell to just one degree overnight, so it's fortunate there was anything at all.

Wednesday April 27

 Another chilly morning with a light northerly and permanent cloud cover meant a fairly uninspiring trawl around some local sites.

Middletown finally yielded a distant passage Wheatear, but not much else. Mappleborough Green Flash added just the usual species, so it was left to Morton Bagot to try and raise my spirits.

There was no sign of the Garganey, and I counted 11 Eurasian Teal but nothing American with them. The pair of Shelducks remain in residence. There were no passage waders, and just three Swallows were hunting over the nearest flash. At last I got to the field which had held the Ring Ouzels and found a nice male Wheatear to save the day.

Northern Wheatear

There were virtually no insects flying, but hopefully warmer days are ahead and things should pick up.

Monday April 25 - Red-crested Pochard

 I had intended to spend the day avoiding birds after the trials and tribulations of yesterday, but all that went out of the window when I got a call from Mark Islip. He had found a drake Red-crested Pochard at Arrow Valley Lake this morning.

This is, surprisingly, a first for the Circle. Less surprisingly I arrived to find it hanging around the duck feeding area in the north-east arm (not where Mark had found it). A family arrived and started chucking bread. The Red-crested Pochard swam towards them, although to be fair it then hung back and didn't actually take any bread.

Red-crested Pochard

So probably as plastic as they come, but aren't they all. The species does breed in Europe, and there is a feral population around the Cotswold Wildlife Park. It is unfortunately very pretty, so popular in collections.

I couldn't see any rings on it, but I've no doubt it was an escape.

A Reed Warbler was singing in the reed-bed, and a quick scan brought me eight Tufted Ducks and about 30 Black-headed Gulls.

The main car-park was shut, and work constructing a new traffic island resulted in a three-way traffic light system. Despite this, the other car-park was packed and people were everywhere. Its not my favourite place.

Sunday April 24 - The ecstasy and the agony

 This morning I was joined by Dave at Morton Bagot and we set off the see whether any of Friday's treats were still present. To the best of my knowledge neither the Ring Ouzels nor the Garganey were seen yesterday.  Meanwhile the rest of the Midlands was knee-deep in Little Gulls, including two at Arrow Valley Lake seen by Mark Islip, while Matt Griffiths was seeing a couple of Arctic Skuas over Earlswood (the first ever Skuas there or anywhere else within my Circular patch).

It didn't take long before we started to get lucky. A "Curlew" I saw briefly in flight turned out to be the first Whimbrel for the patch since 2013. It landed in the field which had held the Ring Ouzels two days ago and showed well before heading for the flash field (without being flushed by us I may add).

Whimbrel

At exactly the same time we could hear a Grasshopper Warbler reeling from the hedge-line. We were keen to check whether the Whimbrel had landed so made no serious attempt to see it.

At the flash field we scanned, and quickly located the Garganey in exactly the same place as it had been on Friday. I would have photographed it, but our morning was hi-jacked by a Teal sleeping in the grass. It appeared to have a white vertical stripe down the side of its breast, but I wasn't certain whether it was the edge of the breast, often pale in drake Teal, playing tricks on us. It was so far away it was hard to work out which way it was facing.

We decided to head along the footpath towards the church and look back, hoping for a different perspective. This plan at least enabled us to relocate the Whimbrel which had chosen to occupy a part of the field invisible from the viewpoint. We couldn't see the Teal at all, so we returned to the viewpoint and continued to watch it. I tried to get some shots. Surely this was a Green-winged Teal.

It's not the obvious Teal, it's the blob to its left.

Zooming in. Looks like a Green-winged Teal to me, but is it really?

I took loads of photos hoping one of them might reveal a little more. Eventually we could see that the white stripe was visible (just) on both sides of its chest (but is it the chest)? So not a blade of grass.

It's the blob to the left of the drake Teal

Another shocking photo

At this point we made a very bad decision. Instead of continuing to wait for it to move (or do something!) we decided to try to find a better viewing position. The flash field is out of bounds, so going into it was not an option.

After failing to get any views at all, we returned to find...an empty patch of grass. An hour later we couldn't even see the Garganey any more, and the seven Eurasian Teals we could see swam up and down without ever giving the impression of being anything else.

The annoying thing is that it could still be there, or it may have flown off while we were wasting our time. 

One other bird to mention was a Little Ringed Plover which appeared at the edge of the same distant flash. 

