Thursday November 20 - Aston Cantlow

The morning dawned cold and frosty and I headed down to another snippet of land at the edge of my Circle. This time the venue was on the south-eastern edge of Aston Cantlow. I had visited the same square last summer, and I remembered it as being pretty dull.

So I was pleasantly surprised this time that one or two less regular birds were seen. The first were six Lapwings and nine Golden Plovers seen flying some distance away to the south of the village. Although I'd heard a Golden Plover somewhere near Umberslade back in January, these were the first I had actually seen this year.

Pretty bleak and uninspiring

In the photo above, you can just see the edge of a wooded bank which was keepered for Pheasants and therefore private. However, from the footpath I was on, the second decent sighting of the day was visible when a Peregrine appeared from above those trees.

Peregrine

Oddly enough I had seen a Peregrine in the Aston Cantlow area some years before. I couldn't see any particular reason that the species would be here, but maybe there are some pylons in the vicinity. Peregrines love surveying the landscape from those man-made structures.

Tuesday November 18 - Lists

The bulk of today's post relates to yesterday. About mid-afternoon I got a message from Rob W relating to a Snow Bunting along the dam at Upper Bittell. This was a drop everything, jump in the car moment.

On arrival I could see a group of three birders huddled at the far end of the dam, so I hastened to join them. As I'd hoped, Rob, Chris and Josh were still on the bird and so it was just a case of them pointing to where it was.

My thanks go to Rob who found the bird, initially on call, and was kind enough to think of me. Others were called, but a winter's weekday late afternoon is not ideal for most, and no-one else arrived. Chris and I got distracted by looking at Gulls after fifteen minutes, and shortly afterwards we could no longer find the Bunting. Maybe it had gone to roost, or perhaps it had just gone.

So why was seeing it so important? Well it's all about lists. I've kept lists of birds for nearly fifty years. My first was my British List which I was encouraged to compile at University in November 1978. At the time it stood at 143, so I was able to recall seeing (or thinking I'd seen) that many species since childhood. There were some dodgy ones on there; Tree Sparrow, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, and maybe a few more, but in time I saw them for certain.

My first local list was my Bittell List, and from 1978 to the early 2000s I cherished it, and also my Upton Warren List. In all that time there had never been a Snow Bunting at Bittell. The last records were in 1964, and possibly 1969 (one at Cofton Richards in April). So even though my Bittell list is more of a historical thing, I was very keen to add Snow Bunting.

One of the peculiarities of my list making is that many lists have been, if not abandoned, then put on the back-burner as my birding priorities have changed. Nowadays the lists that matter to me the most are my Morton Bagot lists and my 10 k square Circle year list. But if I ever move house for example, they too might be discontinued.

List making can be seen as nerdy, but I would defend it for one reason. It helps you remember what you've seen and focus on what you want to see. Birds on lists matter more than birds seen, for example on a birding trip to Norfolk. They do to me anyway.

Technically, this Snow Bunting might have been within 10 k of my house, parts of the east shore should qualify. But having decided from the outset not to include Upper Bittell in its entirety I will not be adding it to the 10k year list. It's my list, my choice.

Today, I resumed my 10 k wandering. I visited a wood at the eastern edge of the Circle near Wootton Wawen. It had no public access and I did not have permission to be there. This was a shooters wood, Pheasant pens everywhere. Thankfully no-one shot me. The best bird was a Marsh Tit. 

Sunday November 16 - Morton Bagot

 Morton Bagot seemed strangely empty this morning. Not of birds, of people. The ringers had migrated somewhere else, and Dave was not with me. I had the place to myself.

Conditions were ideal really. High cloud with a few sunny spells and hardly a breathe of wind. Redwings were very much in evidence, feeding on hawthorn berries. The hedges seem particularly bountiful this autumn.

All I needed was a decent bird. The heavy rain a couple of days ago had filled up every pool it could find, and was no doubt responsible for the appearance of the bird of the day, a Little Grebe swimming around on the nearest flash.

Little Grebe

This was only the second here this year, and the first I've been able to photograph. The flashes were also home to 33 Teal, a Wigeon and 24 Lapwings.

