Lower Bittell Reservoir - A fool's errand

 Earlier this year I noticed that the BTO were asking people to volunteer to count gulls at gull roosts. I used to do this so thought I would apply to count the one "vacant" locality within my circle of interest; Lower Bittell Reservoir.

Now I know what you are thinking. Surely Lower Bittell doesn't have a gull roost. That's what I thought too, but maybe my knowledge was out of date.

I didn't hear anything after I applied, but I assumed that once I logged on to their website I would be able to enter data anyway.

It turns out I couldn't. Presumably my application went unnoticed. This was probably just as well because, guess what. There were no gulls whatsoever roosting (or even popping in for a look) at Lower Bittell this evening.

At least I got a Bittell tick out of it. Great White Egrets are semi-resident there nowadays, but in my very few recent visits I had managed to miss them until this evening. In poor light, photographed through a hedge, I managed a horribly out of focus record shot.

This may not have been the best bird recorded though. I also heard a Water Rail squealing from reeds below the locked entrance gates.

All in all it was an evening I'd prefer to forget.

Saturday September 28 - Morton Bagot

 This morning I was joined by Mike Holley for a walk around the patch. We arranged to meet at the church, and I was a little early so had the opportunity to assess whether there was much overhead migration going on.

The answer was a qualified yes. Meadow Pipits and Skylarks hinted at the winter to come, while a few Swallows headed south. Once Mike joined me, I suggested we start at Netherstead and inevitably it became more difficult to keep track of the numbers moving south. I totted up a modest 30 Meadow Pipits, eight Skylarks, and five Swallows at the end of the morning but I'm sure many more were missed. A single Siskin call represented the first of the autumn.

We met up with the ringers who mentioned catching Linnet as well as plenty of Meadow Pipits. After leaving them, having already seen a Stonechat near Netherstead, we added three more in the scrape field.

Other species which seemed more obvious than usual included Reed Buntings, Blackbirds, and Song Thrushes. I'm never sure whether the early autumn thrushes are simply local birds which have competed their moult and are now only interested in fattening up for autumn, or are actually the forerunners of an autumn arrival which will soon include Redwings.

We finally reached the flash field and were a little disappointed, but not surprised, to find that the water level had risen to the extent that there was virtually no exposed mud. As a result we saw only 17 Teal, one Snipe, and heard a Green Sandpiper.

During the morning we logged eight Chiffchaffs and three Blackcaps but nothing rarer. Mike professed himself to be quite content with the morning's list, while I had to admit my enjoyment of it would have been enhanced if we'd winkled out something a little less run of the mill.

Thursday September 26 - Not birding at Earlswood

 I'm not supposed to be birding at the moment. The latter half of the week has been taken up by a series of routine hospital appointments for Lyn (and therefore me), so I cleared all thoughts of birding out of my mind.

But yesterday a Whatsapp ping came from John Oates at Earlswood. He'd found a Rock Pipit at the bottom end of Windmill Pool. Thirty minutes later it had moved to the causeway, so I cracked and went for it. It was pouring with rain and I dipped. My only compensation was the first Snipe on the rafts there of the autumn.

This morning John confirmed it was still there, and after a brief bit of negotiation I went to try again. I arrived just before the Malthouse car-park gates had been opened, so parked in the lane itself. Shortly after I'd got out of the car two Ring-necked Parakeets flew over. 

I joined John and Janet on the causeway and John tried to point the Rock Pipit out. The problem was that it was walking along the bottom of the dam and was only viewable from the causeway looking into glaring sunlight. Eventually I spotted it and we tried walking down the dam to get a better angle. This failed and the bird was flushed by a dog-walker, allowing us to see it flying off towards Engine Pool.

Now I had to leave, so I'm doubly grateful to John who has allowed me to post a superb photograph he took of it before I got there.

The Rock Pipit - John Oates

Tuesday September 24 - Morton Bagot

 After several days of heavy rain and easterlies, the east coast of Britain has been reaping the rewards. Yellow-browed Warblers have been outnumbering Chiffchaffs at places like Spurn. So with the wind finally dropping and conditions set fair with a very light westerly this morning I was trying to figure out where a Yellow-browed Warbler might be if it made it as far as Morton Bagot.

