Sunday May 29 - Grasping at straws

 It was chilly, it was grey, it was damp, it was Morton Bagot. Dave and I did our best but the gods were against us. With insects determined to hide in the grass we were left with only birds and mammals to look at.

We did have one minor victory when a Cuckoo announced its presence somewhere far in the distance towards Studley. Needless to say, we didn't see it. The Garden Warbler seems to have gone, or perhaps it has just stopped singing. On the other hand we did hear three Reed Warblers, including one rather incongruously singing from Stapenhill Wood. 

Before Dave arrived I got some shots of a pair of Red-legged Partridges and a couple of Brown Hares, which is just as well because not much else came in range.

Red-legged Partridges

Have they just had a tiff?

At the flash field it was encouraging to see that the Lapwing chick is still with us, and looking quite bulky. But less promising was the presence of both adult Shelducks, which might mean that their breeding attempt has failed this year. A single adult Little Ringed Plover had the fairly substantial amount of mud surrounding the nearest flash all to itself.

We eventually reached the raptor watchpoint and watched nine Common Swifts fly by. The peak for  Swifts feeding over Morton Bagot is usually at the end of June, so maybe these were the vanguard.

But that was that about it. We're approaching the anniversary of the Red-backed Shrike though, so think positively. It only takes one bird.

Friday May 27 - Hockley Heath

 When I rolled the dice and got Hockley Heath, I can't say that I was filled with a great sense of optimism and enthusiasm. But if you're determined to visit every square kilometre of your extended patch, and I am, you just have to bite the bullet.

At least there was plenty of sunshine on offer, although the north-westerly breeze is still a bit too brisk. I parked in the centre of the town, and noted two pairs of Common Swift flying low over the rooftops. A good omen perhaps.

My circuit took me south-eastwards in an anti-clockwise loop, and it had its moments. Who knew that a field containing a commercial crop of Christmas Trees would be so full of birds? Next to the Stratford Canal was just such a field, and it was jam-packed with territorial songbirds, including a singing Willow Warbler, and a singing Cuckoo. I didn't manage to actually see either bird, let alone photograph them, but a pair of Linnets was more obliging.

Linnet

Further east the countryside became the traditional patchwork of small arable fields and dense copses. Ideal habitat for a singing Yellowhammer which given the parlous state of the species these days, I regarded as the bird of the day. I did see it, but didn't attempt to get a shot.

Other minor notables were a Blackcap feeding fledglings, a calling Bullfinch, a Jay carrying food, and a pair of Red-legged Partridges.

As for insects, these were the best...

Holly Blue

Large Red Damselfly

Wednesday May 25 - the pioneering spirit

 On Wednesday morning I woke up to grey skies and a rather brisk westerly breeze. Not ideal, but I was keen to resume my random visits to unvisited parts of my Circle. This one really did feel like the middle of nowhere. I parked on Rotherham Oak Lane and walked north towards the M42.

After a short while I came to a canal, and opted to follow the towpath. The cool weather had put paid to insect watching, and I resorted to trying to pluck little victories from the birds available. Treecreeper, and Pied Wagtail feeding young, a tree-trunk full of calling Great Spotted Woodpecker nestlings.

It was all a bit pedestrian, although a small Scots pine wood did hold my attention for a while.

Returning to the car I then struck out to the south. The footpath bordered Arnold Wood and then Chalcot Wood, which I discovered was being used by a private company as an adventure playground with archery, ropewalks, and other attractions for the intrepid. Fortunately there were enough Mistle Thrushes, Buzzards and other woodland birds to keep me interested. 

At the end of the wood, shortly before I reached the M40 motorway, was a small pool. And on it I found my reward. A duck Mandarin with six ducklings swam into view.

Mandarin proved to be breeding

The species is still quite a good find in Warwickshire, although there is a small local population. This is the first proof of breeding in the county since 2016.

The dull weather put paid to any hopes of finding noteworthy insects, which was a pity because I had recently received a new insect book for my birthday, and was itching to try it out.

At 600 pages it's quite a chunky tome, but it's still a generalist guide. To have every insect in Britain illustrated it would need to be about 6000 pages. Nevertheless it doesn't waste pages on too many moths and other groups which I already have covered, and looks likely to get plenty of use.

