Out of County experience

I was due to check out some nearby ponds with Daniel yesterday evening but with the forecast ever changing with nice looking easterly fronts sweeping across the Country, we thought we would try our luck at one of the local reservoirs instead.

We opted to go out of county into Northamptonshire to Boddington Reservoir arriving just as the rain appeared and we immediately found four terns flying around, a fifth was found on a buoy which we soon identified as an Arctic (which was a bonus).

A relaxed walk round the reservoir gave us a singing Grey Wagtail at the dam along with a Cuckoo and an Oystercatcher with the hedgerows supplying Dunnocks, Whitethroats, Tits, Bullfinch and Chiffchaffs.

I had not explored Boddington before, it's an excellent little reservoir and probably just as near as Draycote is from me.  Somewhere to be visited more frequently.

Unsatisfactory Savi's

After seeing that a Savi's Warbler and Great Reed Warbler had both come up on the bird news yesterday in Gwent and Somerset, I decided to take a trip down there today to twitch both.  The weather forecast was cloudy but when I started off this morning it was also quite windy and this remained so, right through into Wales and around the reed beds at Newland Wetland Centre.  This made it virtually impossible to see any warblers in the reed bed as they were all hunkering down.

After a 3 hour wait, despite a pleasant surprise of bumping into a friend of mine, I gave up and went back to my car for lunch and a cup of coffee.  Just as I was thinking of leaving, news came up that the bird was intermittingly singing again and so I rushed back to the spot where other birders were gathered.  As per usual the comments were "you should of have been here 5 minutes ago, we had great flight views and it was showing well".  Fortunately, just as that moment the bird reeled for a few seconds to the left in front of me and as I moved left I caught a 10 second glimpse of it as it stopped reeling and then moved back down the reed stem.  After waiting for another 15 minutes, the bird reeled several more times but did not show, so I decided to depart.  As it was still very windy, I decided to give the Great Reed Warbler a miss and travelled back home instead.

At least I managed to see one of the birds on offer today, albeit it an unsatisfactory sighting but a least a sighting of a bird that eluded me in Spain.

Birdless week

After what has seemed like an infuriating long week, I am so glad it is the weekend again with a forecast of easterlies which could see me jumping into the car again and heading that way.

My plans for the weekend have kept on changing, what with the Terek Sandpiper possibly luring me up north, but disappearing and then the Great Reed Warbler tempting me to travel south but disappearing and the Baillons Crake just out of reach and too far for me.  I like the idea of seeing new birds but the travelling and twitching element I do find a bit dull but fully understand the lure of such an activity.  What would be ideal is for something to appear on my doorstep but then I do live in Warwickshire.

Skylark

So, this week, I had to contend with some local birding.  First off myself and Daniel potted over to Draycote on Tuesday in the hope of finding some Black Tern but the low front we were hoping for never turned up and unfortunately Draycote was a bit like a desert.  Then last night I headed up to the local Steppe (as we like to call it) with part time birding companion, Mike and mooched around there watching the local Skylarks, Yellow Wagtails and Mipits.  Not much else was in the area except for a couple of Ravens, a distant Cuckoo,  a Lapwing and a Sparrowhawk dashing through.

Big Day Out

As seems the custom nowawadays, many birders like to have a big day out from dawn till dusk to accumulate as many species as possible.  So, myself and friends who I met in Shetland decided to arrange one for this year, initially for 23rd May but then rescheduled for yesterday at last minute notice.

We decided to meet at Wolferton Triangle at 7:15am in the vague hope that we may come across a Golden Pheasant but did not linger and made straight to Snettisham Coastal Park where we clocked up Wheater, Stonechat, Ringed Plover, Grey Plover, Whitethroat and Willow Warbler along with commoner species.  We then made our way to Choseley Drying Barns, via Hunstanton (where we added Fulmar) to see if we could find any Corn Bunting, Dotterel or Turtle Dove.  Choseley had nothing so we made our way to Titchwell, which turned out to be also very quiet indeed.  However trawling round Titchwell and then Choseley again, we had a fairly healthy total of about 80 species.

We then decided to make our way to Cley via a Montague Harrier watchpoint (where we only managed to add Red Kite) and had lunch.  A walk down the east bank to the sea gave us Dunlin, Curlew and and very distant Gannet.

Our last destinations were in the Brecks (Weeting Heath and Lakenheath Fen) where we added Stone Curlew and Garganey but again both destinations were incredibly quiet on the bird front.  A final tally (after some miscounting) gave us a grand total of only 94 birds with some very obvious omissions.

Bank Holiday Highlights

Little Gull

After a hectic weekend of having friends to stay and the disappointment of not seeing the Bonaparte's Gull in Warwickshire last Thursday, when I saw that probably the same bird had almost certainly turned up in Slimbridge today, I almost dropped everything to go and twitch it.  Before deciding, I opted to go for a cycle ride and by the time I came back, my birder's wife had finally woken up from her slumbers and we had two options, either to spend the day round the house doing chores or to go out for the day.

We decided for the second option and to head down to Slimbridge, as it is always a nice place to go and we are members (and if the bird turned up again then it would be a bonus).

When we arrived at Slimbridge, we headed for the South Lake hide which is where the Gull had last been seen but soon were to find out that it had flown a couple of hours earlier.  We therefore decided to stick around in that hide for a while admiring 3 Common Sandpipers and Black Tailed Godwits in near summer plumage.  A couple of bonus birds were a Little Gull and 1st Summer Mediterranean Gull.

We then decided to take some time strolling around the rest of the reserve and came across a Sparrowhawk on a recent kill and the below resplendent Woodpigeon enjoying the sun.

Woodpigeon

Sparrowhawk enjoying lunch

We had heard about the Spoonbill which had taken residence on the reserve and decided to go and have a look at it. After a short wait, it woke up for a couple of seconds which gave me time to take the below.

Spoonbill

After a bried stroll round the captives and a sit in the Zeiss Hide with a coffee, we headed back to the South Lake Hide in the hope that the Bonaparte's Gull had returned.  After a long wait, my birder's wife decided to go to the shop and just as she arrived back the Gull was found, an absolute stonker in summer plumage and a species that I have wanted to see for a long time.

Bonaparte's Gull

Bonaparte's Gull

Brandon with friends

Before I went on holiday to Spain, I had promised a friend (who is coming back to birding) that we would visit Brandon Marsh upon my return, and we did just that this morning.

In order to miss the maddening bank holiday crowds, we decided to start earlyish and I picked Richard up at 7:45am.

Upon arrival, we decided to have a look for Chats on the Top Reed Bed but alas could not find any although we had good views of Reed and Sedge Warblers, a flyover Cuckoo and my first Swift in the UK this year.

We then proceeded to walk to the Wright Hide via the golf course and encountered further warblers in the lush vegetation near Sheep Field.  We managed Chiff Chaff, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Whitethroat, Garden Warbler, Sedge Warbler and Reed Warbler.  Unusually, the resident Cetti's Warblers were a bit quiet today and we only heard one of them.

At Sheep Field, we met up with another friend, Mike and we proceeded to New Hare Covert where we waited around and eventually managed to find Goldcrest, Treecreeper, Nuthatch and a Field Mouse.

East Marsh Pool was very quiet with just 3 Common Tern, 3 Little Ringed Plovers, Oystercatcher, Lapwings and the usual ducks.

We then walked back to the Visitor Centre the same way and had breakfast before making a sharp exit, as crowds were beginning to descend.