Tuesday January 30 - A cunning plan (Morton Bagot)

 I have to admit that it has been irking me slightly that a number of observers have turned up mid-afternoon this January and been treated to views of the resident Barn Owl, while my morning shifts have produced no sign of it.

The answer was obviously to change my schedule, and it just so happened that today was ideal. Right on cue, just before 15.00, I spotted it hunting and got a pretty rubbish record shot.

Barn Owl refusing to look round

Shortly after I took this shot it took off and I decided to leave to hunt undisturbed.

The afternoon had more to offer anyway. You may recall the Early Moth I photographed at Morrisons in Redditch. Well this time I came across a wing of the same species. Suspecting Early Moth I checked it on Obsidentify, and it said 100% Early Moth (strictly speaking a late Early Moth). I then dropped the wing which floated off in the breeze and I couldn't refind it. So no photo.

The pair of Stonechats at the scrape field turned out to include a colour-ringed male. It's origin is under investigation.

Colour-ringed Stonechat

Down at the flash field I came across four (two pairs) of Wigeon, perhaps some of the birds seen at Arrow Valley lake last week.

Three Wigeon, some Teal and a Lapwing

The Lapwing flock stood at 59 at least, and I counted 31 Teal. 

Finally, on my return stroll I spotted a Peregrine on the pylons, my first of the year.

Peregrine

A very successful visit.

Sunday January 26 - Morton Bagot

Once again the scrag end of winter is proving hard going. Dave and I strolled around the patch on a pleasant mild morning and saw pretty much the same species as we saw last weekend.

Still present were a pair of Stonechats, a range of finches in tiny numbers, an ever diminishing supply of winter thrushes, and a Marsh Tit. 

On the plus side, the Shelduck has now settled into the flash field. It could be argued that this is the first returning summer visitor. I was pleased to see that the flock of Lapwings was still present, the 60 to 80 of the last week is the largest January flock since 2019, but on the other hand a far cry from ten years ago when numbers peaked at 530 in Jan/Feb 2012.

Most of the Lapwings

The decline in Lapwings reflects the national situation and is not necessarily a symptom of the situation at Morton Bagot. 

The Shelduck was in an awkward spot for a photo

At least we completed the circuit quickly enough that I was home in time to watch England complete an exceptional win against India in the cricket.

Every cloud has a silver lining.

Friday January 26 - Weekly update

 The fact that I've waited until Friday should tell you all you need to know about the week just gone. 

Non birding issues kept me sidelined until Wednesday, by which time two major storms had swept through. It was windy enough on Tuesday night to convince me that I should give Arrow Valley Lake a look. I knew this would give me a guaranteed year-tick, and a single Little Egret duly joined the list. However, the best find wasn't new for the year. Five Wigeon were circling the far end of the lake as I made my first scan. I've only seen one here before (although to be fair I don't go that often). They seemed to be landing out of sight, so I hurried over but could find no sign of them. Presumably they'd come to their senses and headed for somewhere less disturbed.

One species that really likes the place in winter is Goosander, and I logged 16 of them as I walked around. The shape of the lake makes it difficult to count accurately, but I'm pretty sure I didn't over-count.

Goosanders

The middle of the week was dominated by some IT issues which jeopardised my Birdtrack records and was a bit of a downer. But I'm pleased to say the BTO have sorted it out, and I'm now correctly "sync-ed" and recording again. A female Blackcap in the garden yesterday was new for the year, while today I was just pleased to be out birding, even though my walk from Walkwood to Callow Hill and back through Morton Stanley Park in western Redditch could best be described as quiet.

The day was saved by a visit to Morrisons. It's not often you can say that. As I picked up a metal basket at the entrance I noticed a moth resting on the window. It turned out to be a lifer. The Early Moth is not a species I've ever caught, chiefly because I hardly ever trap in January. The "Early" part of its name refers to the time of year it flies not how early it gets up.

Early Moth

 I admit its not much of a looker, but a tick's a tick.

PS: I was encouraged by this, so put my garden moth trap out for the first time this year. The result was two Pale Brindled Beauties, and a Common Flat-body Agonopterix heracliana. The latter was the second for the garden (the previous one being in 2021).

Sunday January 21 - Morton Bagot

 It was back to the patch this morning. The recent cold snap has been replaced by much milder weather, but there was still sufficient ice to dissuade most of the waterfowl from returning. 