A Wigeon among the Teal

Other than that it was pretty steady. Redpolls appeared in very short supply until 30 appeared in the birches on my walk back, while the Redwing numbers reached a minimum of 50 birds.

Redwing

It sounds as though winter will be back next week.

Thursday November 13 - Umberslade Park

 I'm starting to run out of square kilometres within the Circle which I haven't visited. But today I picked a new one, being the area towards the west end of Umberslade Park. The downside of this area is that it's a shooting estate with plenty of signs making it clear wanderers would not be welcome. 

I was therefore restricted to a single track which runs bullet straight from the entrance to Umberslade House to Tanworth-in-Arden. The bit I was interested in fell about half way between the two ends.

I like to try target a species within my self-imposed boundary, and it occurred to me that the area might contain Linnets and that I wouldn't be a million miles away from Earlswood, where I had narrowly missed a pair of Twite last month.

Well I managed to find some Linnets, a flock of 43 in fact. However, they were in the middle of an enormous field with only Skylarks for company. I could count them when they flew, but even if I'd been brave and had strode into the middle of the completely off limits field, I couldn't see any other outcome than that they would just fly off to another distant field. Ideally you want Linnets to perch up in a tree so that you can look through them properly.

The only other noteworthy bird, and they are getting less worthy of comment every year, was a Red Kite. 

I did like the fact that it was an adult with a fox red tail, and also that it was photo-bombed by a passing Woodpigeon as I pressed the shutter.

Tuesday November 11 - Shortwood Roughs

 Today I walked along a canal in an area of woodland north-west of Redditch known as Shortwood Roughs. I'm fairly familiar with the area from decades ago when I used to do a BTO Common Bird Census there. Things were very different in those days.

The small area I concentrated on this morning contained just the expected parties of woodland Tits etc, some Redwings, and a few Siskins. At least the autumnal colours were nice.

In fact I saw nothing to top the three Blackcaps which turned up in our garden yesterday. These birds will probably have come from central Europe to winter here, and a November arrival is typical.

The images would probably have been sharper if I hadn't taken them through our kitchen window. It's obviously time I cleaned it.

Sunday November 9 - Morton Bagot

 The morning started on a bit of a bum note. Dave and I discussed the mystery warbler we had heard last week and which I had recorded the following day, and I agreed that I was no longer happy to call it a calling Cetti's Warbler. Unfortunately we also couldn't bring ourselves to identify it as anything at all, except that we were certain it was neither a sylvia warbler such as Blackcap, nor a Wren. It'll have to remain a mystery.

Ironically, a Blackcap was calling from a hedge near where I'd parked, and Tony K later caught three of them. Pretty unusual for November here.

Shortly after we left Tony catching yet more Redpolls, a young guy appeared and admitted to being a regular reader of this blog. Thankfully, he liked it. His name was Derry and he was keen to play us a recording made on his phone here at Morton Bagot in September. He believed it to be a purring Turtle Dove, and it certainly sounded like one. A singing Turtle Dove at Morton Bagot in September? I tried to think of an alternative, and rather lamely came up with the fact that Pheasants can make some odd noises. Unfortunately Derry had only heard the possible Turtle Dove that day, although he had also not seen a Pheasant. 

Birding is as much about hearing birds as seeing them, but it can be a frustrating business.

Derry joined us for a while, but had to decline our offer for him to continue with us for the rest of the morning. This was a pity because about half an hour later the sight of panicking corvids got Dave onto a Goshawk. I managed to see it, probably the adult female we saw last week, just before it disappeared into Bannams. Sorry Derry.

Unfortunately we saw no geese all morning, but the flash field did offer up 10 Wigeon, 55 Teal, 20 Lapwings, and a Snipe.

It's a bit sad really that the wintering Lapwing flock can no longer reach close to a hundred birds we were used to seeing here ten years ago.

Other birds recorded today including a male Stonechat, a Marsh Tit, and a decent flock of winter thrushes. Dave flushed a Jack Snipe which unusually flew off into the distance to the extent that I didn't even see it.

Finally, Tony had had a reasonable morning, showing us a photo of a young female Sparrowhawk he had caught earlier.

Immature female Sparrowhawk - T Kelly

Over the last three days the ringing team caught an impressive 233 birds including seven Blackcaps. 