So at time of writing this we have gone from the elation of finding the Whimbrel, to the frustration of barely getting good enough views to clinch the Green-winged Teal and then losing it completely.

I'm having it though.....or am I? I've been down again this evening and there was no sign. I am also starting to worry about whether there is enough evidence that the identification is sound.

Specifically I'm concerned that the bird might be back-on with the grass covering its rear end. If that were the case, the apparent white breast streak might actually be the flank streak seen from the rear. Dave was counselling caution, and I think I should have listened to him.

Finally a bit of late news. John Chidwick heard two singing Grasshopper Warblers this evening.

Friday April 22 - What a difference a day makes

 There's something about April 22 which leads me to think I should go out birding. Its probably just a day in 2011 when I had Marsh Harrier and Wood Sandpipers at Morton Bagot, but every year on or about that date the fates favour me with a good day.

This morning it was not just the date. The wind is in the east (well maybe north-east), and its just far enough into April for this to be a good thing. Migrants will have have advanced into Europe only to be drifted westwards. Well that's the theory.

I still couldn't resist starting out at Mappleborough Flash, and I did get a year-tick out of it. A Reed Warbler was singing from the ludicrously thick hedge bordering the flash. With no obvious phragmites there, this must have been a migrant. A sign. I eventually managed to see it, but a photograph was out of the question. I also finally glimpsed (in flight) the singing Cetti's Warbler which has been there for weeks. Wader wise it still holds four Little Ringed Plovers, and a Green Sandpiper has appeared.

So to Morton Bagot. The site has been waderless for some time, and I have been restricting myself to one visit a week. But it's April 22, so that should mean success.

Early signs were so-so. A Sedge Warbler was singing in the reedbed at Netherstead. I couldn't see it, but here's one the ringers caught at a nearby site a few days ago.

Sedge Warbler

The wind was stiffening, and most songbirds were struggling to croak out more than a few bars. Up to three Lesser Whitethroats and two Whitethroats were added to the notebook. 

What I wasn't expecting to find was a moth, but a tiny micro with dark forewing and pale orangey brown hindwing fluttered out of the grass, and I got one chance to get a shot of it...which I fluffed.

Esperia sulphurella

Needless to say I hadn't a clue what it was, but the blurred image shown was just enough the clinch Esperia sulphurella which is a lifer (I think). I certainly haven't seen one in my moth trap.

I moved on, and in the field beyond the old pool field I found a Fieldfare, which I considered was a sign. We birders often find ourselves looking at something vaguely unusual and claiming it as a good sign. This Fieldfare was unexpected, it should have been halfway to Norway, but it was here at Morton Bagot instead. A sign.

Fieldfare

I reached the flash field and scanned. No sign of the Avocets, but a pair of Shelduck flew in. Four or five Teal swam on the furthest flash. Then I looked again and "Bingo" a drake Garganey swam out from behind the juncus. 

Garganey

Thanks to the Norgrove Court birds, this was not a year tick, but it's only the second spring drake ever seen at Morton Bagot. If the Fieldfare was the sign, surely the Garganey was the main prize. 

Or maybe not. I sent the necessary texts and tweets, and proceeded along the Morton Brook. A Swallow flew over, and I reached the part of the field below Stapenhill Wood from where I usually scan for Wheatears. Today there were none, but there was something better. A female Ring Ouzel was hopping across the middle of the field. More tweets and texts, during which I heard the chack calls of Ring Ouzel. I looked up to find there were two birds. A male and a female. These were definitely an #LocalBigYear tick.

Ring Ouzels

It was tempting to edge forward for a better shot, but these birds can be very nervy and friends were on their way, so I held back. In the end, only Mike I and Martin W got there before I decided I had to leave. A few minutes later the day's only dog-walker appeared and the birds were lost for the rest of the day.

In the meantime I went back to the flash field to relocate the Garganey, and while I baby-sat it, I ticked off House Martin, Sand Martin, and a drake Mandarin which flew up the brook. These were all additions to the Morton Bagot year list which is restricted to my head this year. I'm not doing one, oh no. Except of course I can't help myself.

I headed for Alcester to do some shopping, calling in at Haselor Scrape (as you do). It wasn't a waste of time either. Four Little Ringed Plovers and two Green Sandpipers had joined the pair of Shelducks there. Another sign, this time that the water level is starting to drop. Another place worth keeping an eye on.

