Thursday March 30 - The green curtain

 There has recently been a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker locally, and this morning I saw it. I say it, the bird is a male, but my view in poor light failed to confirm the presence of a red cap. I had heard it first of all, the first "quee quee quee" I had heard for years. Then saw it fly in and perch some way off. A few minutes later it appeared much closer, in a Goat Willow, and I could have got a shot if I hadn't spent the time trying and failing to see a red crown. A few seconds later it was off, and despite my hanging around for another hour, there was no repeat performance.

The location is an old breeding site, but there haven't been any reported since 2015. They do wander around, so if it was a poorly seen male, then it is unlikely to attract a mate. 

You'll notice I haven't said where it is. Unfortunately when certain breeding birds get too rare there is a general perception that egg collectors and over-enthusiastic photographers need to be kept away, and quite right too. This green curtain has the backwash effect that ordinary birders may also be kept in the dark.

I later went to Earlswood Lakes where I saw two Lesser Redpolls, my first Swallow of the year, and at least 50 Sand Martins which towered high above Engine Pool.

Another bird seen recently at Earlswood is a colour-ringed Grey Wagtail which had come from a site in Lancashire. I therefore scrutinised a singing bird at Engine Pool, but concluded it was unringed.

Grey Wagtail

Sorry about the secrecy.

Tuesday March 28 - Cold and damp, but not (quite) miserable

 A visit to Earlswood coincided with a thoroughly wet morning. This wasn't entirely random. My original plan to go exploring was scuppered by the weather and I thought at the very least I should see some Sand Martins for the year-list. 

I did see Sand Martins, and eventually got my total up to 14 swirling above engine pool like a bunch of demented gnats. There was a short window of dry weather, during which I also noted two Shovelers, two Goosanders, five Snipe, a Sparrowhawk, and all the other regular Earlswood birds. Then it started to rain and I trudged back, noticing that the Black-headed Gull total increased to 56 due to the inclement weather.

In the afternoon the rain stopped, so I decided to try my luck at Mappleborough Green Flash. Sadly it was remarkably similar to my last visit and not remotely exciting. The only bird I tried to photograph during the day was a Chiffchaff which appeared unexpectedly below the kitchen window. Our small garden gets very few, so any that do arrive get plenty of my attention.

Chiffchaff refusing to turn around

This just left moths. I put the trap out and this morning discovered 10 moths of six species, none of them unusual. New for the year were Brindled Beauty, Double-striped Pug (two), Small Quaker (two), and Common Plume.

Brindled Beauty

This year I have the advantage of having the Obsidentify App on my phone, so intend to try to identify some of the bi-catch. These additional insects can rarely be identified to species level, but it's fun trying. 

First up was a dead gnat. My app told me it was Sylvicola ag, and despite measuring its wing etc I could get no further than Wood Gnat sp Sylvicola ag.

Wood Gnat sp

Also photographed was a spider hiding in the door-frame. Public enemy number one for my visiting moths. This turned out to be (possibly) Zygiella x-notata aka Silver-sided Spectre Spider.

Silver-sided Spectre ?

Annoyingly there is very similar species Zygiella atrica but they are less likely to be seen on the side of a house, and are usually browner. 

Spiders are a can of worms....and as for worms, forget it.

Sunday March 23 - A blast from the past

 A major factor in my involvement with Morton Bagot was the assistance of Jon Bowley (the Warwickshire County Recorder at the time). Shortly after I "discovered" the place while taking part in the 2007 - 2011 BTO Atlas, Jon got in touch with me to ask whether I would be interested in taking over from him in surveying the birds there for English Nature (as it was then). It turned out that Jon had been visiting the site since about 2005.

This morning Dave and I were very pleased to be joined by Jon, who was keen to see the Avocets and to get an idea of how the habitat had changed since he'd last been here. True to form Jon arrived well before we did and had seen two Grey Partridges along the lane just south of our recording area, and a singing Blackcap before the rain had forced him to take cover in his car. Jon is a very good birder, and he gets up early!

We were keen to show him as much as we could, and things started promisingly with a Red Kite and a Barn Owl soon notched up. We decided to walk through the rushes at the pool field, flushing three Snipe.

Once the flash field was in sight we located a pair of Shoveler, four Shelducks, six Avocets which seem to have paired up and were chasing each other, and six Lapwings, the traditional owners of the field, around.

