Thursday August 31 - Checking out the opposition

 Before I get to the thrust of today's post I want to share my good fortune. Yesterday, Lyn and I were surveying our garden from the door of the utility room with divergent opinions. I regard a messy garden as a good garden, Lyn doesn't. The coup de gras for my argument was delivered when I noticed a smallish orangish butterfly fluttering just beyond the lawn. I couldn't quite work out what it was, so I stepped out for a closer look. Seconds later Lyn was startled to see me dashing back in, swearing for England. I had just realised it was a Brown Hairstreak and I needed my camera.

Brown Hairstreak co-operating

Fortunately it was still there and the above shot confirms my first hairstreak of any species for the garden, and my third Brown Hairstreak ever.

Anyway, cast your mind back to the weekend. I was unable to get to Morton Bagot on Bank Holiday Monday, but received several messages from disappointed birders. Evidently the Goshawk did not reappear. One member of the Earlswood Group commented that Morton was "dead". This should have put me off, but if anything it spurred me on.

I visited Morton Bagot on Tuesday morning determined to prove it was not dead at all. After three hours of searching I can announce it is alive.....but asleep. Yes, I quite enjoyed the morning but didn't find anything better than a Sand Martin. My 46 species also included a calling Willow Warbler, a flock of 41 Lesser Black-backed Gulls heading south-west, and not much else. It doesn't bode well for the Westmidsalldayer, although I do at least have a team now. It'll be me, Gary J, Martin W, and maybe Dave unless the allure of Marsh Lane proves irresistible.

The sad fact is that Morton Bagot is second division (or third) when it comes to bird species richness compared to most of the other competitors. Our nearest neighbour is Earlswood Lakes, and we traditionally take a pasting. But this year Earlswood's water-level is high while ours is not. Perhaps there's a chance.

This morning I went to check Earlswood out. I want to say it was rubbish, but 48 species tell me it wasn't. The highlight was a Hobby chasing the 100+ Swallows over Windmill Pool. Among the hirundines was a Sand Martin and two Swifts. We'll struggle for them on Saturday.

Over the causeway flew a Meadow Pipit (my first of the autumn) and seven Siskins. Waterfowl included the resident Wigeon and a hybrid WigeonXsomething (Mallard?), Great Crested Grebes, Tufted Ducks, Shoveler, Coot. Yep, we haven't even got a Coot at Morton Bagot.

Grey Wagtail (slight chance)

Coot (not optimistic)

Great Crested Grebe - in my dreams

It's looking grim, but consider this. We've got mud = waders. We've got a lot of bushes = warblers. 

One thing's for certain. All the teams will have a great time. Bring it on.

The hybrid 

PS: the hybrid counts as No species (not two).

Sunday August 27 - Gosh !

 Strictly speaking this post covers two visits to Morton Bagot. On Wednesday I slogged round for nothing better than a couple of Willow Warblers and two Kingfishers. 

Today was altogether different. Dave joined me, and as we made our way from Netherstead a calling Siskin flew south, our first of the autumn. Already better than Wednesday.

For a while it still looked like this would be another quiet one, but then we had a bit of luck. After scanning the flash pool and seeing only the regulars we noticed a blob of a passerine on top of a bush along the ridge line to our left. It looked a good bet for a chat so we diverted across the field to check it out. As hoped, it proved to be a Whinchat.

The Whinchat, very nice

I often consider the role of lady luck in birding, and it was shortly to play its part. We would never have been there, standing in the middle of the field in prime position to witness a very unexpected visitor, had we not headed for that Whinchat.

What happened was that I heard Dave say "Is this a Peregrine, being chased by those Ravens"? I spun round to see three birds moving rapidly across the new scrape field. I struggled to see which was the smaller one for a second, but when I got onto the raptor being harassed by the Ravens I saw it was not a Peregrine at all. I could just make out the lack of a black head, then a suggestion of streaking on the breast and finally barring on the upper tail and shouted "Goshawk! It's a juvenile Goshawk". Dave immediately concurred as it swung around revealing accipiter-like wings and a longish round edged tail shape.

It started to circle above the horizon as I tried for some kind of record shot. We actually had it in view for about five minutes because after getting distant and high and then disappearing behind Bannams Wood, it reappeared to circle some more (even further away), before leaving the stage again. These are the best shots I could get in the circumstances.

Goshawk 

A blue sky would have helped.

This was the first Goshawk here since 2012 (pre-camera), and 2011 (pre-blog) and we were utterly chuffed. Shortly afterwards a Sparrowhawk made its way across the field. Talk about chalk and cheese.

We made our way back to the flash field to record 24 Teal, 21 Lapwings, four Snipe, and five Green Sandpipers. In other words the usual stuff.

But today was elevated by that one bird. Fantastic.