This is an amalgamation of their results for the last three days:

Sparrowhawk - 2 (an imm male and an ad female)

Blue Tit  - 106 (56) - One of the retrapped Blue Tits had originally been ringed in 2019

Great Tit - 13 (9)

Long-tailed Tit - 2

Blackcap - 7

Goldcrest - 1

Wren - 5 (2)

Redwing - 1

Song Thrush - 1

Dunnock - 4 (2)

Meadow Pipit - 5

Greenfinch - 11

Lesser Redpoll - 57

Goldfinch - 18 (1)

Looking slightly further back, they've had the results of three controlled Lesser Redpolls as follows:

Ringed Cannock Chase, Staffs 8/9/25 controlled Morton Bagot 24/10/25

Ringed Smallfield, S Yorks 12/10/25 controlled Morton Bagot 25/10/25

Ringed Stonehaugh, Northumbria 19/10/24 controlled Morton Bagot 26/10/25

So all three were ringed and controlled on passage southwards, although the Northumbria one relates to a bird ringed last autumn and therefore making a similar journey this autumn.

Fascinating stuff.

Saturday November 8 - Morton Bagot

 With the ringers present on site again, I was keen to join them in the hope that the mystery warbler might be caught. Unfortunately neither team set their nets near where the bird had been calling, and in any case I again failed to hear it. If you think this seems a lot of fuss over a Cetti's Warbler, you'd be right. The "rarity" I can't shake out of my head is Dusky Warbler. I guess I'll never know for sure.

It turned out to be a bit of a disjointed morning. As soon as the mist cleared I became aware  of large flocks of Woodpigeons heading south-west. I logged 1,130 before the tap was turned off, and no more appeared. 

Shortly afterwards I heard the calls of Greylag Geese and managed to see them heading north. Among them I spotted a smaller goose, and managed a quick shot of it before they all disappeared.

It's the fifth bird from the left

Even when I magnified the image in the back of the camera I couldn't be sure what it was, but suspected Pink-footed Goose. I mentioned the bird to the ringers, and although they hadn't seen it, one of them, Sam, was able to confirm that they had seemed to be dropping beyond the flash field.

I decided to go back to the car to get my scope. On the way I noted a male Stonechat which flew over the ringer's table (at some height) while the ringers were busy at their nets. 

So as I returned to the rise from where the flash field can first be viewed I was encouraged to see some geese two fields beyond it. I set the scope up, and was very pleased to discover a Pink-footed/Bean Goose among them. I texted Rob W at Bittell, and he confirmed that the long-staying Tundra Bean Goose was still there. Eventually I got good enough views to confirm I was indeed looking at a Pink-footed Goose.

Pink-footed Goose (third from left)

I think this is the third record for the site.

Unfortunately I ran out of time, and didn't even check the flash field. On my walk back I heard a Brambling which I presume is the same one as I had yesterday.

Friday November 7 - Morton Bagot

 A cloudy morning with a very light south-easterly. Tony was on site ringing, but not in the place where the presumed Cetti's Warbler had been heard. I headed back to the thick hedge in question, and recommenced the vigil. I can't quite shrug off the thought that the bird might have been something a lot rarer. Sadly there was no sign of it anyway. Instead a Brambling flew over calling (I have belatedly realised that this, and the one seen on my last visit, were the first here this year). A few Meadow Pipits were haunting the the scrape field, perhaps attracted by insects stirred up by the recently installed cattle.

Meadow Pipits

I rejoined Tony to touch base. He was starting to catch more Redpolls, so anticipated he could be quite busy. Some gunshots had blasted out from the direction of Castle Farm, and these had led to several small groups of Mallard flying around. I decided a visit to the flash field might be a good idea.

Half way there, a very distinctive Dunlin call split the air. I scanned around, hearing a couple of more distant calls but failed to latch onto the bird. Still a 10 k year-tick though, and also the first Dunlin here since 2023.

The furthest flash did indeed hold some new arrivals. Eight Wigeon were swimming out of cover. The nearest flash was less impressive, holding small numbers of the usual Teal and Snipe.

