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.