It's a big if. I targeted Bannam's Wood first and then swung down into the scrub of the rest of the site. The result was 11 Chiffchaffs and three Blackcaps. Oh well, back to the drawing board. 

At least birds were moving. I logged 44 Swallows, 52 House Martins and 30 Meadow Pipits over during the morning. Other small wins were a calling Yellowhammer flying high overhead, and a Peregrine being mobbed by a Sparrowhawk.

The flash field continues to hold the usual Teal (41), Snipe (six), Lapwings 16), and Green Sandpipers (three). The only hint of the unusual being a drake Shoveler on the back flash, and a female Wigeon on the nearest.

It was quite mild, so insects remain on the wing. The most noteworthy being a very dozy Small Copper which refused to open its wings for the camera.

Looking back at the weekend, the ringers claimed the biggest prize with a fly-over Great White Egret on Saturday. I tried Earlswood in the rain on Sunday, but apart from a flock forty distant hirundines moving when the rain briefly abated I saw nothing unremarkable.

Typical Midlands birding.

Thursday September 19 - Morton Bagot

 With the wind firmly in the east, you might think there should be an opportunity to find something unusual. 

Mike Holley had a go yesterday and did better than I did today. After a brief glimpse of the Black Redstart (which I could find no trace of today), he followed up with a Hobby, two Shovelers, 10 Snipe, about 55 Lapwings, and seven Green Sandpipers. Not bad at all.

This morning after dipping on the Black Redstart, I slogged round without seeing all that much. Several Chiffchaffs remained vocal and a few Swallows and a House Martin encouraged me to think that there may still be a few summer migrants around. I also saw a single Stonechat on the tree-guards.

The one brighter note was that the farmer has mowed or strimmed the flash field since my last visit, so it is now possible to see any ducks or waders which are there. I was reasonably happy with counts of three Green Sandpipers, 34 Lapwings, 45 Teal and 12 Snipe.

A few of the Snipe

The Lapwings were quite jittery so I'm pretty sure there was a raptor about, maybe Mike's Hobby.

My gut feeling is that the Black Redstart has now gone, but you never know it could have been hiding somewhere.

Sunday September 15 - Morton Bagot (and some garden mothing)

 With Dave away birding on Scilly, I was joined by Jonathan Bowley who was keen to see his old stamping ground and particularly the Black Redstart. 

This morning the bird was a little elusive at first until Jon spotted it on a television aerial on one of the barns. We then settled into my normal circuit, noticing a constant trickle of Swallows and House Martins heading south in the first hour.

The ringers were in situ and were catching Meadow Pipits, while we headed for the old pool field where we counted five Stonechats and two Whinchats. At least four Whitethroats were still around along with a few migrant Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs. The flash field contained the usual Green Sandpipers, Snipe, and Teal, and before we left the site we saw a Red Kite cruising along in the distance.

Unfortunately all the birds I saw were too distant to encourage me to get my camera out, so I was left with the prospect of an unillustrated blog post. To get around that I decided to put my moth trap out overnight to see what was around.

The result was an impressive 74 moths of 18 species including two new for the year, and two new for the garden. One of those was quite a good moth. The White-point was largely regarded as a migrant and only appeared in Warwickshire for the first time in 2017. However the species has since spread from the south-east and is now recorded in moderate numbers each year.

White-point Mythimna albipuncta

The other new one was one of the few micros I caught. The Meal Moth is associated with grain stores and is thus a rather urban beast. They are not especially uncommon, but its still taken me seven years to catch one.

The rather worn Meal Moth Pyralis farinalis

Oak Hook-tip

Perhaps it's not quite time to give up on moths, even the very common Oak Hook-tip is not quite annual in the garden so there should be scope for more discoveries in future.

September 13 - Morton Bagot

 If Morton Bagot is good for anything, it's good for chats. This morning I parked at the church and duly ticked off the Black Redstart which shows no sign of leaving. Later on I added two Whinchats and two Stonechats to the day list. They were accompanied by a single Whitethroat, a warbler which seems to consider itself an honorary chat. They say that Dartford Warblers will often accompany Stonechats, and even follow them to the Midlands. One day maybe.