Most of the Wigeon

Other birds seen today included at least 210 Starlings heading west, about 150 winter thrushes roughly half of which were Fieldfares, a Stonechat, a fly-over Yellowhammer, and a Peregrine.

Spot the Wren competition (no prizes)

Pied Wagtail on the roof of my car

Wednesday November 5 - The moth-trapping ends with a flourish

 This weekend marks the last for the 2025 Garden Moth Survey, and as I want to save time for another attempt to see the putative Cetti's Warbler at Morton Bagot, I decided to deploy the moth trap early. It should also be said that it was a very mild night with not much wind, so pretty ideal.

The moths did not disappoint. I attracted 29 moths of 19 species, which is pretty good for November. These included one lifer, and five which were new for the year.

The garden "first" was a migrant micro called Rusty-dot Pearl. It's actually quite a common moth, particularly if you are lucky enough to be trapping on the south coast. Even inland they are not that rare, but our garden hardly ever gets migrants so I was thrilled to finally see one.

Rusty-dot Pearl

Rather more spectacular was a Mottled Umber resting on our fence. This was also my first since 2020, so it certainly floated my boat.

Mottled Umber

Hardly less impressive looking was my first December Moth since 2021. The gap in my records is probably a reflection of the fact I rarely try to catch moths after early November. 

December Moth

The same can be said for the next three new for the year moths; a Sprawler, three November Moths (ag), and a Winter Moth.

Sprawler

November Moth ag

Winter Moth

My full list, for those interested, was as follows:

Australian Orange-tip Tachystola acroxantha (2)

Oak Longhorn Carcina quercana

Light Brown Apple Moth Epiphyas postvittana (3)

Rusty-dot Pearl Udea ferrugalis

December Moth

Red-Green Carpet (6)

Common Marbled Carpet

Winter Moth

November Moth ag (3)

Double-striped Pug

Mottled Umber

Merveille Du Jour

Barred Sallow

Sprawler

Shuttle-shaped Dart

Turnip Moth

White Point

Vine's Rustic

Lesser Yellow Underwing

Tuesday November 4 - Tutnall

Now that it's November it is time for me to resume wandering the lesser visited square kilometres within my 10k Circle of interest. The random(ish) finger pointed to Tutnall in the north-west sector. I had previously visited just once, in June 2025, so I was keen to get in a winter visit.

It has to be said that this plan of campaign is very unlikely to produce any unusual birds, but this particular square did provide some nice views.

 The landscape was dominated by a short grassy sward upon which several herds of cattle grazed. Searching for birds in the more arboreal landscape towards the village was hampered by a fresh breeze and incessant road noise from the A448 dual carriageway.

The most obvious birds were corvids and pigeons, the former including a pair of Ravens and the latter a flock of 24 Stock Doves. Slightly less expected was a group of mainly large gulls resting in one of the fields.

I hadn't opted to take my scope, but as far as I could tell they were mainly Lesser Black-backed Gulls plus a few Herring Gulls.

My total species count was just 29 in two hours. Pretty typical I'm afraid.

Monday November 3 - The Morton Bagot mystery call

 The calling bird Dave and I briefly heard yesterday has been bugging me. So much so that this morning I got up at dawn and headed back to the patch to try to hear, and ideally record it.

The walk down from Bannams got me an instant success when a calling Brambling  flew over. I arrived at the bottom of the hill and hung around without much expectation.

Then after about half an hour it suddenly started calling from the thick hedge at the bottom of the field. How to describe it? A rather flutey "toik", like a cross between a Wren and a Blackcap. It was quite a burst and once it had stopped, my brain cells whirred and I came up with a name. Cetti's Warbler .... maybe. 

Obviously everyone knows the song, but the call is less familiar. What's worrying me is that I should know it. I've heard several over the years, although admittedly not for a while. 

I did manage to video the bush while the bird was calling. But for some  reason it won't upload. Trying this Mystery caller 

If I've correctly identified the call, this is my first for Morton Bagot. Hence all the angst. My best chance of seeing it is hoping that the ringers can catch it at the weekend.

PS: After a week of soul-searching and the apparent disappearance of the bird I've decided to down-grade the identification to unidentified Warbler sp. What I can say is that it was definitely not a Wren or a Blackcap. All very frustrating.