In the afternoon I returned to Morton Bagot and met up with Dave, Sam, and Mark I as we tried in vain to relocate the Ouzels. Mark had seen a Wheatear in the horse paddocks at Netherstead. I'm not doing a Morton Bagot year list of course. Yeah right! I went to look, but it had moved on.

April 22. What a day.

Wednesday April 20 - Keeping quiet?

 This morning I made a late decision to go back to Coughton Wood. At the end of March it was teeming with Siskins and Redpolls, and the habitat looked pretty interesting. 

In the end I did see a party of eight Redpolls which flew over, and it's tempting to say they could be breeding there. But can I even say that? The rules of what you can blog about are unwritten, as far as I am aware, and I am unclear about what I can and cannot say.

Even in the pre-social media days it was a bit of a minefield. Suppression was frowned on, and you could soon find yourself in other birder's bad books, particularly if you were quite happy to twitch other people's finds. 

But the whereabouts of breeding Goshawks, Hobbies and suchlike were kept under wraps. You generally got to hear about them with the proviso "don't tell anyone, and don't tell anyone I told you". Fair enough I suppose, it was generally understood that egg collecting was rife. How bad would you feel if your careless slip led to eggs being robbed.

Nowadays the issue is the speed news gets broadcast. Tweets are sent and news of birds reach many ears within minutes. Blog posts are slower, but it's the same problem.

So let's take these Redpolls. They are scarce breeders around here, but not over much of the country. Surely any egg-collector worth his salt is not going to be tapping into blogs, or even tweets, to find out where they are. Would he even be interested? How many active eggers are there anyway? I suspect there are very few.

Anyway, while its still fairly obvious that if you find a rare breeding raptor you should keep it to yourself, what about other species? Turtle Dove, Woodlark, and Nightingale for example. If I found one of them should I keep it off the blog? 

How rare does a bird have to be? I have noted three Cetti's Warblers locally this spring, but can I say where they are? They're on the increase and so not threatened. The WMBC Report now mentions sites, although the publication is about two years behind the event.

I think it would be useful to have some Internet Guidelines about what can be said. It may be out there, but I haven't seen it.

You can probably guess I've had a pretty dull day. Three Willow Warblers were singing in Coughton Wood, and I photographed one at Mappleborough Green Flash.

Willow Warbler

A Common Sandpiper GWJ had seen yesterday evening had gone, and I was left to claim a fly-over House Martin as my bird of the day.

Monday April 18 - Back on the patch

 Although there seems to be a general perception that numbers and variety of migrants are down this year, Dave and I spent about three hours at Morton Bagot seeing roughly the same species as we saw here this time last year. If anything we saw slightly more.

Where I did fall short was photographing any of them. New for the year was a very distant singing Sedge Warbler, and new for the year (for us) at Morton Bagot were three Whitethroats, two Lesser Whitethroats, two Swallows, and a singing Willow Warbler. Five or six fly-over Redpolls may have been migrants, but could also be a sign that they plan to stay for the summer.

Earlier arrivals now bedding in were 12 Chiffchaffs, and 10 Blackcaps. The habitat seems ideal for them. Over at the flash field strange things are happening. The water level remains high, and the sedge has spread across much of the field. Despite an apparent absence of anywhere for them to nest, there are now a record three pairs of Avocets. Also very much at home are five Shelducks, but only one pair of Lapwings. Three Teal remain, always worth bearing in mind with the West Midlands Alldayer now just three weekends away.

I did at least get a couple of new butterflies for the year; a Comma, and a Large White (seen below Bannams Wood as I drove home), and also a Stoat (also seen from the car as it ran across the access road.)

Comma

A few passage migrants would have been nice, but perhaps the weather is too settled to hold anything up.

Easter Sunday April 17 - Mappleborough Green

Well here's a change. Having been invited to lunch by my sister I had postponed my usual Morton Bagot visit, choosing instead the less time-consuming Mappleborough Green.

A sunny morning with several butterflies on the wing, it felt good to be out, and even better when I heard the jaunty rattle made by my first Lesser Whitethroat of the year. What's more, I could see it flicking about on the same hedge that had supported the Redstart last week.

Lesser Whitethroat

I managed a record shot, but it soon disappeared when I tried a closer approach.

On reaching the flash I established that the Avocet and Green Sandpipers had gone, but a couple of pairs of Little Ringed Plovers, three Jays, and various species of warbler were entertaining enough.

Chiffchaff

Speckled Wood - my first of the spring

I plan to be back at Morton Bagot tomorrow, and have been informed that a Lesser Whitethroat was there yesterday, and the usual Avocets, Shelducks etc plus a late Stonechat were present earlier in the week.