I was joined by Dave as usual, and we followed the usual route, seeing most of the usual birds. I was pleased to see that at least one pair of Stonechats has survived unscathed. We chose not to enter the scrape field where they were, so the only Snipe we saw were four flying in from the direction of the flashes. 

One major plus was a considerable increase in Lapwings. We had counted 30 flying around over Castle Farm to the west, and then found another 59 in the flash field. At least 95 Canada Geese and 21 Greylag Geese were in the field beyond, but the only other wildfowl were 20 to 30 Mallard which flew over and seemed to land on the Morton Springs fishing pool just outside my patch boundary.

Small numbers of Fieldfares, Redwings, and Song Thrushes kept flying up in front of us. One of the latter posed nicely.

Song Thrush

What we were missing was any kind of year-tick, but as we reached the raptor watchpoint that was put right as a Shelduck flew over, heading south. 

Shelduck

The birds were generally a bit jumpy, but we couldn't see the cause until Dave spotted a large Sparrowhawk heading past. Unfortunately I contrived to miss it. Shortly afterwards we did add a Red Kite to the day-list, although they are largely ignored by smaller birds, so it was unlikely to be the cause of the anxiety.

Thursday January 18 - Earlswood

 After a sharp overnight frost I decided to visit the Earlswood area hoping to at least add a few waterbirds to my year-list. But there had to be an element of roaming about the day, so I drove down Poolhead Road and began with a short walk to Earlswood STW.

I've noticed that several of the squares on my to do list are alongside the M42 and M40. Its rumbling presence really puts me off. The short walk to Earlswood STW ran alongside the M42, so I was deafened by traffic. This could be the excuse I need to admit that I didn't see very much there. A party of 10 Pied Wagtails and a Grey Wagtail within the sewage works compound were my only reward.

As soon as I reached the lakes I realised I had miscalculated. The cold snap was the reason for my visit, but last night it must have been too cold and the lakes were almost completely frozen over. All the action was on Engine Pool. There were a couple of small breaks in the ice there, and its surface was swathed in the largest number of Mallard I have ever seen there. I counted 405 before something spooked them and several flew off.

The southernmost artificial island supported 10 Common Snipe although I've noticed they have had counts four times as large recently. They seem to roost there, which is probably why only a small number were left (and most of them flew off while I was there).

Common Snipe

There were some easy year-ticks on offer because there was just enough clear water to support three Great Crested Grebes and 12 Goosanders, along with reasonable numbers of Coot and Tufted Ducks. The drake Wigeon was also present, although it was among the Mallards standing on the ice.

A gap in the ice

There were plenty of Black-headed Gulls and a handful of Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the ice, but just as I decided I was too cold to remain, the third calendar year Yellow-legged Gull which has been here for much of the winter, flew in and landed.

Yellow-legged Gull

I later discovered that I might have seen a couple of Common Gulls if I'd toughed it out a bit longer.

Tuesday January 16 - Sunflowers

 Birdtrack is a fantastic thing. It's an on-line BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) site allowing you to input your records to aid their research and also for the benefit of the local county recorder. This is great, but it also allows you to "explore data" which means you can access a "recent sightings" map. This shows not only your records over the last three or four days, but also everyone else's. 

From this I learnt that a local birder, Rob S, had seen a flock of 400 finches (mostly Linnets and Chaffinches) but including two Bramblings at Beckett's Farm near Wythall.

I duly attended on a bright and very cold morning and targeted a field of sunflower heads next to the A435, where I guessed the birds would be. At the end of the field is a public footpath on which you could stand, slightly away from the traffic, looking back across the field towards Beckett's Farm. 

It was immediately clear that there were plenty of finches in the crop, but also that for a lot of the time they were out of sight. Occasionally something would spook the birds and they would all fly up, allowing some sort of estimate to be made. I couldn't get to the 400 mark, but made a conservative estimate of 120 Linnets and 70 Chaffinches plus a few Greenfinches and Goldfinches. 

This was very nice, but what I really wanted to see was a Brambling, and eventually I did. A female was perched on a flower head for several seconds. It chose to take off just as I got around to pressing the shutter, but I still got a recognisable image.

Brambling

Not quite sharp, but how often do you get to see a shot of a Brambling in flight? So quite lucky really. I later saw what I took to be the same bird at the top of an oak tree in the same field.

Trying to record the spectacle of a lot of finches in flight is something which I find very difficult, but I gave it a go.