Black Redstart photographed on Wednesday by Mike Holley

Whinchat on Wednesday - Mike Holley

Stonechat - today

The ringers are back from their holidays and were concentrating on catching Meadow Pipits. September sees the start of that species' annual migration to southern Britain or western Europe as far south as Spain.

Meadow Pipit

In calm, sunny conditions the patch was generally quite quiet. Teal numbers were lower, but Snipe were up to seven, and Green Sandpipers about the same (three). Other birds seen included Kingfisher, Raven, and Red Kite.

This mid-September lull is typical as the last of the summer visitors leave and we await the arrival of the first winter thrushes from mid October.

But as always in birding, anything can turn up in the meantime.

Tuesday September 10 - Earlswood Lakes (and Black Red update)

 I must admit that the strength of the wind put me off going to Morton Bagot today, so I don't know whether the Black Redstart is still there. However, it was certainly seen yesterday and I thank Mike Wakeman and Gert Corfield for letting me know and allowing me to use Gert's shot taken in bright sunlight.

Black Redstart on Monday - Gert Corfield

As for today, my visit to Earlswood failed to add anything new to their recent good run. 

However I did see a Hobby chasing hirundines, which included at least five Sand Martins, over Engine Pool. A walk the length of Windmill Pool added a Little Egret, a Shoveler, and three Teal to the visit list.

The weather has switched from easterly and interesting to north-westerly and dull, but as always in birding you should never write your chances off.

Sunday September 8 - Morton Bagot

 Today was a little bit of a frustrating visit to the patch. It started well enough in calm cloudy conditions as I located the Black Redstart immediately on arrival at the church. I took a couple of distant shots while I waited for Dave to arrive.

Cropped image taken before I zoomed in

Blast !

The above shot rather set the tone. Just after Dave arrived I heard a Yellow Wagtail call twice as it flew over (going north!) I shouted to Dave but he didn't hear it well enough.

We made our way down the Millennium Way and located two Whinchats in the distance, and a Falcon on the even more distant pylons. We eventually established that this was just a Peregrine. 

Then the heavens opened and for the next hour we got absolutely soaked while sought refuge under various bushes and later the trees overlooking the nearest flash.

Good weather for ducks

We eventually counted 68 Teal, four Green Sandpipers, three Snipe and six Shovelers, (the latter all being on the furthest flash). Three Stonechats were perched on the tree-guards.

Eventually the rain stopped and the sun came out. But our trials were not over. We could see a distant blob on some telephone wires. It was too far away for the camera, so I had to erect my scope, half expecting I would be looking at some finch. But it was a Pipit. We obviously wanted it to be a Tree Pipit, and it was certainly pumping its tail encouragingly. We moved closer, but never got close enough before it flew away.

It felt like we had missed out today.

Saturday September 7 - Earlswood All-dayer

 For the second time I have spurned Morton Bagot in favour of taking part in the West Midlands all-dayer at Earlswood. My excuse is that I'm no longer a Twitter subscriber, and to be honest I enjoyed the Earlswood vibe so much in the spring all-dayer that I didn't want to miss out.

They're very well organised at Earlswood. John Sirrett co-ordinates all the counts and the Earlswood Whatsapp Group facilitates all the "players" the opportunity to report their sightings promptly.

I arrived early, and spent an hour from 06.30 am on the causeway in misty murky conditions seeing absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. By the time I had to leave to help Lyn get her act together, the best bird located was the Mandarin at Terry's Pool. My only contribution to the list was a Kingfisher.

On my return I chose to lurk around the Springbrook Lane and Scrublands area, but once again only saw species which were already on the list. I also missed John Sirrett's fly-over Tree Pipit which would have been a year tick.

My luck changed late in the morning when I decided to head towards the Craft Centre where most of the hirundines seemed to be gathering. I duly caught up with a Sand Martin and numerous House Martins, and Swallows. A flock of 100+ Starlings were also already on the list, but were impressive to see nonetheless. The hirundines started kicking off and I looked up to get an excellent view of a Hobby powering through them. 

