Friday February 24

The storm has past and today the morning was sunny and calm. I headed on foot for Ipsley Alders and spent a very pleasant morning edging my way through its woodland fringe.

Grey Heron

After taking the above shot I took my camera off the auto setting because I felt it made the heron too pale. The bird then flew off, while I forgot to put the auto setting back on. Consequently I found it almost impossible to photograph anything satisfactorily. Strange that.

The woodland contained numerous Goldcrests, Siskins, and Chaffinches, plus at least one male Lesser Redpoll. One of the Goldcrests was ringed, and I noticed all the feeders had gone when I reached the Woodcock field. My suspicions that ringing takes place here was confirmed when I met the reserve warden, Michael Barstow. He said he was part of what they laughingly call the Redditch ringing group. There are three members.

I reported having seen three Roe Deer just before I met him. While we chatted, a Green Woodpecker appeared. Michael had already indicated a certain antipathy towards tick hunters so I tried to play cool, and not to gabble on about having just had a year-tick. I failed therefore to get a shot of it before it flew off.

I also tried not to sound too excited when he casually mentioned that someone had seen some Waxwings in Winyates Central last week. I think he said Winyates Hall, but I have no idea where that is, or whether I heard him correctly. At least it sounds like there are some about.

Eventually we went our separate ways, and I headed home.

Thursday February 23

With Storm Doris in full blast this morning I couldn't resist a walk around Arrow Valley Lake to see if it had produced any storm  blown waifs.

Sadly it hadn't. Ten years ago, during my previous burst of enthusiasm for the lake, which lasted four months, a similar day in January had brought me a Kittiwake. I guess I was hoping for a second coming, but all that was in amongst the Black-headed Gulls were a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

However, one of the Black-headed Gulls was worth a photograph.

A pink-chested Black-headed Gull

I don't know why the occasional Black-headed Gull exhibits a pinkish flush. I have heard it said that it is related to diet, but a surfeit of shrimps seems unlikely in Redditch. It is not due to oil or mud getting attached to the feathers. I noticed that this bird had an abnormally long upper mandible, giving it a slight overbite.

A couple of Little Egrets were perched on the shore in front of the yacht club, but other than that there was little of interest to see.

The Little Egrets

The wind was quite exhilarating causing many branches to fly past me during the stronger gusts. The conditions are hard to demonstrate in photographs, but this picture of Black-headed Gulls gives some idea.

Sunday February 19

After a morning spent at Morton Bagot failed to produce any Patchwork Challenge ticks, a trip to the shops with Lyn duly delivered one at the East Redditch patch.

Specifically, we were going around a roundabout when I noticed a thrush on it which I felt needed a closer look. I therefore alarmed Lyn by continuing to circle until I was happy that the views confirmed my suspicion that it was a Mistle Thrush.

Lyn was less than impressed.

Mostly Upton Warren - Moors Pool

The title of this blog comes from the fact that I spent the morning gardening, gaining lots of brownie points, but no patchwork challenge points. The nearest I came was a fly-over Grey Wagtail, which I had ticked yesterday.

The afternoon involved a trip to Webbs, where I deposited Lyn and her friend Maureen, allowing me an hour and a half to visit my old stamping ground, Upton Warren. I reasoned I only had time to visit either the Moors Pool, or the Flashes, and plumped for the former.

The Moors Pool

As expected the pool was awash with birds, including several hundred Black-headed Gulls preparing to roost and about 60 Shovelers. From Lapwing Hide (as it is now called) I had great views of a small party of Curlews which were also preparing to roost.

Curlew

A Little Egret was a bit too distant for an acceptable photograph, so I settled for one of the Oystercatchers which had returned last week.

Oystercatcher

Other birds recorded which I would be delighted to find on either of my two local patches included a couple of Cetti's Warblers, a squealing Water Rail, and a flotilla of Pochard.