Avocet

It was a very grey, drizzly, and above all cold morning. Our search for migrants seemed destined to end with a handful of Chiffchaffs, a Siskin, and a flock of 70 Fieldfares, but we kept looking.

As we reached the horse paddocks at Netherstead our efforts were rewarded by the discovery of a Wheatear. 

Wheatear

I believe it to be a rather dull male, perhaps in its first spring. It was my first of the year anyway.

A lot of the habitat has changed since Jon's last visit, and the Tree Sparrows, Curlews, and Yellowhammers are largely gone. But he was encouraged enough to suggest he may come again, and I certainly hope he does.

PS: I was amused to see that in the days since my downbeat post about the lack of West Midlands Alpine Swifts, my mate John Sirrett saw one from his conservatory in Solihull, and another has been spotted in Staffordshire.

In praise of iRecord

 This morning I received some good news. An email notification from irecord.org.uk pinged into my inbox. A species of Leafhopper I had photographed had been identified as Acericerus ribauti. 

I have subscribed to irecord.org.uk for several years, and I have to say it is brilliant. If you have an enquiring mind, as most natural history buffs surely do, this splendid website combined with your photograph of whatever beastie you have captured will get you to an answer. It is a two way process. It confirms (or corrects) your identification and at the same time gets it to the relevant recorder.

Let's take Acericerus ribauti as an example. I caught it in my moth trap on March 17/18, but only spotted it when it was crawling across the ceiling of our utility room. It seemed pretty docile and allowed me to take a series of photos before it flew off.

It was tiny

But viewed through the close-up lens of my bridge camera it is transformed

I knew it was a leafhopper, and that a leafhopper was part of the Bugs and their allies family of insects, but that was about it. I tried the obsidentify app on my phone and that came up with Acericerus sp, and even gave a 57% likelihood of A ribauti. I checked my insect book which showed Maple Leafhopper Acericerus vittifrons but not A ribauti. The Bug-life website helped further, suggesting that ribauti and vittifrons could best be distinguished by a mark on the front of its face. I didn't have a photo of that, and I got the impression that ribauti weren't that common, so I decided to submit it to irecord.org.uk as Acericerus sp.

Enter the expert. The way irecord.org.uk works is that all records are validated by an expert. In this case Alan Stewart, who left me the comment that "the clear apical third of the wings and the marbled pronotum point towards it being Acericerus ribauti." 

I went onto the National Biodiversity Network Atlas site and found just 16 records of A ribauti for the UK, including three in Worcestershire and none at all in Warwickshire.

How exciting is that !

Thursday March 23 - Influx, what influx?

 It could rightly be said that I haven't given myself much chance of seeing an Alpine Swift during this weeks unprecedented influx of the species into the UK. 

Arrow Valley Lake contained very little of note on Monday morning (a Redpoll was the highlight), and hardly anything today (five Little Egrets). Mappleborough Green Flash was also a disappointment.

Fortunately other birders have been visiting Morton Bagot. Tony K ringed two Skylarks and spotted a Wheatear on Tuesday, while Andy G went there on Wednesday and counted seven Avocets which is a site record.

I've also missed Oystercatcher, Osprey, and Black-tailed Godwit at Earlswood, but none were twitchable.

What no-one's seeing in the West Midlands are Alpine Swifts. 

We all love an ornithological event, but the thing about unprecedented influxes, if you live in the Midlands, is that they largely pass you by. Well they pass me by anyway. 

The Jay influx of 1983 - I was on Scilly and saw none at all.

The Red-footed Falcon influx of 1992 - none in the Midlands, and I timed my Filey visits to miss them completely.

The Pomarine Skua year (1985) did reach the Midlands, but I missed out.

The Honey-buzzard influx of 2000 largely took place on week days, every weekend was unsuitable and Honey-buzzardless. Admittedly the West Midlands got it's fair share, and I eventually twitched one.

There have many more "influxes" of rare birds, but the inland birder almost always misses out.

C'est la vie.

Sunday March 19 - Morton Bagot

 A fairly cloudy morning with a very light north-westerly and some showers. The first decent bird of the day was a Red Kite which was drifting over from Bannams Wood when I was driving in (Ashley Grove saw it again later). I joined Dave who had been watching a small herd of Fallow Deer, and we set off to see what else was around.

The pool field contained a Green Sandpiper and a pair of Shelduck which flew to the flash field. As we walked around the pool field I found I could hear Avocets calling, and sure enough we found one on the furthest flash and a pair on the nearest.

