Easter Birding

In  pursuit of some fence paint, I made my way over to B&Q yesterday and after having made the purchase, winged my way down the A45 to Draycote for the briefest of visits to see if any of the Black Necked Grebes had hung around from the day before. Unfortunately, they had not done so and the disturbance of the many walkers, cyclists and joggers (why do they put themselves through that pain?) did not really help with the matter.  Besides the usual Tufties, there did not appear to be that much else except for a Ruff on the island and many gulls in the centre, of which, I think I may of spotted the quickest of glimpses of just one adult Little Gull (but not 100% sure so won't count it).  The rest of the afternoon was then spent painting fences and myself.

This morning I continued with the gardening theme and started to construct an insect hotel.  However, this was interrupted by news of 5 Ring Ouzels that had been seen on Gredenton Hill, near Burton Dassett.   I therefore dropped everything and thundered my way down the M40 knowing that my success record with this species is not that high and that I only had 90 minutes before visitors for the weekend were due to arrive.  Fortunately, as I arrived, another birder could be seen in the distance walking round the hill and after catching up with him, he informed myself and another birder (who had arrived at the same time as me) that he had heard one call and then saw 5 birds dive into the cover of the gorse.  As we ambled round the hill we then saw 6 birds fly into the same area, one I noticed was a blackbird but I did not see close enough views of the others.  After a couple of minutes, one of the birds came out of cover for a brief moment to have a peck around then flew back into cover again.   Fortunately, the bird was in view long enough to be identified as a Ring Ouzel, with its nice white breast patch.  Unfortunately, that was the last we saw of any more and I had to then rush back home to welcome my (non birder) guests.   Hopefully, I will get the chance to bird later on during the Easter break.