I've had a slightly frustrating week of domesticity (washing machine woes) interspersed with unsatisfactory local birding. The latter included a visit to Tardebigge Reservoir and the farmland immediately south of it, and a Waxwing-less slog around Crabb's Cross and Headless Cross in Redditch.
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| Meadow Pipits near Tardebigge Res |
The Waxwings are getting closer. I've heard of singles at Shirley in West Midlands and Fenny Compton in south-east Warwickshire, with small parties in Warwick and Malvern Link.
Meanwhile Morton Bagot was covered by the ringers during the week, with a fly-over Great White Egret on Friday, and up to seven Jack Snipe, one of which was trapped.
Dave and I gave Morton Bagot our attention this morning, and did fairly well. We flushed five Jack Snipe, and 18 Common Snipe from what I believe HOEF now call the wader scrape (or field 156), and also watched a Kingfisher at some distance. Meanwhile the flash field remains out of bounds and pretty dull, we scoped 13 Lapwings and seven Teal.
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| Shocking record shot of a Jack Snipe |
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| The Kingfisher |
There also seemed to be good numbers of thrushes and Starlings in evidence, but they have eaten most of the berries on offer and will probably be moving to pastures new (or just feeding on earthworms in the pasture) before long. We counted 135 Fieldfares, 90 Redwings, and 175 Starlings today.
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| Fieldfare |
We also noticed that a pair of Stonechats included a ringed male. Unfortunately I didn't spot this until I downloaded the photo. Tony has been colour-ringing Stonechats this autumn, but I can only see a metal ring on the image (only one leg is visible).
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| Stonechat sporting a ring |
Arguably our best find came as we walked alongside Stapenhill Wood and flushed a Woodcock. It showed quite well in flight in the seconds before it disappeared. My understanding from Tony is that about five were seen feeding at night during last week.
The ringing produced the following on Friday:
The Lesser Redpolls included a borderline Mealy/Lesser which was recorded as the latter. On measurements it was in the overlap zone.
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| Redpoll sp |
Lesser Redpolls get paler as winter progresses, and sorting out any potential Mealies gets even more difficult.
Just one more birding weekend to Christmas. Can I have a Waxwing please?
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