Avocets

Shelducks

Adding to the spring-like feel were at least five Chiffchaffs. The flash field is still reluctant to give up its secrets. We could see about 20 Teal mainly on the furthest flash, but many more could have been present. A Brown Hare ran through the sedge flushing four Snipe in the process. I would love to know how many others are hidden away. There is now a pair of Lapwings displaying in the flash field, and another in the field which is now partly covered by tree guards. They shared the field with about 25 Meadow Pipits and a similar number of Goldfinches.

Try as we might, we couldn't find any Wheatears on site. I guess it's still a bit early.

Friday March 17 - Chiffchaffs flood in (and some moth stuff)

 This morning started well. I was donning the wellies in a lay-by near Wootton Pool when I realised that a Chiffchaff was singing in the trees opposite. Although technically not counted as a summer migrant because of the small wintering population, there comes a day when they are suddenly everywhere. That day was today.

The first Chiffchaff of spring

I wasn't surprised. The weather has suddenly gone mild/warm with the wind still southerly after two days of gales and rain. I went on to see and hear at least another three by the pool.

Another thing that didn't surprise me was the refusal of permission to visit Eggwell Wood when I knocked on the nearest building's door. The lady was not the owner of the wood, but she assured me it was private (which I obviously knew) and that the actual owner (whose name she couldn't remember) would certainly not grant me access. I guess I won't be recording that heronry in my local breeding survey.

Wootton Pool contained no surprises, so I opted to go to Mappleborough Green Flash, as it can be done in an hour. I was pleased to see that the four Little Ringed Plovers were still there, and also another singing Chiffchaff, and a Little Egret. There were only 11 Teal this time, but I did gain a site-tick when I noticed three Stonechats perched on fence posts near the footpath.

Little Egret

Stonechat

Further evidence of spring were my first two butterflies of the year from the car-park of the Boot. Unfortunately neither lingered longer than a couple of seconds, and so went down as a probable Peacock and a probable Small Tortoiseshell.

From a moth-trapping point of view, the evening looked ideal. Very mild, not too windy, and a bit a drizzle.

The big news for me was that after five years of not catching any, I finally caught a "common" and spectacular species called Oak Beauty. In fact, rather like buses, you wait for ages and then three come along at once. Here is a picture of one of them.

Oak Beauty

I also caught an Oak Nycteoline, a species I missed last year, and a micro called Agonopterix alstromeriana which I had previously seen last autumn as it flew out of our shed. On that occasion I failed to photograph it, so this was a second chance.

Agonopterix alstromeriana

Also caught were my first Clouded Drab of the year, a March Moth, and several Common Quakers.

Oak Nycteoline

Tuesday March 14 - Mappleborough Green Flash

 There is a certain seasonality to most birders' efforts, and I'm no exception. In mid-March thoughts turn to migrant arrivals and wader habitat, so I decided it was time to revisit Mappleborough Green Flash.

The first thing I noticed is that the owner of the garden on the opposite side of the Boot Pub's carpark has sensibly added a fence-line and a post so that the route of the footpath is now perfectly clear.

I got through his garden without incident and walked across the field to the flash, still screened by trees. It looked promising. A large flock of Teal sat nervously at the edge of the flash, and I eventually counted 74, which is easily the most I have seen there.

Teal

Initially I couldn't see anything else, but the recent rain has extended the main flash beyond the north fence into the next field. Through the willows bordering the west side of the flash I could see first one, then two, and eventually four Little Ringed Plovers running around in the field. Spring has arrived.

Little Ringed Plover framed by the fence

A bit of zooming and cropping

I moved back to the footpath and had trouble crossing the brook because the former wooden bridge has decayed to nothing. I'm not too sorry about that as it will put the dog-walkers off. The mini-flash beyond held a Green Sandpiper which flew off before I noticed it, and a female Sparrowhawk which disturbed about twenty or thirty Fieldfares, Redwings, and Starlings.

It's great that the site gives me another string to my bow as far as the search for waders is concerned.

Sunday March 12 - In the doldrums

 It's tough out there. Since my last post I paid visits to two heronries to see how well they were doing. In driving snow on Wednesday I counted 11 nests (six definitely occupied) at Umberslade Park, and four occupied nests at Arrow Valley Lake. I got very wet and cold, and saw nothing much else of note, barring eight Gadwall and a Little Grebe at the former.