Mostly Linnets

The Linnets spent most of their time out of sight, feeding on the ground. It's very much an all or nothing species in winter. I'm finding very few, usually none, as I wander around the Circle. But where the feeding is good, you can be sure that Linnets will be present in numbers. This is the second sunflower field I have seen around here, and both have been fantastic.

Linnet

After about an hour I couldn't feel my feet so I returned to the car and drove the short distance to Tanner's Green where I had planned to explore some more.

This was more typical of my roaming, producing mainly garden birds. The highlights were a small party of Siskins and a Red Fox.

A Fox through a hedge.

Sunday January 14 - A change is as good as a rest

 Morton Bagot only features today thanks to John Chidwick who visited late in the afternoon and watched a Barn Owl flying around.

I chose to try somewhere else, a bit different. To do a bit more exploring. My target was Coughton Fields Lane north of Alcester, and ironically it turned out to be not very different from Morton Bagot at all.

The fields on both sides of the road have been purchased by HOEF, and were therefore the familiar fare of young plantation and rough grassland. The birds were much the same as I might have seen if I'd stuck to the patch.

Two pairs of Stonechats were nonetheless very welcome. Further confirmation that they are well distributed throughout my wider patch. It's a far cry from the 1990s when finding a Stonechat was quite a coup. 

Female Stonechat

Where the trees came to an end there was some arable farmland which gave me a Yellowhammer, a Linnet, and a few Chaffinches.

A party of six Mute Swans heading north might have got me more excited if I hadn't heard the rhythmical thrum of their wingbeats from far away. Whoopers and Bewick's fly on largely silent wings.

Back among the saplings further reminders of the patch were a pair of Bullfinches, occasional Redpolls flying over, and a single female Reed Bunting. I'm finding the latter surprisingly hard to find away from Morton Bagot.

Bullfinch

I ended the morning with two driven circuits of Alcester looking for Waxwings. Flipping things! They seem to have leap-frogged the Circle with records from Badsey and Bidford to the south, and still some at Bartley and Longbridge to the north.

Needless to say, I didn't find any.

Saturday January 13 - The dark arts

 To say it's been a quiet week is something of an understatement. My determination to keep visiting the less enticing parts of my Circle is taking its toll. 

On Tuesday I walked from Astwood Bank to Shurnock and back. The latter place was a site I had been given as a former Willow Tit location when I took part in the Willow Tit Survey a few years ago. I didn't find any then or on Tuesday. They've definitely gone. Instead I found a Coal Tit, a Treecreeper, a Nuthatch, and a Great Spotted Woodpecker in the scrubby wood which I could well imagine used to sustain some Willow Tits. The highlight of a freezing cold day was flushing a Green Sandpiper from a stream at the edge of Astwood Lane.

On Friday I went to Henley-in-Arden, and after a brief walk around the suburbs failing to find any Waxwings I walked west across a wonderful scrubby field (which is unfortunately a regular dog-walking route) to Hunger Hill. A few Meadow Pipits was a poor return, but it looked great as a potential Owl site. In a pathetic attempt to add a few year ticks I then drove to Wootton Pool and duly added Red-legged Partridge, Mute Swan, Coot, and Tufted Duck.

It's a marathon not a sprint, should be my mantra this year.

Meanwhile, Tony has been catching Jack Snipe (two) and Woodcock (two) at Morton Bagot (and not in the scrape field he assures me).

Which brings me to the Dark Arts. I refer to the taking of a few moth specimens during the year. I hate doing it, but its the only way to record certain species of micro-moths with any accuracy. This week Nigel, the Warwickshire Moth Recorder, contacted me with my 2023 results.

Of the twelve moths submitted, five were new for the garden, and two were the first to be confirmed ( I had identified Dichrorampha vancouverana and Anarsia inoxiella by photograph in 2018 and 2021, but specimens had been needed for full acceptance).

The new ones were; Eucosma hohenwartiana, Coleophora glaucicolella, Coleophora saxicolella, Elachista luticomella (the first in Warwickshire since 2011), and Bryotropha basaltinella.

Elachista luticomella - 09 August 2023

 Fortunately most moth-trapping is of the non-lethal variety.

Sunday January 7 - Morton Bagot

 In sunny, but cold, conditions Dave and I paid our usual Sunday morning respects to the patch. There are still a few low-hanging fruit available for the year-list, and that's just as well. We duly plucked three Jack Snipe, 14 Common Snipe, Grey Heron, and Red Kite before the pick of the day, a pair of Marsh Tits. 