Sunday November 2 - Morton Bagot

Dave joined me on a sunny, quite mild morning at Morton Bagot. He suggested we try the road first before cutting down towards the main part of the site. He was thinking of Goshawk, as the last three or four have been near the wood and had been on days he hadn't been there.

Unfortunately we saw nothing better than Buzzard. However the change in route meant we were in a good place to record a single Yellowhammer as we made our way down the slope, and also hear a call neither of us recognised. Whatever it was soon stopped calling and a brief search of the area failed to turn anything up. We'd either let a major rarity slip through our fingers or, more likely, it was something familiar making an odd call.

Now that we are in November I am logging everything. This included regular parties of Starlings all heading west. The final count was over 200, none of which paused for a second. A few Skylarks were also moving, and later on we saw two substantial flocks of Woodpigeons going south, again over 200 birds in total.

At the flash field we counted seven Lapwings, a Little Egret, and 20 Teal. We also found a Stonechat there, making three for the site today, and a calling Chiffchaff. The latter showed well in the ivy surrounding a large tree.

Chiffchaff

The sunshine was encouraging one or two insects into the air, including a probable Comma, and several Darters. The identity of the one I photographed was the subject of some debate, but I think it was a Common Darter (some brown in the legs and a black line only across the top of the frons), although its abdomen did look slender as is more typical of Ruddy Darter.

Common Darter

 We reached the raptor watchpoint in time to see a Sparrowhawk whizz past and briefly perch in an ash. Shortly afterwards, Dave called me back. He was watching a large raptor over the wood (we were about as far from Bannams as you can get at Morton Bagot). There was no doubt it was a Goshawk, and a large one. I got the camera out, telling Dave it was hardly worth it. However, I managed one useful shot which showed it was an adult female and not one of the juveniles I had been seeing.

Ad fem Goshawk on left, Buzzard on right

We ended the morning reflecting that once again Morton Bagot had punched above its weight.

Friday October 31 - Earlswood Lakes

This morning I had a bright idea, worth reporting because I don't have many. The thought was; maybe the Twites only flew off to feed somewhere and would be back in the same spot this morning. 

I arrived at 07:00 to find that Joe had had pretty much the same thought. He was scanning through a small party of Linnets on the spit bank off the causeway. I hadn't even seen any Linnets yesterday, although Joe assured me they had been with the Twites when Matt had made his find. The Linnets were kind of behaving themselves, never flying far, but also keeping partially hidden in the vegetation. We reckoned on a count of 26, but I can't honestly say we looked at every one in each scan. However, after an hour we probably had scrutinised each bird, and nothing looked like anything other than a Linnet.

Happily there was a distraction. At the far end of Windmill I noticed a dark duck and wondered if it might be a Scoter. I took a quick photo and was surprised to discover it was actually my first Goldeneye of the year. I got Joe on it, but we then turned back to the Linnets to resume the grilling.

About ten minutes later, with my scope now gaining some use on the Linnets, I thought I'd quite like to have a better look at it. But it had gone! That's what I call a jammy record shot.

During the time we were there we noted among other things the Green Sandpiper, a few Teal, and Snipe, a few R N Parakeets flying over, up to six Skylarks and 150 Woodpigeons migrating over head, and the now expected sight of a Little Egret.

It's been a very mild day, and is the penultimate GMS date tonight. So I'll be adding a moth supplement tomorrow morning.

The results: 10 moths of six species. New for the year was a Beaded Chestnut, and making a surprise appearance due to a second generation emergence was Orange Pine Moth Lozotaeniodes formosana. For the record the rest were two Feathered Thorns, a Barred Sallow, four White Points, and a Turnip moth.

Beaded Chestnut

Orange Pine Tortrix

Thursday October 30 - The Earlswood Twite

 It's been a difficult week for your's truly. On Monday I contracted a horrible stomach bug which laid me out for a couple of days. Gradually the symptoms subsided and I consoled myself with the thought that there wasn't much about anyway. 

But birds have a habit of biting you on the bum. This morning, feeling much better, I was nobly counting Woodpigeons heading west over Redditch, wondering whether to stick at it or go to Morton Bagot when my Whatsapp pinged. Two possible Twite off the causeway at Earlswood. The second record for Earlswood, the previous one having been in 1957.