Friday April 15 - The north-west passage

Keen to extend my recent run of year-ticks I decided to head to the north-west end of my Circle, starting with Cobley Hill and moving on to Tardebigge Reservoir.

It seemed like a viable plan, being the peak passage time for Ring Ouzel, Osprey, and Yellow Wagtail, all of which I still "need". Inevitably none of the above was seen, but Cobley Hill at least provided a little bit of migrant activity when I spotted a Wheatear almost immediately.

Wheatear

This gave me the boost I needed to scan all the likely looking fields for other upland passerines. None were seen, but there were a few compensations. A singing Whitethroat took off before I could pin-point it, but four Swallows back on territory around Cobley Hill Farm were far more obliging.

Swallow

A singing Blackcap was also perching prominently.

Blackcap

Sadly it was quite literally downhill after that. The odd Willow Warbler sang, and also at least ten Linnets, but these were all kind of expected.

As for Tardebigge Reservoir, I'm going right off it. Lots of holidaymakers along the canal, and fishermen at the reservoir, but few birds to get the juices flowing.

Wednesday April 13 - another day, another year tick.

 This evening I decided to have another look at Mappleborough Green flash. There had been some more rain, but it was largely sunny when I arrived.

Yesterday, Gary Jilks had seen five Avocets and eight Wheatears after I had left. Would they still be there? Well the answer turned out to be no Wheatears, and just one Avocet. So I'm guessing that his five had been the Morton Bagot foursome and an interloper, which has chosen to remain.

Anyway, I'd better mention the #LocalBigYear tick. About 40 Black-headed Gulls were on the largest flash, and they were briefly joined by a second calendar year Common Gull. That's the tick...amazing how scarce they are around here. It flew off before I could focus the camera, but returned for a second brief stay 30 minutes later. 

Common Gull with its admirers.

The Avocet

I established there are now at least two Green Sandpipers and four Little Ringed Plovers, although their habit of hopping the hedge between the two scrapes caused a degree of checking and rechecking. The place looks ideal for Yellow Wagtails, but I could only find about six Pied Wagtails including a female which was at the pale end of the greyness spectrum. Its rump eventually confirming it was just a Pied.

Green Sandpiper

Pied Wagtail - female

A lot of Willow Warblers were feeding in the hedges, most of them silent. I estimated seven, but there could have been more. As I was heading away I got one final tick, Gary Jilks. He lives really close to the place, and found it last year. It was great to meet him at last.

Tonight the moth trap goes out, so this post will be extended if I catch anything new. 

PS: The temperature dropped to 5 degrees C overnight which is probably why I only caught 14 moths of seven species. New for the year were Brindled Beauty 4, Brindled Pug 2, White-shouldered House Moth, and Twenty-plume Moth 2.

Brindled Beauty

Now that's what I call an impressive moth.

Tuesday April 12 - Its raining birds

 A little while ago (the day before yesterday) I posted a somewhat morose whinge that I was really unlucky, moan, moan, whinge, whinge. However the next evening I consulted my crystal ball (well ok the weather forecast) and knew my luck might change if only I could get the plan right.

Heavy rain + reservoir = birds. So went the plan. I headed for Earlswood Lakes, the nearest thing to a large reservoir in my Circle. The rain pepped up as I arrived, and straight away I could see hirundines, hundreds of them. I estimated 150 Sand Martins and 30 Swallows, but it was probably more.

A further scan brought the first prize of the day, an adult summer Little Gull. It fluttered around Engine Pool, often quite close. Regulars at Earlswood will be surprised to learn that it was an Earlswood tick (and indeed a Circle tick) for me. I don't go there nearly enough.

The Little Gull - after the rain abated

The only downside was that I was getting absolutely soaked. Several Willow Warblers sang, and by the time I had reached the causeway a single Common Tern had joined the hirundine hoard. After much sifting through the martins I found two House Martins, and then set off to walk around Windmill Pool where I flushed a Little Egret, and then a Common Sandpiper, my fourth #LocalBigYear tick of the day. John Sirrett pulled up and told me there had been a Wheatear on the causeway earlier.

Willow Warbler

A walk along the side of Terry's Pool produced some Shovelers, the drake Wigeon, and the Willow Warbler shown in the photo. As the rain became lighter and finally stopped, so the birds seemed to melt away. The Little Gull started circling higher, and the hirundines also dispersed. The show was over.