This morning it was mild, almost spring-like, and so my first visit to Morton Bagot for a fortnight was carried out in an optimistic frame of mind. Dave joined me, and we met Tony and Leigh as they left. They told us that they had caught very few birds and had refrained from ringing a Chaffinch which was suffering from a scalyleg fungal infection. I'd heard about this bird from another source earlier in the winter.

We pressed on regardless, and soon witnessed a couple allowing their labrador off its lead to jump into the pools at the pool field flushing a pair of Shelducks in the process. It seems a shame that HOEF have spent loads of money trying to improve the habitat there, only to have it trashed by thoughtless dog-owners.

At least a pair of Stonechats were still present and apparently unperturbed. We got to the flash field where the recent rain has raised the water level and most birds were difficult to see on the furthest flash. These included the Shelducks, three Wigeon, about 10 Teal, and a pair of Lapwings.

The days of multiple Lapwing pairs here seem a distant memory

On a slightly more positive note we counted 27 Meadow Pipits which were no doubt on spring passage, and had a brief view of two male Fallow Deer sporting a full set of antlers each.

We scanned for Wheatears in vain. Perhaps the habitat no longer suits them.

I've had better weeks.

But there are always moths. I put the trap out overnight and in wet and windy conditions caught four moths including two new for the year. One was the boring adventive micro Light Brown Apple Moth, but the other was a macro, a March Moth. I didn't catch one last year.

March Moth

Monday March 6 - Tundra Bean Goose revisited

 I've not had the chance to visit Morton Bagot this weekend, but John C recorded three Stonechats there on Saturday, and Tony described his ringing return as very poor (he caught six or seven common birds) but did see the Barn Owl and a Jack Snipe.

So this morning I decided to make a second visit to Shortwood Roughs where the Tundra Bean Goose and Pink-footed Goose were still present. Initially I spotted the Greylags quite close to the road, but before I had got the scope out six of them were flying off, and you guessed it the TBG and PFG were with them.

At least they settled by the flash at the far end of the field and I got some distant shots. Also present on what I could see of the tiny flash was a female Teal. I resigned myself to getting nothing better and decided to head for the footpath and follow it southwards. This unexpectedly paid dividends.

I was passing a gap in a hedge, having already seen a Brown Hare, a Snipe, and a couple of singing Skylarks when I noticed a handful of geese reasonably close and that the Tundra Bean Goose and Pink-footed Goose were with them. 

TBG middle, and PFG on right

They were apparently unaware of my presence, and I took the chance to film them.

I suppose the provenance of the Tundra Bean Goose is questionable as it was first seen in late August, although the Pink-foot arrived with a small influx in early October. If they are still around in May they'll be a lot of disappointed local listers reaching for the Tippex.

Thursday March 2 - A curate's egg

 It's now technically spring, but still cool and mostly grey with a light north-easterly. I decided to return to the Preston Bagot area to follow up my suspicion that there is a small heronry there. 

For me, there are several essentials when I go birding; binoculars (check), camera (check), map (check), pencil (check), notebook .....aah, oops. I hate forgetting it, but I was too far from home to turn back. I managed to make some notes on my phone, but its not the same.

Anyway, I soon had a bit of good luck. A Sparrowhawk was standing in a field, quite close to where I came upon it, and amazingly waited while I mucked about getting my camera out, and fiddling with various settings.

Sparrowhawk

Although it is quite a brown bird, it looked quite small, so maybe it was a young male. I thought it might have made a kill, but there was no evidence of that, so perhaps it just took pity on me.

Anyway, I arrived where I thought the heronry might be, and established that I had been right. There were three visible nests at the top of a stand of conifers. I was quite chuffed as this was the third heronry within a ten kilometre radius of where I live.

Later on I spotted a Red Kite, maybe the bird I saw not far away on my last visit to this area. At the time I was chatting to two ladies who, despite not carrying binoculars, greeted me with "Have you come to see the heronry?" Well that deflated my ego a bit. Not a new find at all. However, one of the ladies, Jane E, turned out to be an active BTO member and clearly knew her birds. She said she understood there were 19 nests! 

It turned out that she was talking about a different heronry in a private wood not too far away from my discovery. I will need to try to get permission to visit it in order to bump my count up to four local heronries.

So after a pretty dodgy start, it was a most enjoyable morning. There is obviously plenty of scope for further study around here.