My only chance to put it to the test since I got it has been in the garden. It led me to Early Bumblebee, and Bramble Sawfly (actually photographed at Morton Bagot at the weekend), but couldn't help with a Bug sp which I suspect is an instar (immature stage) of something which would be more identifiable if it had been an adult.

Early Bumblebee

Bramble Sawfly

A Bug too far

With a digital camera, the Internet, and a whole host of identification guides available there is plenty of opportunity to record the natural world, and maybe help to stop it disappearing.

Sunday May 22 - overwhelmed by wildlife

The thing about wildlife watching at Morton Bagot as Spring eases into early Summer is that the creatures available leave you quite dizzy. There's so much to see. The only calm period is the first hour, when it should be just birds.

Dave and I chose to walk up the road for a change, noting that the Garden Warbler is still singing, a Grey Wagtail may have a territory, and at least 10 House Martins are hawking insects over their traditional colony at Netherstead. Better late than never.

By late morning we were walking down the slope from Bannams Wood, and the emphasis started to switch to insects. A Small Yellow Underwing was flitting low over the grass. This little moth emerges each year, but we never see many.

Small Yellow Underwing

Butterflies included double figures of Small Heath, our first Common Blue which disappeared before I could get a shot, and several Brown Argus which were much more obliging.

Brown Argus

Before you know where you are, it feels impossible to look up. But we must. Anything could be flying over. So we proceeded, trying to look everywhere, and constantly finding new things...all of them insects.

New moths for the year were Celypha lacunana, and Silver-ground Carpet, a new damselfly was Blue-tailed Damselfly, and best of all an extraordinary insect tick (definitely the first I've ever seen) was an amazing longhorn beetle called Agapanthia villosoviridescens. 

Just wow !

We finally got to the flash field, where there was a decent edge. Having now seen all the expected summer migrants, the best hope for a new bird will surely be from here. Today it tantalised. A pair of Avocets have returned, and a single Little Ringed Plover walked into view. The most unexpected species was a fly-over Redpoll which called twice as we failed to locate it. Presumably there is a tiny population which has not withdrawn to the north when the rest of them went back for summer.

The Avocets

A single male Teal remains, and we were delighted to see a single Lapwing chick. Its prospects for survival are not great but it looked to be at least a week old, so maybe it will be the lucky one.

When I was young I was only interested in birds, and summer felt like a closed season. But a broader interest in other creatures, which has slowly developed through the years, is life enhancing. Now I love all the seasons equally.

Saturday May 21 - A walk in the woods

This morning I was joined by an old friend, Richard B, who was keen to accompany me on a wildlife wander. Normally this takes place at Morton Bagot, but I recently got some gen about the last bird on my "summer migrants I should be able to see locally" list. So I took Richard on what was effectively a twitch.

We arrived at the Morgrove Coppice car-park in good time, and followed the footpath towards Spernall Park. Plenty of woodland birds were singing, especially Blackcaps, but actually seeing any of them was extremely difficult. I managed to point out a Treecreeper, and a newly fledged party of Long-tailed Tits, before I got distracted by some displaying longhorn moths of the species Nemophora degeerella. Not what we had come to see, but pretty impressive nonetheless. I thought I had seen the species before, but I can't find any proof of that, so maybe they were a tick.

Antennae that go on forever

We continued into the wood to the area we understood we needed to be, and pretty soon found a single singing Spotted Flycatcher, #LocalBigYear tick number 123. When I say singing, this needs a pretty wide interpretation. The species' song consists of occasional "sip" calls, and it probably rivals House Sparrow for the worst bird song award.

Spotted Flycatcher

Also present in the area were singing Garden Warbler and Willow Warbler. In attempting to film the Spotted Flycatcher singing, I also picked up the Garden Warbler, plus Blackcap, Blackbird, Chiffchaff, Robin, and Chaffinch. 

We then proceeded to lose the footpath and get a bit lost. This was not necessarily a bad thing, because in the course of trying to extricate ourselves from the wood we heard a muffled hoot from a Tawny Owl, and found a patch of Early Purple Orchids.

Early Purple Orchid

Not being a flower buff, I had to look it up when we got back. As far as I know they are the only ones I have ever seen.

Many thanks to Neil D for the Spotted Flycatcher tip off. The species used to be fairly common, but is now rather scarce. Hopefully I'll be able to find some more before the summer is over.