Marsh Tit

There are still a good number of Fieldfares and Redwings to sift through, and we were pleased to see an increased number of Lapwings (35), in the flash field. The Greylag Goose flock was even harder to see than last week, but didn't seem to be accompanied by anything rare. About 21 Teal completed the picture at the flash field.

Fieldfare

There was a good smattering of finches with all the expected species in small numbers, and we accumulated three pairs of Stonechats, assuming we weren't counting one pair three times.

Further afield, Waxwings are still absent from the Circle, but there have been a couple of good sightings of other species. Matt Griffiths heard Pink-footed Goose calls over Tidbury Green a couple of nights ago, with Josh Toogood also hearing some over Cofton Hackett. The belief is that these records were of the same bird(s). Meanwhile, Tony and Leigh Kelly caught an immature (maybe immature female) Common Redpoll at Alne Wood on Friday along with 59 Lesser Redpolls.

Thursday January 4 - Lower Bentley

 More gap filling took place today. My choice of venue was Lower Bentley, a rather uninspiring area of farmland west of Redditch, and to the south of a wood called The Thrift. I actually parked by the entrance to a Worcestershire Trust reserve called Foster's Green Meadow. Most of this reserve is outside my circle, and its a renowned wildflower meadow. So not really a place to visit in January.

The highlights of my walk were a calling Yellowhammer, a substantial flock of Redwings and Fieldfares, and an exceptionally pale Buzzard.

Redwings and Fieldfares

Common Buzzard (very pale version)

I flushed the Buzzard from a line of trees. In flight it showed a white rump, and some white at the base of its tail, but not enough to get me very excited. It then landed in a tree two fields away, which explains the poor quality record shot. 

You would normally expect to be accumulating year-ticks on your second outing of the new year, but I had just three; a Cormorant flying west, a singing Mistle Thrush, and a Treecreeper.

I should, of course, be out looking for Waxwings. The nearest to me now are a few at Longbridge a mile north of Upper Bittell. 

Monday January 1 - Morton Bagot...again

 If it hadn't been for the discovery of the White-fronted Goose yesterday I would not have been back at Morton Bagot this morning, and certainly not in the field an hour before dawn. But the chance of getting the goose on both the 2023 and 2024 year-lists proved irresistible.

There was just one problem. The goose had gone. I had blithely imagined that geese will have roosted on the flashes as they do in September. They hadn't. My back up plan was that it would be early enough to see Owls. I saw none.

However, before Dave arrived at our usual rendezvous time I had one little slice of good fortune. While I lurked at the edge of the tiny reed bed at the dragonfly pools I heard a Kingfisher, and because I was obscured by the reeds it landed in a bush right in front of me.

Kingfisher

Bearing in mind that in most previous years there have been no Kingfishers at Morton Bagot until about July, this was quite a coup.

Dave arrived and we set off on the familiar circuit. As it was the first day of the year, every species took on a renewed significance as the list grew. Having said that, we made a conscious decision not to disturb the Snipe in the scrape field as I gathered Tony had been in the marsh yesterday and had recorded five Jack Snipe. We felt they needed a breather.

There was renewed optimism about the Goose situation as I had seen over thirty Greylag Geese flying in from the south. Sadly this was misplaced and we counted just the same 37 Greylags as yesterday. Also absent were the large numbers of thrushes seen previously. We saw barely 20 each of Fieldfares and Redwings. On the plus side we saw the Stonechat in the scrape field and then added two more in the flash field.

Male Stonechat in the flash field

On my early morning visit I had counted 40 Teal on the nearest flash, but now there were about half as many visible. Two Lapwings stood at the edge of the furthest flash, and a highlight came as a Green Sandpiper dropped onto the back edge of the nearest.

Green Sandpiper

Dave suggested another scan of the geese so we retreated back up the slope to give it one more go. Same result, except that we heard two of the less expected species. Firstly a Yellowhammer called several times as it flew over us, visible only as a distant dot, and then a squeal from the rushes surrounding the nearest flash was enough to add Water Rail to the year-list (and this time we both heard it).

Our final tally was a solid 51 species (only 50 for me because I missed some Red-legged Partridges Dave had flushed on the walk back). 

However I added a Jay to my list as I drove home.

You can't beat the first day of the year.