Tuesday January 30

I have been toying with the idea of getting a moth trap, and have got as far as seeking the advice of my old friend John Sirrett. Never let it be said that I act hastily, my next move will be to get an outdoor socket put in.

In the meantime my first moth of the year couldn't wait for me to stop prevaricating and as I opened the front door to go to work yesterday it flew into the hall. I could tell it was some kind of Plume Moth, but by the time I had returned with my pot it had disappeared.

This morning I found it in the bathroom (why do they always end up there?) I soon trapped it and took a photo in the rather dodgy light on our landing. Unfortunately it is still dark when I leave for work, and darker when I get home.

Anyway I believe it is a moth called Beautiful Plume Amblyptilia acanthadactyla.

It is a hibernator, which explains its sudden appearance at the end of a mild weekend. There is a very similar Plume Moth which I think would be greyer than this one.

Lyn released it once the temperature got up so there was no opportunity to photograph it in truer natural light.

Friday January 26

After a rather disturbed night I was back on the patch rather later in the morning than planned.

It was a pleasantly mild morning with not much breeze. More like March than January. Perhaps because of the benign weather the birds weren't up to much.

A couple of drake Shovelers were the only noteworthy wildfowl. I ended up taking up close shots of geese and Mallards to pass the time.

I did have one bit of luck, when I heard the calls of Skylark, and eventually spotted two flying north. There is no lark habitat on the patch, so the only chance is the occasional fly-over.

Greylag Goose demonstrating its wild origins....not!

Thursday 25 January

I spent the afternoon visiting my parents in Birmingham and took a detour on the way home to have a look at Swanshurst Park where the Iceland Gull has returned for its second winter. It was easy-peasy.

Iceland Gull

Rather less simple to identify was another gull on the pool.

My first thought was that it wasn't a Herring Gull, so I took a photograph or two of it. The features that presented themselves were a grey mantle, rather lead grey but not especially dark. This suggested a second-winter bird, while the dark eye could point towards Caspian Gull. On the other hand, the bill wasn't very long, which could mean it was a Yellow-legged Gull.

I decided to post a picture of it on Twitter, and got two brave soles responding with their suggestions. First up was Craig Reed who said it was a hybrid which had been present last year as a first-winter, and was now back. Next came Tim Marlow who stated it was a Yellow-legged Gull.

I have to confess I rather liked the hybrid theory, although I do wonder what the parentage could be. The chances of a Yellow-legged Gull hybridising with a Caspian Gull seem pretty slight, so if it was a hybrid then it would need to be a Herring Gull X maybe a Caspian Gull.  Perhaps the hybrid theory is over-complicating the issue and it is indeed a Yellow-legged Gull.

I used to like looking at gulls before it all got complicated by the splitting of Herring Gull into different species. Nowadays I don't get to see that many gulls and I have clearly been left behind.

Actually, having read up further, in particular an article by Alan Dean on this bird (if its the same one) at Swanshurst Park, it seems that Yellow-legged Gulls are hybridising with Caspian Gulls more than might have been expected in central Europe.

Friday January 19

Well its been another busy day.

The humane rat-trap placed in the garden next to the shed has so far proved inadequate. On the other hand we haven't seen the rat since the weekend, so maybe the dodgey peanuts have discouraged it from returning.

A trip to the paper shop with my camera turned up four different Hawfinches. None posed with the light shining on them but I got a few silhouetted shots which have been "adjusted for light".

Hawfinch

After breakfast I set off to Arrow Valley Lake where I quickly added a male Tufted Duck to my year-list. Also present were a couple of Little Egrets and several Shovelers.

Tufted Duck

I had a cunning plan. This was to walk back along Blacksoils Brook to Ipsley Alders. The walk only took about thirty minutes and allowed me to see one or two Redwings, numerous tits, a few friendly dog-walkers, and what I suspect was a drugs pick up by a kid on a bike. All life is here.

Ipsley Alders was very pleasant indeed. The highlight was a yaffling Green Woodpecker and a small party of very obliging Siskins.

Male Siskin

Female Siskin

The male in the picture was singing his head off, and a female a few feet away seemed mesmerised by his efforts.

Towards the back of the reserve I spotted three gents standing chatting. Thinking they could be the ringing group I made a beeline for them, surprising a Fox in the process which ran off before I could get my camera out. It turned out that one of the group was a Worcestershire Wildlife Trust man, and the others were contracted to do some scrub clearance, one of them wielding a chainsaw. We chatted for a while until chainsaw man suddenly asked me if I ever went to Upton Warren, as I seemed vaguely familiar. I admitted that I did used to be a regular and revealed my identity. It turned out that he was Fergus Henderson, who I hadn't seen for about 25 years. Mind you I did have to agree that I had twitched the Barred Warbler he'd caught at Grimley about ten years ago, so I must have seen him as I saw the bird in the hand, Ferg's hand.  To be fair I now have no hair on my head at all, while Ferg has a long grey beard. The ravages of time.