Thursday May 19 - The moths are back

Moths are not to everyone's taste, and I must admit to a slight cooling in my enthusiasm for them this year. I only really look at them when they enter our Redditch garden, and over the last few years weekly trapping has brought me a list of 369 species. There can't be many more to catch, can there?

Well it turns out there may be. Trapping roughly every three weeks this year had yielded just species I had seen before. In fact my only garden tick was Esperia sulphurella, on the 18 May. This was the species I also found for the first time at Morton Bagot in April, a rather smart day-flying micro-moth.

Esperia sulphurella

I had been due to go birding this morning, but a last minute change of schedule has bounced it into Saturday. So instead I decided to put the trap out. The temperature was due to fall no lower than 12 degrees C, and this must have made a difference.

My overnight tally was 37 moths of 24 species, which is not too shabby at all. Even better, they weren't all ones I instantly recognised. In fact I got into my usual tangle trying to work out the odd looking ones.

Two were new for the garden, and therefore also new for me. One was a micro called Cochylimorpha straminea, and the other was a macro (but also a Pug) called Dwarf Pug. 

Cochylimorpha straminea

Dwarf Pug - rather worn

The Pug went through two alternative identifications before I hit on what has been confirmed as the right solution. I then realised that there was another one on the fence, also rather worn.

At the other end of the age scale I found this mysterious insect on the brickwork....

Initially I thought it was some weird micro, then started to wonder if it was even a moth. I tweeted a photo of it to an expert, but before I saw his reply (which was correct), I returned to the pot to discover a lovely freshly emerged Garden Carpet therein. 

Garden Carpet

Another notch on the learning curve of life.

Also new for the year were Light Brown Apple Moth (two), Coronet, Knot Grass, Vine's Rustic (three), Treble Lines (three), Pale Mottled Willow (subject to me finding it again after it escaped into the utility room), Diamond-back Moth, May High-flier, and Bryotropha affinis.

PS: Thanks to Mick Such for letting me know about the Red Kite over Poole Wood, they seem to be turning up everywhere nowadays, but still make for a spectacular sight to brighten any day.

Tuesday May 17 - Cuckoo at last

 As Spring advances so I find myself working my way through a mental checklist of "expected" migrants. Any I miss shouldn't be too big a worry because there's always the autumn second chance. But there's one local bird which doesn't really play ball. The Cuckoo arrives at the end of April, sings lustily for four or five weeks, and then disappears. If you haven't heard one by early June, you may be too late.

I've been starting to get a bit twitchy about them. Not enough to actually twitch one, but thinking it could come to that. But today I decided to stick to the grand plan, that being to explore my Circle in a more or less random way. I had ear-marked Tanner's Green, a mile north of the M42, to be the focus of today's jaunt.

One problem. Where to park? I noticed there was a car-park at the northern tip of New Fallings Coppice, a Warwickshire Trust reserve adjacent to Earlswood Lakes. Perfect. Except that the woodland itself looked fantastic, full of huge Beeches and Oaks and with a reputation for producing quality woodland birds. Would I ever be tempted to leave? 

I certainly made slow progress. Blackbirds were singing everywhere, Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs too. Before long an #LocalBigYear tick made its presence known. A Cuckoo was calling from somewhere high in the crown of one of the trees. I thought about chasing it about to get a glimpse, but decided it was a fools errand. The song was enough.

It's a troublesome thought that one day there may be none left. Until last year they were reliable at Morton Bagot, and certainly further south. But they are disappearing with each year. Not enough caterpillars? That's probably the issue. They are still common in Scotland where large areas remain insecticide-free. There is still time to turn things around, but I doubt they will ever be a familiar Spring presence in the wider countryside again. Thank goodness for nature reserves.

Another scarce bird I heard in the coppice was a Marsh Tit. They become very secretive in the breeding season, and there are probably more about than you think. It's still my first since the winter.

Once I had dragged myself away from the coppice, I skirted Clowes Wood on the other side of the railway, and made my way to Tanner's Green, completing the circuit via Fulford Heath. It was all very nice, plenty of impressive million pound (and the rest) properties to ogle at enviously. My progress was no doubt tracked on a series of CCTV cameras, before I was back at the coppice.

