Wednesday September 20 - Wet 'n windy

The last few days have been blighted by grey skies, rain, and strong south-westerlies. Particularly today. Most of the warblers have gone south, and we're just down to Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps. So why don't I just stay indoors and wait for proper autumn?

It is a temptation, but it's the last thing I should be doing. On Sunday I gave Earlswood a look for a change. It was grey, but probably not windy enough. I only walked around Windmill Pool so didn't see the Mandarin which was still on Terry's. About 15 House Martins and a few Swallows appeared to remind me that they are still about. I saw a couple of Teal, and gather that ten of them later emerged from the Bistort jungle along the west shore. The little gravel island is showing on Engine Pool. A Common Sandpiper flew over it, and the presence of several large gulls may have put it off.

I decided this was a second calendar year Herring Gull

Two days later the wind was blowing strongly from the south, and I decided Morton Bagot should be checked. As it turned out I should have waited until the afternoon when the wind dropped a little. Instead I found myself counting Teal on the nearest flash which was now a sheet of shallow water. There was no sign of the Garganey and after a cursory scope of the furthest flash revealed that all the ducks and geese were sheltering or sleeping I gave up and went home. I should have tried harder.

In the afternoon Mark Clarke decided to pay a visit and innocently recorded 12 Gadwall before retiring to write his notes onto the BTO's Birdtrack site. 

So this morning I was very impressed to see the record. There have been no Gadwalls at Morton Bagot this year, and the count of 12 was double the previous all-time highest count there. 

It was raining like hell all morning, but by mid afternoon the wind had died down and it was drying up. So while intrepid midland twitchers were heading to either Bodymoor Heath (Pectoral Sandpiper) or Dartmouth Park in West Bromwich (Grey Phalarope), I was twitching a flock of Gadwall which it turned out were no longer there.

But I'm not down-hearted because the rain did deliver a bird to Morton Bagot. Not exactly a rarity, but the second this year, so worth the effort. My initial view was of a small wader with a white rear end disappearing behind the dratted rushes. I waited half an hour, scoping about a dozen Snipe, a Green Sandpiper, and several Pied Wagtails hoping that I wasn't wasting my time on a poor view of one of them. My faith proved justified when I spotted the culprit, a rather long-billed Dunlin at the back of the flash. 

Hard to believe, but there are four species in this shot (answers at the end)

Dunlin (magnification cranked up to maximum)

Also present were the usual Teal and Mallard and a flock of about a dozen Swallows. A few Chiffchaffs were chasing each other around as I walked back, while a buck Roe Deer gave me a proper photo opportunity.

Nice and close

As for the birds in the long shot. They are Lapwing, Snipe, Dunlin, and hardest of all to see a Pied Wagtail. Award yourself a pat on the back if you spotted them.