Thursday October 19 - Chances missed?

 Not all birders keep lists, but to me it's important. I have not one, or two, or even three. I hold loads of lists. Annual lists, patch lists, year lists, a British list, moth lists, dragonfly lists, and so on. Ironically, my least important is my British list and I've never worked out an all time World list. Lists wax and wane in importance. Currently my Morton Bagot list is top, but I haven't added anything to it since a dead Kittiwake earlier this year (yes I know, you can't count dead birds) but its my list so I'll play by my own rules.

Although I keep all these tallies, they are only a background to my birding. The fun of birding to me is never knowing what you are going to see tomorrow, and the challenge is to try to find something new. Naturally I have a Find List (birds I have found myself). I can't remember what it stands at, but it's there in my head. Now that I'm restricting myself to local birding, it is all the more difficult to add anything to it.

There are a few candidates out there, and top of that list, the most likely "find" is Cattle Egret. I've seen one or two over the years, but I can't recall finding one. In the last few years their numbers in the south of England (particularly in the Somerset Levels) have been going through the roof.

Where is all this introspection leading? Well on Tuesday morning I was driving Lyn to Solihull. It was a Lyn day, and she needed some retail therapy. As we hammered up the A435 just north of Redditch I glanced to the side and noticed a pasture field with cattle and some white things in it. I was doing 70 mph, but looked again. The white things could have been plastic buckets, but surely they were Egrets with cattle, in a field, at the right time of year. 

What to do? I said something like "what were those?" followed by something like "I need to go back", while Lyn said something like "but it's my day". In the end I had to accept I had no binoculars in the car, and let's face it they could have been Little Egrets, or even plastic tubs. I took the path of least resistance, and we went shopping.

Four hours later I was back home and heading back to the scene of the disaster. For disaster it was, they were no longer there. At least that ruled out white buckets!

Since then I have been back four times, I have driven around the area looking for cows, and I have seen not a single Egret (plenty of cows).

On Wednesday I carried on to Earlswood. The promised storm seemed not to have arrived and it was quiet. The highlight was two flocks of Redpolls (20 over Terrys Pool and 40 at the bottom of Windmill Pool). I didn't see them very well, but Earlswood is good for getting close to birds so I settled for taking shots of a Goosander and a couple of large gulls.

Goosander

Adult Herring Gull (British race argenteus)

Adult Lesser Black-backed Gull (West European race graellsii)

I met up with John Sirrett for a chinwag. At one point a Canals and Rivers Trust guy strolled up and told us he'd seen an Osprey over the Mill Shrub (Lower Bittell) the day before.

So today I visited Lower Bittell (between more failed Cattle Egret hunts) on the off-chance that the Osprey might be still there. It was a long-shot, and it was nowhere to be seen. Mind you, having forgotten to bring my scope I abandoned all thoughts of straying to Upper Bittell which has a much better track record for the species.

Lower Bittell was as quiet as it always seems to be, with the same cast of characters; a few Little Grebes, Shovelers and the like. At least there was a party of Redwings at Alvechurch Fishery, typically dashing out of the hawthorns and disappearing without giving a chance of a photograph.

Raven

A calling Raven was the best of the rest.