But, not really. Back home I dried off, grabbed some lunch and made my way to my new favourite place, Mappleborough Green. I had barely got past The Boot Inn when a small bird flushed from a tangle of weeds and landed in a hedge. I had seen the white outer tail feathers and was expecting a Reed Bunting, but in fact it was a Common Whitethroat, another year-tick.

I walked down the field towards the flash and cautiously surveyed the bit you can see from the footpath. The Green Sandpiper was at last in a place where I could get a shot, along with a pair of Little Ringed Plovers.

Green Sandpiper

Beyond the flash were two, no three Wheatears, another year-tick. A Kingfisher called as it flew down the brook, and a couple of Snipe took flight.

One of the three male Wheatears

I back-tracked and cautiously peered through the trees at the larger flash, which is on private land. A Shoveler, two more Little Ringed Plovers, a pair of Shelducks, a few Lapwings and Black-headed Gulls, a Swallow which flew around, and then this...

Curlew

Wow. I managed to take some shots and leave without disturbing anything on the flash, although a shouty Herring Gull appeared later and probably alerted the occupants that someone was creeping about. Speaking of shouty things, I did hear one of those too.

On my way back to the car it occurred to me that I should check the hedgerows for Redstart, and literally the first one I looked at produced this...

Redstart

Blooming heck. So that's eight #LocalPatchYear ticks in a day. Could this be the start of a purple patch?

Sunday April 10

 What's the opposite of a purple patch? Whatever it is, I seem to be experiencing it at the moment. This morning's attempt to break the log jam mostly took place at Morton Bagot. The wind has vaguely swung into the south-west and was very light. Ideal conditions for ringing.

I headed towards Stapenhill Wood where Tony and Leigh had set their nets. On the way, a scan of the fields produced no Wheatears, just Skylarks. I counted about eight larks and a similar number of Linnets. 

Skylark

The ringers greeted me with a list of birds processed, the scarcest being a Marsh Tit. I decided to press on to the flash field where the water level remains high, and the birds...well, remain. Still four Avocets, two Shelducks, three Shovelers, eight Teal and three Lapwings.

I got back to the ringers in time to see a female Goldfinch and a Wren being extracted with great care from a mist net.

The Goldfinch

The Wren

At least the sun was out, and the late morning warmed sufficiently to produce a Small Tortoiseshell. 

Small Tortoiseshell

As a last throw of the dice I decided to go to the big field at Middletown in the hope of finding a Wheatear (I'm starting to get obsessed). 

Not a Wheatear in sight. Instead a tractor was scouring the surface and the flock of Golden Plovers was in flight. I whipped the camera out and pressed record. In my mind's eye the best way to eliminate any thoughts of Lesser Golden Plover types was to film the underwing to establish whether any had grey axillaries. What I actually found was that this is a fool's errand. Even in bright conditions the underwings flashed white or grey according to the light. What I did establish was that there were 61 Golden Plovers, none looked small, and none showed feet protruding from the tail tip. 

The ringing data for the morning at Morton Bagot was quite impressive, and is as follows:

Blue Tit 13 (7)

Great Tit 7 (2)

Marsh Tit 1

Long-tailed Tit 2 (2)

Blackcap 1

Chiffchaff 2

Treecreeper 1

Wren 5 (1)

Blackbird 2

Song Thrush 1

Dunnock 1

Chaffinch 1

Goldfinch 11 (1)

Bullfinch 1

As usual re-traps are shown in brackets. Tony and Leigh have kindly shared some of their photographs with me.

Marsh Tit

Treecreeper

Marsh Tits are resident in several of the woods around Redditch, but nowhere are they common. Two or three pairs of Treecreeper territories are generally found at Morton Bagot, but they are unobtrusive birds and a nice prize in the hand.

Friday April 8 - chilling

 In terms of #LocalBigYear ticks, yesterday's five minute scan trumped the three hour's field work I put in this morning.

So yesterday I figured out that I could park below the dam at Earlswood on my way to pick up my mum, and scan for hirundines. It was extremely chilly and windy, and sure enough three or four Swallows and a couple of Sand Martins were whizzing about at the far end of Engine Pool. Result ! The Swallow was year-tick number 98.

This morning I resumed my efforts to prove to myself that Mappleborough Green Flash was worth the effort. I tried coming in from the Studley Castle end. I was hoping there might be a gap in the thick hedge which might allow a better view. This approach did find a viewpoint, but it was further away. It added a Little Egret to the list (which wasn't there when I finally reached the western end).

