Sunday January 25 - Morton Bagot

For most of this morning the weather was cloudy with a light south-easterly, but the last half hour was marked by showers. Dave and I followed the usual circuit and saw most of the usual birds. By the time we reached the flash field we had a couple of Stonechats under our belts, and would go on to see two more, an immature Cormorant was perched on top of the tree overlooking the Kingfisher Pool (a favourite perch for the species), a Mute Swan had flown east, and a Yellowhammer had done likewise (this time being seen as well as heard).

At the flash field we were greeted by the sight of a substantial flock of Lapwings. Most of them took flight allowing a count to be made while only eight remained on the ground. The combined total of 121 was the best count here since 2014.

Most of the Lapwings

But let's not get too carried away, the 2014 count was over 200, and the highest count of all was 530 on 22 January 2012 just after I started this blog but pre bridge camera.

In those days wintering buntings regularly reached twenty or thirty of both Yellowhammers and Reed Buntings. Today I was quite impressed by my one Yellowhammer and a single Reed Bunting.

Reed Bunting

My 2026 list gained a couple of ticks today. Seven Red-legged Partridges were new for the Circle, and a couple of Mistle Thrushes  were Morton Bagot year-ticks. An immature Peregrine flew in, stooped at a Carrion Crow, and for a while perched on a pylon. This was new for Dave as he'd missed the one seen briefly last week.

Most of the Red-legged Partridges

Encouraged by all this ticking I decided to ignore the rain and walk along the road with Martin W who had arrived just as we got back to the cars. Martin mentioned he had had a fantastic view of a male Crossbill in the village some weeks ago (when pressed this turned out to be November 27 2025), so this was added incentive.

I was more interested in the prospect of adding a Coal Tit at the feeders set up by one of the householders. This proved a busted flush as all that was present were loads of Blue and Great Tits, but on the way there we heard a bird "tacking" from cover. I'm pretty sure it was a Blackcap, but as this would have been a first January record for the patch I chose not to count it. It's surprising that they don't turn up in winter here when they are perfectly regular in my Redditch garden.

Snowdrops

The roadside also provided a welcome sign that spring isn't too far away.