There was one final twist in the tail. I got onto a Cormorant as we neared our cars, and as there haven't been any lately, pointed it out as it headed towards the church in the distance. Suddenly the Goshawk reappeared, and actually moved towards the Cormorant with apparently malevolent intent. This was two hours after the original sighting so we drove to the church hoping for a better view. This time we were not successful, but there's got to be a chance its still around.

It may bode well for next Saturday's Westmidsalldayer.

Monday August 21 - Morton Bagot

 Although I chose to spend the weekend watching sport, the lionesses roar being too loud to ignore, Morton Bagot was not far from my mind and I felt compelled to pay it a visit this morning. Apart from anything else, the World Cup defeat was a bit of a downer, so I needed a pick-me-up.

I enjoy documenting what I see with photographs but would always describe myself as a birder first and foremost. This has the disadvantage, for this blog, that when I do see something noteworthy my first reaction is to look at it properly, and only then do I reach for the camera.

This is a roundabout way of admitting that I had an excellent view of first a Spotted Flycatcher and then a Grasshopper Warbler, without being able to get a shot of either. The flycatcher flew into a small plantation next to the ringers' favoured spot and perched up slightly obscured by leaves before flying out of view, while the Gropper flew up from long grass into a small bush in the Chat Field before edging to the other side of said bush and then flying into a hedge where it disappeared.

There was at least one bird I knew I would get a shot of, if it was still here. John C had found a Greenshank on the flash field on Saturday and I was optimistic that it would stick. And sure enough it had.

Greenshank and Green Sandpiper

The nearest flash continues to look excellent, and I was joined in the gallery by Dennis and Marion S. The farmer unwittingly benefitted us by driving his quad-bike around the field flushing the contents of the furthest flash onto the nearest. We were thus able to count 40 Teal, two Shovelers, and a Little Egret which may otherwise have been out of sight.

Two eclipse drake Shovelers (and Teal)

The Green Sandpiper count was just three, and Lapwings were on 24, suggesting that others remained unseen.

The rest of the morning was just a matter of searching the bushes for warblers and their ilk.

Lesser Whitethroat

Common Whitethroat

As for insects, I noticed quite a few Small Heath butterflies on the wing which suggests a new summer brood, and several Brown Hawkers and Southern Hawkers none of which posed. 

I'm technically only keeping a Circle bird list this year and not a Morton Bagot year-list, but as I log everything into Birdtrack I can quickly see where I'm at. It turns out that I'm on 108 species for the patch. I've made 49 visits so far this year and only three species are on every single list: Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow, and Wren. One particularly shocking discovery is that I've only seen one Yellowhammer here this year, and that was on January 1. 

PS: I've just heard from Marion that they saw and photographed a Whinchat on their walk back. I went a slightly different route, so that might be why I didn't see it.

Juv Whinchat moulting into 1st winter - per Dennis Stinton

This is quite an unusual plumage to see in the Midlands. Like Stonechats they can migrate before they fully moult their head, mantle and breast feathers. I would love to know where it came from.

Saturday August 19 - Earlswood Lakes

 The recent influx of birds from the east came to an apparent stop at Morton Bagot on Friday. I headed there during the afternoon, once the rain had stopped, and discovered everything had gone. I was back to counting Green Sandpipers (five), Teal (20), and Snipe (one). Those low numbers do mean that there is a possibility that other waders were hiding from view, but I would be surprised.

One family which was very unlikely to feature at Morton Bagot was terns, but other localities are available. This morning I got the news I had been half-expecting, there was a Black Tern at Earlswood Lakes. A small local influx had involved birds at Upper Bittell and Marsh Lane amongst other places, but these were not local enough.

I arrived at Earlswood and saw the tern immediately. It appeared to be a fully moulted adult and was flying around Windmill Pool. Trying to photograph it in flight was entertaining and frustrating, but eventually it landed on a buoy which gave me a chance.

Black Tern

A pretty poor flight shot, but the best I could manage

By focussing on the tern I ignored most of the other birds present, but did see about 10 Swifts, a Sparrowhawk, two Little Egrets, the resident Wigeon, and a Common Sandpiper.

Common Sandpiper

Subsequent Whatsapp messages mentioned six Common Terns, a Mandarin, and a Hobby none of which I saw.

I really should come here more often.

Thursday August 17 - the power of the east wind

 Last night's forecast was for a gentle south-easterly across most of the UK. Having been starved of birding time since the weekend I didn't need the added incentive to get to Morton Bagot, and I certainly felt quite optimistic.

For the first half hour it seemed birdless, but just as I was about to accept that south-easterlies aren't all they're cracked up to be I got onto a nice mixed warbler flock. About a dozen warblers included a Lesser Whitethroat and a Sedge Warbler, a real fillip.