I moved along the road to Field Cottage, an area where Matt had found a Redstart on the spring all-dayer. There was nothing that good today, but I did add Linnet (a flock of 21), Kestrel, and Lesser Whitethroat to the list. At last I was contributing.

Kestrel

Back on Engine Pool I spotted a youngish Yellow-legged Gull and this time it seems it really was one, having been identified initially in late August. My understanding was that it was a third-calendar year bird, although the bill and eye colour implied something younger.

By now it was much later than I had told Lyn I would be back, so I headed home. 

I thought that would be it for the day, but I hadn't reckoned on the day's star find being located by Peter Morgan. Two Sandwich Terns had dropped in at 15.30, so I made excuses and headed back to the lakes.

I arrived in the Malthouse car-park in time to discover that the birds had flown to Windmill Pool and were "showing well" at Windmill Pool. I broke into a run and found myself acting as a pacemaker for a jogger pounding along behind me. I arrived on the causeway completely out of breath, but in time to see the terns fly back down Engine Pool to the area I had just vacated. To cut a long story short I retraced my steps and had reasonable views of them on one of the rafts.

 They were an adult and its chick, the adult giving the classic "kyrriak" call, and the youngster responding with a plaintive "tseeee" call. They were determined to stick together whenever they flew around, the calls getting more anxious when the distance between them became too great. The only downside was that the drizzle became increasingly intense while I was there, so that by the time John had returned (minus his bins) seeing them was a very soggy experience.

Another species which could be added to the list was Mute Swan, three having arrived at about the same time as the terns did. They were my final tick of the day.

To the best of my knowledge the team's final bird was a Tawny Owl found by Matt late in the evening and was species number 65.

I have no idea how this compares to other sites, but I imagine the fact that not a single wader was seen by anyone and no-one could locate a Green Woodpecker all day means that Earlswood was quite low down in the rankings.

It matters not, and was a lot of fun for everyone who took part.

PS: the late addition of a sound recorded Common Sandpiper heard by John Sirrett's phone, but not by John or myself, while we were standing in the rain watching the Sandwich Terns takes the final total to 67. Apparently Earlswood was joint 15th. I'm not sure how many teams took part, hopefully more than 16!

Thursday September 5 - Black Redstart still present

Sleepy old Morton Bagot has been the centre of birding attention over the last couple of days. Unfortunately I couldn't get there on Wednesday, but Mike Holley was one of several birders who could.

He kindly updated me with news of the continued presence of the Black Redstart on the church and surrounding buildings, and he also competed a circuit of the wider patch seeing a Whinchat, three Stonechats, eight Green Sandpipers, and two Little Egrets.

Black Redstart - Mike Holley

Whinchat - Mike Holley

This morning I was able to go, although the weather had taken a turn for the worse. It remained cloudy with a northerly breeze and even some drizzle.

I connected with the Black Redstart straight away, this time on the church, and was able to point it out to a birder from Evesham, Peter.

I then set off on a brief circuit down to the flash field. The wind increased, and its northerly direction might have been the reason I only saw two Green Sandpipers and two Snipe. On the plus side there were even more Teal present, with 59 on the nearest flash and about 20 on the furthest. Unfortunately there was some movement between the two, so I can't be sure of the final count. Also present were at least 19 Lapwings and two Shovelers.

Hirundines were moving. I counted 39 House Martins and a few Swallows, before later seeing another flock of the former when I returned to the church. By then, late morning, Francis and Richard Peplow were present and another birder arrived, but the Black Redstart had disappeared.

I hope they saw it after I left.......and indeed they did.

Tuesday September 3 - Morton Bagot...something scarce at last.

 All the excitement today happened in the last five minutes before I had to return home, so I'll start at the end, as it were.

I'd delayed my visit to the afternoon due to heavy morning rain. Unusually I'd chosen to park by the little church, so I was lucky to even be there. I was sitting in the boot of my car removing my wellies after a fairly typical visit to the patch. Glancing to my left I noticed a small bird perched on the apex of the roof of a barn. It bobbed its head like a chat, and I wondered about Wheatear. Then it shivered its tail and I knew it had to be a Redstart or a Black Redstart. The light was pretty bad, but there was no doubt this was a grey bird with an orange tail, so a Black Redstart.