Timing is everything, and there was an issue. I wasn't able to go for at least ten minutes. It proved critical. 

Arriving at Malthouse Lane car park thirty minutes after Matt G's alert, I was hopeful the birds were still there. A further message had confirmed the identification and that John Oates was also now watching them. But half way down Malthouse Lane as I tried to disentangle scope, camera bag, tripod and binoculars, John Sirrett pulled up and gave me the news that they'd flown. Oh NO!

There still seemed to be hope. They had flown off below tree-top level and may still have dropped down somewhere along Windmill Pool. John had missed them by seconds, and I accepted his offer of a lift as we headed for the bottom end of Windmill. Sadly, our efforts were in vain. Eventually we were forced to watch a lady member of the public walk down the shore towards us, but as far as we could tell she didn't flush anything finch-like. She approached and asked whether she had caused us any difficulty. We did well to be polite.

Further searching proved fruitless. Compensation (ha ha) provided by a Green Sandpiper, a fly over Lapwing and a few Fieldfares.

John Oates has kindly allowed me to use his gripping photograph of one of the birds.

Twite by John Oates, found by Matt Griffiths.

You have to be philosophical about it. Sometimes you're going to arrive too late. I'm genuinely pleased for Matt and John who probably put in more hours of quality birding at Earlswood than anyone else. They were the right people to have seen them.

Twite used to breed on the moors in North Staffordshire and the south Pennines and continue to do so in Scotland. Consequently assiduous searching through Linnet flocks in the West Midlands would occasionally turn up a Twite. But they've got a lot rarer since the turn of the 21st Century and the records have all but dried up.

These two birds, at a place which had only ever seen one before, maybe the wake up call we need. Those Linnet flocks could still be worth checking.

Sunday October 26 - Morton Bagot

 A cold morning with a sheen of frost on the roofs of cars in our close. Classic conditions for a movement of Woodpigeons, but I failed to take the opportunity until it was too late. Rather more switched on were Jim W from his garden in Hollywood, counting about 2500 from 06:45 and 07:45, and Matt G at Earlswood who tallied 4740 from 06:50 and 08:50.

By the time I finally got to Morton Bagot, at 08:45, the spectacle was much reduced. Even so Dave and I counted 463 until 11:30. The ringers who were obviously not vizmigging, reported numerous flocks heading over before we started. 

Some of the few migrating Woodpigeons we did manage to see

They have been making their own impact by capturing loads of Redpolls. It's been an excellent autumn for them. Over the the last few weeks they had caught 378 without a single retrap, which means there has been a flow of new birds through the site. 

Rosie holding a juvenile Redpoll

This morning we guessed at 50+ Redpolls and a similar number of Goldfinches on site, and the ringers were adding to their tally. Their results for today were:

Great Spotted Woodpecker (1)

Blue Tit 14 (7)

Great Tit 1 (5)

Long-tailed Tit 11

Meadow Pipit 10

Greenfinch 2

Lesser Redpoll 63 (1)

Goldfinch 4

The figures in brackets relate to re-traps (birds caught previously at Morton Bagot). I thought it was interesting that all the Long-tailed Tits were new. One of the Lesser Redpolls was a control (birds ringed elsewhere in the world and "controlled" here). I will reveal where it had been ringed when I find out from Tony.

On the whole it was just a case of more of the same today. About 80 Fieldfares with Redwings in trees along the Morton Brook, two Red Kites and an immature Peregrine regularly appearing, 53 Teal, four Lapwings and a Snipe mainly in the flash field, a Chiffchaff, and a Marsh Tit.

The Peregrine eventually settled on a pylon

Just outside my Circle, Andy G was photographing several of the 10 to 20 Crossbills in Hay Wood. Perhaps I need to check out some of the coniferous woods closer to home.

PS: A Lesser Redpoll controlled here on 11 Oct 2025 had been ringed just nine days earlier on 2 Oct 2025 at Thorpe Marsh, South Yorkshire. It seems likely it had been hatched in the summer further north (maybe Scotland) and was detained on its migration southwards.

Friday October 24 - Lower Bittell, Earlswood, and a few moths.

