Saturday May 4 - West Midlands Alldayer (Earlswood Lakes)

 Like an MP who has crossed the floor, I abandoned Morton Bagot to its fate today and switched allegiances to the Earlswood team. To be fair, no-one who visits Morton Bagot had expressed much interest in taking part (but I apologise if anyone felt betrayed). I also had the issue that I have dropped out of X or any similar Social Media platform and the Alldayer is administered through X (although again I should say that Mike Wakeman had kindly offered to relay our/my scores if required).

Anyway, a change is as good as a rest, and I thoroughly enjoyed this morning's effort. For me it was not an "all-dayer", just a "most of the morninger." Although I did not get up before dawn, but I was standing on the causeway between Engine Pool and Windmill Pool with John Sirrett and Matt Griffiths at 06.15.

John was the score keeper, and as far as I can tell he was doing a much better job than I ever did at Morton Bagot. The early signs were not promising. I had missed a Little Egret and although we quickly added Common Sandpiper and Sand Martin, I failed to get onto a House Martin John had spotted as it was flying off. I didn't see another all day.

I decided to head for the bottom end of Windmill Pool, an area I now know is called The Scrublands. One additional benefit today is that I got to find out where some of the places referred to by Whatsapp group members actually are. Yesterday this area had hosted a Garden Warbler, but this morning I couldn't find it. Instead I counted about six Whitethroats and a couple of Reed Buntings before emerging onto Springbrook Lane at the far end. Here I located Jim Winsper who was having something of a communications nightmare. He had found Pheasant and Mistle Thrush on the Umberslade Road (two more species I failed to see all day) before hearing a Green Woodpecker and finding that he couldn't connect to the Whatsapp Group. I did the honours (and also failed to see a Green Woody today).

One of the Scrubland early morning Whitethroats

My one piece of good luck was spotting a Badger as it trundled towards me along Springbrook Lane.

By the time I got back to the causeway I was able to reel off an unimpressive list of birds which did at least raise the total by six. 

I then had to head home to help Lyn and have my breakfast.

Nearly two hours later I returned. In the interim to total had been raised to 61 and I had missed a Yellow Wagtail and a Swift. Fortunately I was able to pull back the Swift immediately on arrival, and then contributed to the identification of an Arctic Tern which had confusingly arrived with a Common Tern in very benign un-Arctic Ternlike conditions.

The Arctic Tern

I decided to head for Terry's Pool and was given a list of "birds needed" to bear in mind. On the way I added a Snipe and a singing Garden Warbler to my personal list, but completely failed to find anything to contribute to the list.

A grim record shot of the Garden Warbler

On the plus side I located a Nuthatch which was feeding young through the entrance to its nest box. On previous Morton Bagot alldayers this species has invariably gone off the radar.

Matt was starting to have a put me to shame. Pings on my phone told me he had heard a Cuckoo (a bird I still need for the year), then a Lesser Whitethroat and best of all a male Redstart at Field Cottage. I Googled Field Cottage and discovered I was quite close. On reaching the road I caught up with Mike Jeeves who had also got the call. We found Matt, and shortly afterwards had the briefest of views of the Redstart before it disappeared for good. An Earlswood tick for me.

By now it was midday and my time was nearly up. I caught up with Willow Warbler and the long-staying Wigeon before reaching my car. Although I'd really enjoyed the day, I didn't feel I'd made much of a contribution to the team score. However, that was about to change. 

Willow Warbler

Great Crested Grebes displaying

As I was about to get into my car below the dam I glanced up to see an immature gull flying over. It was a first-summer Common Gull. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit this was a year-tick (they're scarce around here), but at least it was the 67th tick for the team's list.

As far as I know the score is still stuck on that figure, but I will update if I find out any more. My personal tally was 54.

PS: Late news just in: Matt managed to find a female Wheatear at Pound Close Farm at around 21:00, so that becomes tick number 68.