This Weekend

This weekend I mostly did other things besides birding.  However, I managed to squeeze in two and a half hours worth  between yesterday and today.  Yesterday, en route to friends in Kidderminster, we visited Upton Warren Moors Pool to try and see the 1st Summer Little Gull who has now been there for a couple of weeks. It was very obliging and did a few flypasts for us showing off its plumage nicely.  Other birds of note were Common Sandpiper and a very fine looking male Reed Bunting.

After a boozy evening and a chinese meal we then came home via the Wyre Forest (Dowles Brook).  I have always found visits there a bit hit and miss, with only a few of the speciailities being spotted or hardly any.  However, today was entirely different.  After a slow start, we spotted our first Tree Pipit and took a turning off the main drag to search for Wood Warblers.  Although, we could hear plenty, we could not see them in the canopy but were directed to one by a friendly birder and got amazing views of it as it perched on a branch above the path and sang it's heart out.  As we turned back to go back to the main path we spotted an area that seemed to be alive with insects and as my birder's wife was busying herself taking photographs of the wild flowers and bugs, I took the opportunity to scan the trees as there seemed to be a fair amount of activity around a little brook.  After a couple of minutes, I caught a glimpse of a female Pied Flycatcher and then as we drew closer, a Spotted Flycatcher and then a pair of Redstarts who perched in the tree above us.  An amazing five minutes of birding was then had as we watched all these species that were in the same vicinity.  The walk back to the car brought us more Tree Pipit, a singing Redstart, Raven and these amazing creatures (Adela reaumurella, I believe).