Bird-wise there was little of any significance, a Beautiful Demoiselle damselfly which had presumably left a brook or pond to perch briefly in a tree at Tanner's Green was my best find. 

Back in the coppice at midday the butterflies were out in force. Lots of "whites", several Speckled Woods, and one or two Holly Blues were great to see.

Holly Blue resting on the correct plant

I must have been pretty silent and stealthy, because at one point a Fox came trotting through the bluebells towards me. Unfortunately, as it came into view it realised it needed to be somewhere else in a hurry.

The Fox a millisecond before a sharp exit

Another photo opportunity to slip through my fingers.

Just Spotted Flycatcher to go, and then it will be all insects until the autumn....maybe.

Sunday May 15 - a conflict of interest

 We're now half way through May, and after some overnight rain Dave and I arrived at Morton Bagot with some hope that a wader may have dropped in. As it turned out, although there is now a decent edge to the nearest flash, not a single wader had turned up. 

Our birding highlights were therefore the continued presence of the singing Garden Warbler at Netherstead (they have always been one day wonders in the past), while a Red Kite, a Rook, and possibly two Grey Wagtails were all birds which would have added to last week's list.

Red Kite

Also noteworthy were nine singing Reed Buntings  (extending the patch record for the number of territorial males), and five pairs of Linnets.

Linnet

So our eyes were soon cast downwards, but not in disappointment. The warmer weather ensured that plenty of insects were on the wing. We logged nine species of butterfly (all ones already recorded this year), two moths; Mother Shipton and Common Nettle-tap, and three species of damselflies including the first Beautiful Demoiselles and Azure Damselflies of the year.

Orange-tip

Male Beautiful Demoiselle

Azure Damselfly  (immature male)

This conflict of interest is typical of what happens from mid-May. The abundance of life at your feet is irresistible. I say abundance, recent wildlife literature emphasises a shifting baseline. Even I have lived long enough to remember far more butterflies and other insects in the countryside, and I can only hope that NGOs like the Heart of England Forest scheme stimulate the government to encourage a reversal of the dreadful trend towards the day when insects are scarce and even less biodiverse.

On a less gloomy note, I can't help aiming my camera at the more distinctive looking of other insect groups. In this case I picked up a longhorn beetle called Anaglyptus mysticus, and the UK's largest cranefly Tipula maxima, both of which may well be new for me.

Anaglyptus mysticus

Tipula maxima

I should admit that I didn't have a species name for them until I got home and carried out an internet search.

Mother Shipton

Common Nettle-tap

There is still plenty to see, you just need to get out there and look while it's still available.

Thursday May 12 - to boldly go

 Although I appreciate that spring is not over, and indeed this could be my best time of the year for a decent wader, I have also been nursing a desire to go back into exploring mode, to seek out new habitats and undiscovered bird populations...etc etc.

So on Tuesday I picked out the top left hand extremity of my Circle, and went to it. The area in question includes Red Hill Farm, so I'm calling it Red Hill. I love visiting new places, but there is an obvious downside. They are unvisited because as far as anyone has ascertained, there's nothing there.

I can confirm that my visit contained no surprises, unless you count the discovery that the summit of Wast Hill (near Red Hill) is actually the highest point in my Circle. Cobley Hill has been dethroned. Mind you, it's a bit open to interpretation whether the actual summit is in the Circle.

In the absence of anything out of the ordinary, I did at least have a decent view to look at. Maybe it could be an autumn raptor watchpoint?

The view from (nearly) the top of Wast Hill

Feeling I needed to give myself a chance, I headed for Alvechurch Fishery. An extensive series of fishing pools with open access (there's even a cafe), it sits below the dam at Lower Bittell Reservoir. The largest pool contains a lightly vegetated island while the pool has a bit of a wader-friendly edge. Not that there were any on my visit, but a pair of Common Terns flew in and landed on the island before returning to the reservoir.

Common Tern back at the reservoir

Numerous Swifts were flying overhead, and 20 or 30 Sand Martins were occupying the airspace above the dam. Unfortunately I don't have a permit for the reservoir any more, so I couldn't check, but it looked to me as though they might be preparing to nest in the dam wall. (I checked the latest WMBC Report when I got home, and sure enough they were nesting in the brickwork in 2019).