 It's been a very quiet week for me. The only birding I've done concerns a rare visit to Lower Bittell on Tuesday on the strength of a Scaup reported on Birdguides, but relating to Saturday morning. I knew there had been one earlier the previous week (possibly Thursday), but also that it hadn't been seen the following day.

Anyway the upshot was that there was no sign of it, and from talking to Chris T there didn't seem a great deal of confidence in the Birdguides report (maybe it was crossed wires about the earlier bird). Both Chris and I independently heard a Cetti's Warbler singing. This was only my second at Bittell, but to be fair I hardly ever go there and I don't think it is all that unusual nowadays....(but see post script below)

A few Skylarks were heading west overhead, but other than that there wasn't much to see.

Today I gave Earlswood a go. Things started decently when I heard a Redshank calling as I was donning my wellies in Malthouse car park, but unfortunately there was no sign of it when I reached Engine Pool. I bumped into Matt who had been there since dawn and had seen nothing of note. All I managed was 31 Teal, nine Tufted Ducks, 22 Cormorants, 12 Snipe, a Little Egret, about 100 Woodpigeons heading south, plus a few calling Siskins, Redpolls, and Meadow Pipits.

Things can only get better.

PS: I've heard from Rob W that the Cetti's Warbler was only the seventh or eighth record for Bittell Reservoir. It's also the first one he has ever heard singing there. 

PPS: I put the moth trap out for the penultimate Garden Moth Survey of the season, expecting to wake to an empty trap. I was therefore pleased to find three moths in it this morning; Large Yellow Underwing, Chestnut (the first since 7 March, this species is a late autumn specialist which hibernates before reappearing in early spring), and White Point, a moth which is spreading up from the south. My first was only last year, but this was my third in 2025.

White Point

Sunday October 19 - Morton Bagot

 The forecast rain held off until mid morning, and didn't really get heavy until we were done. In the meantime Dave and I spent an enjoyable time trying to assess how much overhead passage was going on.

Throughout the morning Redwings, Redpolls and our first Fieldfares of the autumn were flying over in droves. It was difficult to work out how many there were because some flocks heading east for example, would later return. Or maybe they were different birds. A conservative estimate was 150 Redwings, 200 Fieldfares and 200 Redpolls. If the latter figure seems a lot, bear in mind that the ringers caught 104 yesterday with no re-traps.

Also present were two juvenile Red Kites which seemed completely unconcerned by our presence, often approaching quite closely as they circled in search of food. One of them had a white feather among its primaries.

A few of the Fieldfares paused in Stapenhill Wood

Other birds seen included two Stonechats, two Snipe, and 23 Teal. 

Yesterday the ringers caught, in addition to all the Redpolls, a juvenile male Yellowhammer. A species which is no longer resident here.

Yellowhammer - Leigh Kelly

Saturday October 18 - Garden Moths

 I've been trying to prioritise birds over moths this year, but I can't get away from the fact that I've caught more moths in my garden this year than ever before, and have added at least 31 new species to my garden list (almost all of them lifers).

Last night saw another new moth for the garden and six more new for the year, so I can't resist blogging about them.

The new one was a Figure of Eight, although it took me a while to figure it out. On seeing it on the fence in the torch light I assumed it was a Figure of Eighty, but fortunately on checking the books I realised it didn't look quite right and also that Figure of Eighty should not occur so late in the year. The penny finally dropped. Figure of Eight is quite an uncommon moth and has been in serious decline since the 1970s. However, I've heard that several moth-ers have caught the species this year, including Jason Waine in a different part of Redditch (it was his first too), so it looks like they're having a good year.

As for the rest, the most exciting were a moth called the Brick which was my first since I trapped two in my very first year of moth trapping (2018), followed closely by Green-brindled Crescent my first since 2019, Yellow-line Quaker the first since 2021, Feathered Thorn first since 2022, two White-points the second and third for the garden since it joined the list last year, and two Black Rustics.

Figure of Eight

White-point

Feathered Thorn (and White-point)

Brick

Green-brindled Crescent

Yellow-line Quaker

Black Rustic

If you throw in two Merveille du Jours which just look great, and a late Yellow-tail its fair to say it was quite a night.