There's a Lesser Whitethroat in there somewhere

A few metres further on things got even better. An egret in the pool field isn't unusual, but this one was. A Great White Egret was fishing in one of the tiny scrapes, my fourth here.

The Great White Egret

Inevitably it took flight shortly after spotting me, but came down again on the top pool shrouded from view by bulrushes. I considered walking round to the swing-gate from where I probably would have got a better view, but decided to tweet it out in case anyone else in the area wanted to see it.

Instead I strode on towards the flash field, and on arrival immediately spotted a wader which wasn't a Green Sandpiper. It turned out to be an adult Dunlin, my first of the year. Although I could see it reasonably well I decided to continue along the brook from the usual viewing place to try to get a better view from under the trees near the Kingfisher Pool.

Dunlin 

Even from here it was distant, largely screened by rushes, but eventually I managed a lucky shot. It was also clear that there were a lot more Teal than last time, I counted 24, but the Green Sandpipers were mostly hidden by grasses. After reaching a paltry tally of three, I noticed a much more speckled wader. It was a Wood Sandpiper, the first here since 2016. 

Although it was relatively close, the rushes made photographing it a huge challenge. Morton Bagot can be very hard work. After about thirty minutes it waded to a position where I could get a couple of clear shots.

Wood Sandpiper

I suspect that there were more Green Sandpipers and Lapwings out of view, but one more wader species but in an appearance, a Snipe which called as it took off. Goodness knows how many more of them may be skulking out of view.

Two Little Egrets and a Grey Heron brought the heron species total up to three. I headed back via the pool field, but noticed that some walkers had just come down the footpath so I wasn't surprised when the Great White Egret was nowhere to be seen.

Little Egret

Back at Netherstead I could see two birders' cars. I hope they were successful.

PS: Mike Inskip tells me he saw the Wood Sand this afternoon eventually and also eight Green Sandpipers and six Snipe.

Sunday August 13 - Morton Bagot

Steady drizzle for the first hour dampened any optimism that Dave might also catch up with the Brown Hairstreak seen on Friday. It looked like being birds or nothing.

The morning had its moments. The rain stopped but it became quite breezy, so we were quite pleased to locate a Willow Warbler among a small party of Chiffchaffs, Common Whitethroats and Lesser Whitethroats. Unfortunately getting a shot of it proved beyond me.

Common Whitethroat

Our highlight was still a warbler, when Dave got me onto a Garden Warbler in the bushes by the old Kingfisher Pool. It has been a good year for this species at Morton Bagot, with at least one singing for a week in spring. Seeing the species after the end of May has been almost impossible. I had seen one in August in 15 years before today. Unfortunately we lost it in the hedge shortly afterwards, so no photo.

The flash pool produced 11 Teal, four Green Sandpipers and a Little Egret.

Size illusion: This is the Little Egret

Walking back we started to see a few butterflies and dragonflies as the sun threatened to appear. These included Brown Argus, Common Blue, Holly Blue, and  Small Copper. But the highlight was a Magpie Moth, a species I still haven't recorded in my garden trap.

Magpie moth

I think this is my second for the site, but they are quite common in Warwickshire.

Friday August 11 - The perfect antidote

 It's been a fun-packed week. After I chose to pay a rather dull visit to Morton Bagot on Tuesday morning, Lyn and I were entertaining our house guests until yesterday when everyone went their separate ways. The Black Country Living Museum was absolutely jam-packed with families and long queues (mainly for fish and chips), but it wasn't that which tired me out. 

No, it was my "brilliant idea" to run a moth trap on Wednesday night for the entertainment of one of our guests in particular. Owen is six years old and very excitable, I am sixty-four and knackered. More of what ensued later.

This morning I needed the antidote. I needed to relax, and where better than Morton Bagot. The weather has improved, and although the southerly was on the breezy side of perfect it was sunny enough to give insects a chance.

It is of course August, and having walked along the access road from Netherstead I was pleased to see a collection of hirundines on the roadside wires. I'm sure I used to see gatherings of up to a hundred, but the 15 or so present today was a pleasant reminder of those days and a promise of the autumn days which lie ahead.

Mostly House Martins

Other good signs were a singing Willow Warbler, and an interesting chat with the stock man who beckoned me to his Land Rover to show me photographs of a Grass Snake he had noticed by the dragonfly pools a few days ago. My own experience of that species here involves little more than a fleeting view of a tail disappearing into the long grass.

I reached the small pond beyond where the ringers generally set their nets and was harangued by a vocal Sedge Warbler. I wasn't sure whether it was mobbing me or something in the bullrushes (perhaps a snake), but the effect was a magical few minutes as it was joined by Chiffchaffs, a Lesser Whitethroat, a Blackcap, and a Common Whitethroat. I treasure these moments when previously elusive warblers are for a fleeting moment easy to see.