Pochard

I didn't see anyone I knew, but chatted to a guy who told me that the first Avocets of the year had returned to the Flashes today. I could have dashed to see them, but decided not to bother.

It will be interesting to see what scarce birds this year brings to Upton Warren.

Friday February 17

After a day spent doing "jobs" including some gardening, during which episode a Raven flew overhead, yesterday, I was keen to do some proper birding today.

I headed for Arrow Valley Lake, and quickly added a Grey Wagtail to my year list. I had two opportunities to photograph it, once by where a steam trickles into the lake, and once on the river Arrow, but I blew both of them.

The walk around the lake produced at least 13 Great Crested Grebes, just four Tufted Ducks, and surprisingly no Goosanders. At least one Grey Heron is incubating, and a pair of Cormorants were standing close by.

I managed to photograph one of the two singing Treecreepers this morning.

Treecreeper

One of the many dog-walkers asked me what I was photographing, and we had a chat about birds. She had seen up to seven Little Egrets roosting in the evening, which leads me to suspect that I did see seven, not six, on the one occasion I got here early enough to see them leaving the roost.

This Cormorant appears to be of the continental race, sinensis. The extent of the white feathering on the head was the way this sub-species used to be identified, but its not a completely reliable feature. However the angle of the line which forms a border between the skin at the gape and the feathering of the throat is meant to be diagnostic. This bird shows a shallow angle which supports its identification as sinensis.

As I understand it, quite a lot of sinensis birds now breed in trees in the south-east of the UK, while the atlantic race carbo is more typically coastal in distribution.

Tuesday February 14

Although it is the middle of my working week I thought I would mention that there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

Each morning I have been walking to the paper shop in the dark at 06.30 with only a limited chorus of songsters to record. But this morning there was a hint of light in the sky and my accompanying birds reached the heady total of five species.

The Robin, and Song Thrush had been joined last week by a singing Blackbird, and this morning a Dunnock and a Carrion Crow (if you count cawing as song) joined the choir.

Meanwhile, Lyn holding the fort while I was stuck in an office in central Birmingham, noted a Long-tailed Tit on the new feeder, our fourth species.

Things are looking up.

Saturday February 11

We awoke to lead grey skies and a light drizzle of sleet and snow. I wasn't planning to do any birding but by mid-morning I couldn't resist a short stroll to the derelict High House Farm and adjacent poplar plantation.

High House Farm

The Poplars

The main target of this morning's foray was the horse paddocks which I hoped might contain one of the two species of relatively common thrush I am currently missing from my year-list.

In the event I recorded only the other three thrushes; four Blackbirds, two Song Thrushes, and two Redwings.

Redwing

A Wren, a Goldcrest, a Stock Dove, and a Great Tit were seen before I had a heart-stopping moment as I released my camera not into the cosy confines of my shoulder bag, but instead to the concrete path with a sickening crunch. I feared, and expected, the worst, but remarkably it seems to have survived the experience undamaged.

I strolled back through the estates seeing nothing better than a fly-over Grey Heron.

Thursday February 9 - another day, another Iceland Gull

This afternoon I drove Lyn to get her hair done in Moseley. But this time I took my binoculars and camera. Why? Because an immature Iceland Gull had been frequenting Swanshurst Park, a five minute drive from the hairdresser. Well you've got to go haven't you.

I arrived to find an encouraging number of gulls present on the small park lake. I scanned the pool for several minutes before I noticed another birder, it turned out to be fellow patch birder Neil Duggan, pointing to the centre of the lake.

Can you see it?

What a cracker

During my brief search for the bird I had noticed a Common Gull, hundreds of Black-headed Gulls, and about thirty Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Neil and I chatted about this and that while I tried to photograph the Iceland Gull in flight. This is my best effort.

It's a bit crap, but I rather like it

Just as Neil was about to go, the Iceland Gull decided to land on the shore. At this point I got very focussed on it, perhaps a bit too focussed.

Iceland Gull with LBB Gulls & BH Gulls

Checking my photos later I noticed this shot.