Below the towpath, on the fishery side, is a bank of wild flowers. These attracted a good selection of spring butterflies including my first Red Admiral of the year.

This morning, undeterred by a modest bird list at Red Hill, I picked another area to the north of Redditch. This was Kings Norton Golf Course. It occupies the space between Weatheroak Hill and Wythall (and is nowhere near the Birmingham suburb of Kings Norton).

I had never been here before (unless you count a brief period in the 1990s when I used to jog along the roads surrounding it in a failed attempt to get fit) but I am aware that a decade earlier a ringing group was monitoring a local population of Tree Sparrows, and that even Pied Flycatcher had bred there. 

I am sure those days are long gone and I didn't find any sign of either species, but the habitat may still be available.

I stuck to the well marked footpath and emerged with nothing better than a Mistle Thrush, a Nuthatch, and a few Whitethroats on my paltry low thirties bird list.

More exploring is likely.

Sunday May 8 - trying to relax

So what do you do the day after you've spent 11 hours in the field? Well obviously you sit in the garden and relax, or at least you try to. 

My relaxation lasted about five minutes. Scanning the skies brought me a pair (I assume) of Red Kites circling together high over the garden. By the time I'd grabbed the camera they had separated, so here's just one of them.

 

Red Kite

Lyn joined me, and pretty soon the present state of the garden was mentioned. Personally I like weeds, but Lyn's not so keen. I was encouraged to pull them up, so several armful's of Herb Robert and Precumbent Yellow Sorrell later I was deemed to have done enough...for today, and I could go back to sky-gazing. This brought me #LocalBigYear tick number 121, a Common Swift.

There have been very few butterflies in the garden this year (and fewer bees) despite the garden looking unchanged. Today a Small White was the only one I saw. Nevertheless I was resolved to put the moth trap out.

The overnight temperature dropped to seven degrees. Last year at the same date it was the same temperature and I caught just three moths, so the omens weren't great. 

But, for some reason this year there were moths aplenty. I caught 16 of 10 species. There were no firsts for the garden, but seven of them were new for the year. This is probably because I'm only trapping once every two or three weeks this year.

The highlight, and most spectacular moth, was an Iron Prominent. Only my third ever, and one I didn't see, despite much more intensive mothing, last year.

Iron Prominent

The other ones which were new for the year, all pristine and fresh, were Common Pug, Orange Footman, Muslin Moth, Flame Shoulder, Shuttle-shaped Dart, and Heart and Dart.

Finally, I forgot to share a bit of ringing news. On May 2 2022 the guys controlled a Reed Warbler at Redditch STW which had been ringed at Titchfield Haven in Hampshire on 15 September 2018.

Reed Warbler

So this bird had been ringed as a first year and had then travelled to Africa and back four times before turning up in Redditch, quite possibly still to reach its final breeding destination. Quite a thought.

Saturday May 7 - WestMidsAlldayer

 I was up nice and early, arriving at Morton Bagot at about 04.20 just as the first hint of light appeared in the eastern sky. The weather was set fair, and it looked like we would have the largest team ever assembled here for the alldayer.

First bird was a Moorhen which "pook"ed from the direction of the old pool. My main emphasis as always was to try to add some owls to the list, and indeed I heard a Tawny Owl hoot in the distance (bird 3), and the gentle "purr" of a Barn Owl (bird 7). I walked down from Bannams Wood and was soon ticking off many of the species I had listed as very likely. These included Grasshopper Warbler although there seemed to be only one singing, a pair of Shelducks (which evidently disappeared as they weren't seen again all day) and a drake Teal, which I was half expecting to be absent.

Two birds which were missing were Avocet and Little Ringed Plover, both of which have been present recently.

The first team member to arrive was Tony K. He had set up some mist nets in the reed bed at the dragonfly pool and I followed him round as he unravelled them. The only Reed Warbler on site was singing there, and we also saw the only Coot currently breeding. Several Pied Wagtails made a sharp exit, and had obviously been roosting, and Tony found he had caught a male Reed Bunting almost straight away. He planned to move the nets to Stapenhill Wood later in the morning.

No Cuckoo was calling, and that was to be another bird we missed out on.

I spent the last hour before I had to nip home below Bannams Wood, and added a calling Nuthatch and a singing Coal Tit to the list. These were both species that have been missed in earlier alldayers.