Sedge Warbler

Chiffchaff

As I stood there, searching the hedge beyond the pond for more migrants, I struck gold. A small brown butterfly flew from the hedge and as I clocked the orange dot on the upperside of each of its forewings once it perched I realised my long wait for a Brown Hairstreak was over.

This species was formerly known to me only from a visit to Grafton Wood in Worcestershire which was their West Midlands stronghold in the 1980s. That sighting, like today's, was of a female with its strikingly patterned upperwing. In recent years they have started edging their range northwards and now occur in blackthorn hedges near Redditch. They may also have been seen at Morton Bagot, but not by me until today.

This is where the story turns towards anticlimax. The camera was engaged, but the butterfly was small and distant, and when I zoomed in it was no longer there. I hung around, hoping it would reappear, before slowly walking down the hedge hoping to see another one. About 100 yards further on I spotted a Hairstreak butterfly. It was brown, it was resting on a blackthorn leaf, it really should have been the right species. But it was a very worn, non-purple, Purple Hairstreak.

Purple Hairstreak

This might actually be my first of the year, and I was quite pleased with myself for spotting it. But it wasn't a Brown Hairstreak, and neither were the little orange moths which flew chaotically along the hedge line. I assumed these were Vapourer moths, but you never see them perched.....until one day you do.

Vapourer

 So another year-tick, but still not a Brown Hairstreak. 

The rest of the visit followed a familiar pattern. Five Green Sandpipers, 28 Lapwings two Little Egrets, and five Teal on the various flashes and pools, and some good views of more small butterflies; Brown Argus and Small Copper. 

Now, back to Wednesday. I was up before dawn, dragging the moth-trap into the utility room before retiring for a bowl of cereal. I returned to find the room was splattered with moths. Most were Large Yellow Underwings and by the end of the day I had counted 117 of them, and 106 Yponomeuta micro-moths. These are little white moths dotted with black pin-pricks. The most heavily dotted are Bird-cherry Ermines, but many of the rest are too difficult for me to be confident of. This is a shame because I did have a stab at naming some as Willow Ermine without realising I hadn't previously recorded them. I omitted to photograph them.

Ruby Tiger (nfy)

There were 14 new for the year, which I have added to my moth year-list page. The real fun started when Owen arrived. His Mum and Granny gratefully allowed him to join me to look into the moth-trap which, four hours after I had started catching the ones on the walls and ceiling, was still full of moths. The little lad was in equal measure fascinated, delighted, and scared (when some of the massive Large Yellow Underwings fluttered away from the egg-cartons they had been sleeping in). We caught a large Diving Beetle and released it into the bird-bath where it promptly swam under a floating leaf.

Following a break for lunch, which I was trying to prepare with the help of another guest (thanks Jan), the moth game got even better for Owen when I pointed out that more moths were probably hiding. Every picture on the walls was lifted, and pretty much all of them had moths behind them. Eventually I declared the room moth-free and everyone went home.

Of course, it wasn't at all. Come the evening, another twenty or so appeared and had to be caught, identified and removed.

The final total was 342 moths of 57 species, and one very tired observer.

Sunday August 6 - all a bit quiet

 You may have noticed I haven't posted anything this week. The problem has been a dearth of noteworthy birds. It's not that I haven't been trying. I visited the patch on Tuesday, Friday, and today, each time hoping to find something different but coming up with very little.

Waders have been restricted to Green Sandpipers and Lapwings. The numbers of the former are going in the wrong direction; seven on Tuesday, six on Friday, and five today. Mind you, one interesting development followed the relocation of the cattle on Tuesday. The newly trampled scrapes held several Green Sands including possibly all five today. Unfortunately to see them is to disturb them, and they inevitably ended up on the flash field.

A Green Sandpiper on the new scrapes

A bird-hide, or even a screen, might allow better views but in the meantime hats off to HOEF for spending the money to create the scrapes in the first place.

One bird that is profiting from the current management regime is the Common Whitethroat. At this time of year the bushes are full of recently fledged juveniles and on Friday I beat my personal record count with a total of 19 including a leucistic (very pale) individual. Unfortunately none posed for longer than a few seconds so there are no shots to commemorate the record. Instead I located a very co-operative juvenile Blackcap in the bushes at Stapenhill Wood today.

Juvenile Blackcap

Continuing the post-breeding theme, on Friday a party of 11 Ravens flew towards an adult bird calling from a pylon giving me another site record count. This species breeds in the surrounding woodland and numbers seem to rise every year.

The unseasonably chilly and damp weather has not been kind to the local insect population, but I have seen most of the expected species of butterflies during the week.

Brown Argus

Still to arrive are meaningful numbers of Teal, any Snipe, or any Chats. Hopefully the delay is only temporary and normal service will be resumed, with maybe an unusual wader or two....please?