Iceland Gull with what appears to be a Yellow-legged Gull

The shot before is quite revealing. Notice the gull arriving stage left. I didn't.

By the next shot, it seems to have gone, to be replaced by the original Lesser Black-backed Gulls etc.

So I went to pick Lyn up unaware that I had photographed not only an Iceland Gull, but also a Yellow-legged Gull. I'm glad it wasn't on my patch as it would have been the cause of considerable sole-searching.

Finally, many thanks to another fellow patcher, Mike Wakeman (North Redditch) for texting me to suggest how I could rectify the accidental adding of the Crossbill seen at Ipsley Alders to the Morton Bagot patch list. I have successfully dealt with the matter.

Thursday February 9

A cold cloudy day. I donned my wellies and headed for Ipsley Alders hoping to relocate the Woodcock. Sadly, after tramping around the field in question I flushed nothing at all. I noticed that the bushes there now sport numerous bird feeders, presumably placed there by Worcestershire Trust volunteers. I settled for watching to see if anything good turned up, but could do no better than a couple of Reed Buntings.

I then decided to do a circuit of the reserve through its densely wooded margins. The trees are a mixture of oak, ash, and in particular alder. The latter contained several flocks of Siskins, with 30 in one tree and several others throughout the woodland.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

The real action of the morning took place along Alders Drive at the junction with Tenacres Lane. Here a cotoneaster has sufficient red berries to be worth staking out for possible Waxwings. There are none present again, but I did get the camera out for an obliging Jay.

A fuzzy Jay

A lady wound her window down to ask if I had seen anything special. I told her not really, just a Jay. Had she turned up five minutes later I would have been positively bouncing with excitement in a very alarming way. This is because as I was turning for home a call caught my attention, a Crossbill. It appeared over the houses and flew down Alders Drive before disappearing from view. I did try to get a shot, but managed only sky.

The woodland surrounding Ipsley Alders contains several larch trees and other conifers, so although it has not been a notable year for Crossbills, I suppose such a sighting is not entirely unexpected.

Back home I have dropped a bit of a clanger, accidentally adding the Crossbill to my Morton Bagot list, before correctly adding it to East Redditch.

I have emailed their customer support to ask how to electronically tippex the error.

Still waiting to hear.

Saturday February 4

No birding today, just gardening and household chores before a lunch date with Lyn and her friend from Australia.

A tiny bit ironic then that two hours at Arrow Valley Lake yesterday produced nothing new, while a trip to get the newspaper this morning allowed me to see and hear a Raven as it flew east.

The only other thing I want to mention is that the front garden feeder has finally lured a Blue Tit in for a bite to eat.

Friday February 3

So, January is finally out of the way.  Obviously it is still winter, but I am now psychologically geared towards looking for signs of spring. Yesterday, hope was provided by a queen wasp hovering in front of the garage doors.

Today I headed for Arrow Valley Lake optimistic that I should at least gain a few year-ticks. I probably should have arrived before 09.00 am as the next two hours was spent in the company of dog-walkers, joggers, and a fallen woman (someone called an ambulance for her).

Despite ranging more widely than just the pool, I only recorded birds I have already seen on patch this year. Sunny intervals and a light breeze gave a spring-like feel and the birds were behaving accordingly.

I heard at least four singing Treecreepers, and several singing Song Thrushes.

Song Thrush

On the pool three pairs of Great Crested Grebes were getting frisky, displaying enthusiastically.

Great Crested Grebes

On the island I counted at least seven heron nests, of which three were definitely occupied.

Grey Heron on nest

At least nine Goosanders were a reminder it is still winter, and the lake also hosted 101 Black-headed Gulls, 100 Canada Geese, six Tufted Ducks, and nine Greylag Geese.

A drake Goosander

Other birds seen included Kingfisher, Nuthatches, Common Buzzard, and Stock Dove.

Nuthatch

Adult Lesser Black-backed Gull

Better luck next time.