Nebsworth

As my friend, Richard was visiting his inlaws for the weekend, we decided to do some early morning birding in an area he had never explored before.  I opted for the Ilmington area at Nebsworth where we parked up by the main two masts and then walked past them and down the track.  The fields each side held quite a few Pheasant and Red Legged Partridge, probably for local shoots.  In one of the fields on the Warwickshire side we spotted 22 Golden Plover and the recently planted woods held a good number of birds including, Chaffinches, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Bullfinches, Greenfinches, Goldfinches, Redwings and Fieldfares.  After strolling down the track for about a mile we decided to turn round and head back to the car and then onto the relay station above Hidcote.  As we passed the Golden Plovers again, they took off and flew high south.  At the relay station we bumped in Gus, another South Warwickshire birder, observed about 20 Skylark and then headed back across the fields to the car, as the weather was beginning to close in.  Back at the two masts there were a few finches on the floor turning over leaves, we opted to take a few minutes to check them out for Brambling and Rich soon found one, a few minutes later, the bird called and eventually I managed to get onto it.  As we got back to the car, it started to rain, we timed it just right!

Hampshire Twitches

Franklin's Gull (centre bird)

I had been tempted by the Franklin's Gull at Blashford Lakes for a couple of weeks and decided to take the plunge and organised a visit to my sister in Hampshire.  I travelled down last Friday afternoon and arrived at the site in good time to settle myself into the hide and watch the gulls as they came into the roost.  The gull itself was eventually found quite a distance away on the other side of the lake but was soon lost amongst all the other gulls of various shapes and sizes.  The flock was then flushed and it took a further 20 minutes and lots of string from various birders before the bird was located again, although I could not get onto it again and all the birds I was put onto were Blackheaded Gulls that still had full black heads.  Overall not a very satisfactory result.

I decided to go back and give the gull a second look the following day and did so via a slight diversion to twitch a Isabelline Shrike on Hengisbury Head.  The roost on Saturday proved to be more successful with the bird showing nicely.  Other birds of note were a Long Tailed Duck, Blacknecked Grebe and the first Ruddy Duck I have seen since 2009.  A flock of 2500 Starlings also entertained us as they murmutated over the lake.

Isabelline Shrike

Warwickshire High Spots

With the weather forecast to be fine and calm, I decided to hit the road early this morning and headed first towards Burton Dassett.  When I arrived at 7:15am there were already a couple of dog walkers there but in general it was quiet.  A quick walk round gave me some Linnets, Skylarks, Pied Wagtails and 15 Fieldfare.  Next stop was Gredenten Hill where there was a set-aside field which was attracting lots of birds in it and in the bushes next to it.  Besides, some Wrens, loads of Pheasants, Dunnocks and Robins, I also counted about 100 Linnets and 1 Sparrowhawk that took a pot shot at them.  As I drove onto Avon Dassett about 40-50 Redwings flew across the road and the road through Arlescote produced up to 10 Bullfinch.

Edgehill was very quiet but the road below it was more productive with Skylark and at least 5 Tree Sparrow.  I decided to drive through Kineton on the way back and then onto Lighthorne where I strolled round the heath (north) which only had about 10 Skylarks, 2 Mallard, 1 Grey Heron and a Kestrel.

Corvid Count

After gardening in the rain and doing household chores, I needed a break and headed over to Wellesbourne Airfield to count some Corvid.

They were all over the other side of the field to me which made it difficult to pin them down, especially as there were lots of arrivals and departures constantly.  However there did seem to be a pattern in that the Rooks seems to be the majority (c60), which were then taken over by the Jackdaws which at their peak were 150+ before flying off and then there were about 40 Carrion Crows splattered around.  I also noted about 5-10 Magpie in the distance and 2 Golden Plover in the long grass.

An unsual event

Well, today witnessed an unusual event, I went on a mega twitch, something that I have never done before, I decided to go and see the Eastern Crowned Warbler near Middlesborough.  I would not normally go such a long way for a bird but decided as my birders wife had other plans for today that I would go for it and shared the car with a friend of mine, Mark, who I picked up en route in Birmingham, thus sharing petrol, which always helps.

We made great time and arrived at the location at 9:30am and immediately bumped into Matt.  We were then really fortunate, in that immediately after we arrived someone found the bird in a Sycamore along with a Yellow Browed Warbler and it was not long before we were able to watch both, although it was difficult to keep on both birds.  I managed to obtain a few record shots of the Eastern Crowned Warbler of which the best is below.

Eastern Crowned Warbler

We decided to then make a sharp exit as there already were about 60 people there and I imagine as the morning went on, hundreds of birders would arrive and it would soon turn into a circus.

As we had the rest of the day to get home, we first visited Staithes, which could be the St Ives of the North, where lots of artists reside due to the fantastic light.  We then drove back over the moors via Sleddale where we knew there were Rough Legged  Buzzards in the area and during lunch watched 3 of them and two Common Buzzards hunting over the nearby ridges and woods.

There then was the looooong journey home, this is not something I would like to do every weekend but with the other activities as well as the twitch, it was a nice day out.