Tuesday was best this week. I chose to wander around the Forhill area on a day of sunshine and a blustery southerly. Almost the first bird I saw was a Ring-necked Parakeet, my first of the year, which flew noisily overhead and was gone before I could get the camera out.
The rest of the visit skirted the edge of the Kings Norton Golf Course, but mostly took in a series of grassy fields and some muddy horse paddocks. Good numbers of Woodpigeons, Redwings, and Jackdaws were counted, but the species list was pretty limited.
Back at the car, as I was removing my wellies, a pair of Mistle Thrushes flew across the road and disappeared into trees. The significance of this event was that it was another year-tick.
As I set off for home my Whatsapp pinged with news of a drake Pochard at Earlswood. I was conflicted. It shouldn't be the last available Pochard this year, but you never know. A shopping trip to Solihull with Lyn was unavoidable, but I had a cunning plan. On the way home I dropped the bird into the conversation and a brief detour to the lake brought me my third year-tick of the day.
The only downside was that I had only packed my binoculars and had taken no decent photographs around Forhill.
So this morning I headed back to Earlswood. There had been no sign of the Pochard on Wednesday and I rightly guessed it had gone.
Even on a gloomy, damp morning, you can rely on the Great Crested Grebes to show well. Most were in winter plumage, but the closest bird was ready for summer.
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