Having slogged around the patch for very little reward all summer, this bird was just the fillip I needed. Perhaps it's not such a bad place after all. The third Black Redstart for the site, but the first to be found by the church.

Going back to the start of the afternoon, I had a fairly decent bird on the walk down the Millennium Way footpath when I flushed a brown warbler from the long grass. It flew straight into the hedge behind me so I only had a close naked eye view of what I'm pretty certain was a Grasshopper Warbler. I hung around for a few minutes but it didn't re-emerge.

I'd packed my scope for a change and was therefore able to scan the furthest flash. This revealed an influx of dabbling ducks including a Wigeon, a Shoveler, and the usual flock of Teal. The nearest flash contained more Teal and seven Green Sandpipers, I later flushed another from the scrapes. The four Little Egrets and Lapwing flock was also still present.

Other birds around were at least nine Chiffchaffs, a Willow Warbler, two Lesser Whitethroats, and a female Tufted Duck. This will have been the one Mike saw on Sunday.

Botany doesn't often feature in this blog because I know very little about plants. However I was sufficiently taken by a patch of unfamiliar yellow flowers that I asked my app what they were. The answer came back as Common Fleabane.

I've probably walked passed them every year since I've being coming here, but I can't recall seeing the clump before.

Great White Egret - Earlswood

 Today was a good day to go birding. Early September and humid. Perfect.

Life, however, can get in the way. I was committed to other stuff, and spent the day in Stratford checking my phone as news filtered through. Obviously the east coast was the place to be, and the impoverished land-locked birders would have to rely on scraps.

Being a Monday, a lot of birds undoubtedly passed through unseen, but at Earlswood Lakes a Great White Egret was hard to ignore. Not exactly the sort of "rarity" to float many boats, but it was local, it was there, and it would do.

I got there for 16.00 and went to its last known location, Terry's Pool. But it had gone. The only birders present, Tony and Janet, were wringing their hands and wondering what to do next. The obvious move would be to check Windmill Pool where it had been when Mike Jeeves first put the news out.

I drove round to the causeway and immediately spotted it at the southern end of Windmill Pool. I alerted the others and set off to walk closer to the bird.

Tony and Janet joined me having taken a shorter route along Gypsy Lane. 

I know these birds aren't the rarity they once were, but they are very impressive. It seemed quite happy stalking around the Water Bistort, and once lunging to successfully catch a small fish.

I headed back to the causeway where I paid attention to a flock of Black-headed Gulls hoping for a Med Gull or something. Instead I became aware of terns calling and looked up to see four Common Terns excitedly careering around before making their way south-east along the length of Windmill. They seemed to be an adult and three juveniles, and were distant in no time.

I plan to be out and about tomorrow, and just hope the omens are still good.

Sunday September 1 - Morton Bagot

 Dave was able to join me today despite debilitating backache. It was a warm, largely sunny morning with a light easterly breeze. We should have seen more than we did, but it was a fairly quiet one.

There were some good signs. Large numbers of hirundines circled high over the fields and we felt they were drifting south. We estimated 70 House Martins and 40 Swallows, but I suspect there were more than that.

It was nice to find the small group of Little Egrets were still present in the scrape field, although they were down to four birds.

Moving on to the flash field we counted 29 Lapwings, 21 Teal, and four Green Sandpipers (in the afternoon Mike Holley counted six). It was also nice to see a number of Chats perched on the tree guards on our return stroll. We established there were four Stonechats and two Whinchats.

Our most unexpected sighting was a drake Tufted Duck which flew in from the north, circled the area and returned the way it had come. (Mike H later saw a female on the Kingfisher Pool). These were the first here for months. We also had Kingfisher at both the scrape field and the Kingfisher Pool, so possibly two birds.

During the afternoon Mike Holley paid a visit and saw most of the birds we had seen with the addition of a Garden Warbler near Stapenhill Wood, and a Grey Wagtail.

Grey Wagtail per Mike Holley