Otherwise it was pretty much the same species, and the gloss of the new place is becoming a little tarnished. A big plus was a pair of Little Ringed Plovers which pitched in close to where I was standing and gave me a great photo opportunity.

Little Ringed Plover

Also visible from the footpath was the Green Sandpiper but my shot of that was distant and spoilt by the grid-like reflection of the fence it was feeding next to. A Willow Warbler sang rather hesitantly from the hedge, and a Blackcap also appeared.

Blackcap

A couple of Bullfinches and a Siskin flew over, boosting my locality list.

My next decision was flawed by inattention to detail. Neil D had posted another photo of one of the Garganeys at Norgrove Court. A chance to get a better shot I thought.

I parked in Crumpfield Lane and made my way to the pools, where the Garganeys were not present. I looked at the Tweet again and realised it was a couple of days old. Aah! Never mind, I did locate a pair of Little Grebes on the pool, and a flock of at least 56 Fieldfares and a Redwing on the walk down the lane.

It's still chilly today, though the wind has dropped. I saw no butterflies, but looking at the forecast, warmer days are approaching.

Tuesday April 5 - site hopping

 I probably didn't make the best use of my time this morning. As usual I had a best case scenario in my head, and reality fell short. 

I began with a more relaxed exploration of Mappleborough Green Flash. This confirmed the difficulty of viewing the largest scrape, but also led to the discovery of a second, smaller flash which can easily be viewed (and probably disturbed) from the public footpath.

The small flash

I didn't add much  to the lists contributed by myself and Gary J over the weekend, eight Snipe were flushed accidentally when I got lost, three Little Ringed Plovers, a Green Sandpiper, four Meadow Pipits, and two Redwings were the best of the birds I'm willing to blog about.

Little Ringed Plover

The next part of the plan was to go to Middletown, where I hoped the big field might contain a Wheatear. It didn't, but at least 74 Golden Plovers have resumed occupancy, several of them in the impressive summer plumage shown by the more northerly breeding birds.

Distant Golden Plovers

The last throw of the dice was to go to Arrow Valley Lake, where I was hoping I might see a hirundine. There is growing concern about the lateness and poor numbers of Sand Martins in particular this spring, and my efforts failed to provide any good news. I am hoping they are just late, as the alternative is that the population may have crashed on the wintering grounds.

Instead it was just the usual stuff, with five singing Blackcaps again, a drake Goosander, and a female Mallard with a brood of ducklings the pick of a very meagre list.

Sunday April 3 - New Morton Bagot?

 The day began cold and grey. Dave and I set off on our usual circuit, quickly noticing that it was rather quiet, a fly-over Redpoll being the highlight of the first hour. I attempted the odd photo in poor light, but I shouldn't have bothered.

Chiffchaff

We reached the flash field to find things much as we'd left them a week ago. The four Avocets were now arguing over the nearest flash, six Shovelers, three Shelducks, at least 10 Teal, a Snipe and so on.

A neighbourly dispute

We'd been stood in the same spot for about thirty minutes when we had a bit of luck. A rather distant squeal had us looking at one another and saying Water Rail? It wasn't going to give us a second chance, and as we were both of the same opinion we duly logged the fifth Water Rail (and Dave's first) for the site.

The walk back was brightened by the sight of a Little Egret standing in the field beyond the Kingfisher Pool (much closer than the ones last week).

Little Egret

That would have been that, but I had something I wanted to follow up. Gary Jilks had tweeted me with news of some Little Ringed Plovers, and a Green Sandpiper on a flash near the Boot Inn at Mappleborough Green. I wasn't exactly sure where he meant, but decided to have a look.

I eventually found it, and it does look very interesting. At least four Little Ringed Plovers and a Green Sandpiper were indeed in residence along with Lapwings, and Pied Wagtails, while a Little Grebe trilled from a nearby pool. 

One of the Little Ringed Plovers (they weren't close)

It has a number of things going for it. No juncus, no obvious way dog-walkers could get to it, and a nice muddy edge. On the other hand the ditch which would keep the dog-walkers off, also barred me from getting close. I had to resort to looking through bushes, which could be problematic when the leaves start to grow.

Nevertheless this could be the new Morton Bagot, and it's even closer to my house than the old one.

Neither Gary nor I knew a name for it, so we agreed I could christen it Mappleborough Green Flash. It is, as Gary tweeted, one to watch.