By the time I returned it was 8.00am and the team was assembling and finding stuff. Martin W had joined the ringers, and I spotted Gary J and Andy G in the distance. It was nice to meet Andy and to discover that he had found what was arguably the bird of the day, a male Redstart. Unfortunately for the rest of us it soon disappeared.

The ringers had caught two excellent birds, a Sparrowhawk and a Jay. I don't think anyone saw another Sparrowhawk, and only SamMcV later found a Jay.

 Sparrowhawk (Tony K)

Jay (Tony K)

After a quick tally up, we found we had reached 56 species, which didn't seem too bad. Gary, Martin and I headed for the flash field, adding a singing Goldcrest in the hedge, and a female Tufted Duck which flew towards us before returning the way it had come. I'm guessing it was headed to the small fishing pool just outside the recording area.

We joined Andy again, and Gary spotted a couple of distant House Martins, while Andy tried to get us on a very distant large gull. I ended up heading towards Netherstead with Gary, before we went our separate ways.

My route took me down the access road and I walked into a singing Garden Warbler, my best find of the day. I spent a long time listening to it, and tried videoing it to get the song recorded. I finally saw it quite well, but it was back in the thick stuff before I could get a shot.

During the afternoon I made contact with Sam McV, who was trying to tease something new out of Bannams Wood. I went back the the flash field and was relieved to find a Black-headed Gull which has been missed in previous years, but had been regular here throughout April.

By now it was getting warm, and it was great to see loads of insects including my first Large Red Damselflies, and Small Heath of the year.

Large Red Damselfly

Small Heath

I forced myself to get back on message, and ended up at the raptor watchpoint from where I unexpectedly spotted a Hobby. Normally the phrase raptor watchpoint is stated with a degree of irony. 

Record shot (barely) of the Hobby

Buoyed by this success and decided to fight my way through the vegetation into Stapenhill Wood. This brought me the 63rd, and last, tick of the day, a Treecreeper.

By late afternoon I found myself staking out the flash field in the hope of either a Rook or a Starling, both absent from the list and possible in that area.

Gary returned for a last walk round, but I was too tired to keep going. Nothing further was added, so we had to settle for a slightly under par score of 63.

Tuesday May 3 - woodland birding

 Grey and cool again. I decided to go to one of the HOEF woods hoping for my first Cuckoo of the year. The ringers had heard one there at the weekend, but I was not as fortunate. 

On the other hand I did see and hear my first singing Garden Warbler of the year, #LocalBigYear tick number 119. It flew back into cover as soon as my camera appeared, so no photo. The bluebells were spectacular so I used it for that instead.

Other birds recorded there included a singing Willow Warbler, double-figure counts of both Chiffchaff, and Blackcap, and a territorial pair of Ravens.

After that I had some errands to run, and decided to have a quick look at Haselor scrape. There was plenty of mud, and a pair of Little Ringed Plovers had it all to themselves. Determined to photograph something I aimed my camera at a Whitethroat singing from the top of an oak tree.

Whitethroat

Meanwhile the ringers have caught a celebrity at a site near Studley. The key point about the Sedge Warbler referred to is that it was bearing a French ring. 

Monsieur le Sedge Warbler

It was part of a catch of 42 birds including 15 Sedge Warblers and four Reed Warblers. I believe that they will be joining us for the Alldayer on Saturday.

Monday May 2 - Dunlin twitch

A message from Gary J had me abandoning my promise to stay home and dig the garden. Yes I twitched a Dunlin. The fact is that Mappleborough Green Flash is the most local of local patches and can be visited in less than an hour. The boat remained unrocked.

Dunlin

This is a proper wader, potentially an arctic migrant (it looks quite long-billed). Admittedly I normally get one at Morton Bagot, but not quite every year.

Speaking of Morton Bagot and this blog. Over the years I have done it, issues have cropped up more regularly than I would like. The web provider suddenly changes things without warning, and as someone with a tenuous grasp of technology it always throws me.

The latest issue is a change to the way I reply to comments left, and so far I haven't been able to find a way to do it. 

So this is a message to Andy G who left a nice comment on my last post asking about the upcoming alldayer. 

The answer is that the Alldayer is this Saturday, and yes you'll be very welcome.  The more the merrier.