I made my way back to Arrow Valley Lake, but added very little new. I did at least get to count the Shoveler flock which now stands at an impressive nine birds.

Nine Shovelers shovelling 

However, there was a final twist to the morning. As I pulled out of the car-park I spotted a Raven circling overhead, my third year-tick of the day.

Saturday January 13

Our garden mammal list stood at three species seen in the garden, plus two seen from the house. They were: Grey Squirrel, Wood Mouse, and Hedgehog plus Fox and Bat sp.

This morning a fourth species made it onto the garden list.

Brown Rat

I had been checking the bird feeders and noticed that the peanuts had gone mouldy. Fearing for the health of our local birds I emptied its contents onto the patio and swept most of them up before placing them in the bin like the good tidy householder I tell my wife I am.

Clearly I missed a few, and for Rattus norvegicus christmas had come at last. Normally I would be thrilled to add a new species to the garden list, but this one could be problematical. Think of the neighbours etc.

I suspect I will come under pressure to take action, but for now I will simply rely on the mouldy peanuts finishing it off. It already has a scabby tail.

A scabby, disease ridden rat, great.

Friday January 12

It's been a brilliant week on this patch.

Things began slowly as a dusk walk around Ipsley Alders added only a Goldcrest to my year list. I had a sneaky tramp around the marshy bits but flushed nothing. It is still the case that the only Snipe I have seen there is a painting of one on the noticeboard advising people of what to expect to see !

The following day things picked up when I glimpsed the Fieldfare which had taken ownership of the apples in our garden before Christmas, as it flew out of a tree in the close. The following day Lyn reported seeing it back in the garden while I was at work.

On Thursday a daylight walk to the paper shop produced a mini Eureka moment when I saw first one, and then another two Hawfinches in Costers Lane. Having had no sightings since Dec 27, I had virtually reconciled myself to the thought that they had moved on. Later in the day I added a Pied Wagtail to the list.

Now we come to the really good day. I dragged myself out of bed early so that I was at Arrow Valley Lake not too long after it got light. A Stock Dove was peering at me from trees in the carpark. My plan had been to get to the reedbed where I had heard a Water Rail and had seen a substantial Reed Bunting roost back in 2006. A single Reed Bunting popped out, but that was it.

However, I hadn't gone far around the lake when a Little Egret flew into a tree right next to the path. The light was terrible but I couldn't resist getting the camera out.

Little Egret

A quick scan of the lake revealed two patch ticks. A Wigeon and a Barnacle Goose. I could also see seven Shovelers, a similar number of Great Crested Grebes, and 32 Mallard.

I hurried to a spot where I might get a couple of record shots.

Barnacle Goose

Wigeon

The goose is obviously feral, and was with a small party of Canada Geese, but the Wigeon was a proper wild visitor from the north. I later saw it fly off, and also failed to relocate the goose flock. Satisfied with my haul, I put my camera away. The light remained terrible. A Treecreeper then sang from the trees bordering the lake, and I continued my circuit.

Things were about to get even better.

I had got about half way along the east side of the lake, when a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker flew silently onto the back of a sapling by the path. OMG, this was the first one I'd seen anywhere for over a decade. I scrabbled to get the camera out of my bag, and watched helplessly as the tiny woodpecker flew back into the tangle of branches beyond. I could still see it though and I managed a couple of absolutely terrible record shots.

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (centre of shot)

L S Woody -left of centre between two clumps of dead leaves

I'm really sorry about the crap photos, but the bird kept flipping from place to place. At around this point I gained another year-tick as a Water Rail squealed from the reedbed. Then, to my horror, the woodpecker, which had been coming closer again, suddenly took off and flew north over the trees and out of sight.

I spent a fruitless 30 minutes trying to relocate it, seeing 21 Siskins in the process. But as the woodpecker had not called at all during the whole period of observation, I reluctantly gave up and continued my walk.

Little else was seen by the time I had returned to the car-park, but this was probably my most memorable visit to Arrow Valley Lake since I twitched an Eider in the 1990s.

Thursday January 4

I decided to spend a couple of hours at Arrow Valley Lake to try to add some species to my year list. It was a bit cloudy for photography, but as I have decided to submit photographs to the Patchwork Challenge site, I took some anyway.

The first new bird for the year was a species I didn't record last year (despite seeing a bird which probably was one, but which looked so strange that I decided it might have been a hybrid with Mallard rather than just a very late moulting immature male Shoveler). There was no doubt about the five Shovelers present today.

A male Shoveler

There were three drakes and two ducks.

The water level is very high and this included the little brook running along the eastern side of the lake. It was here I saw a Grey Wagtail, but unfortunately it disappeared quite promptly.

A scan of the lake revealed the usual species, including 13 Cormorants, 14 Great Crested Grebes, and 11 Coots. The next year-ticks were a wheezing Greenfinch, a screeching Jay, and a piping Bullfinch. I failed to actually see the first two, but I did track down four Bullfinches, and photographed the male.

Bullfinch

Although not a year-tick, two loudly calling Nuthatches were irresistible.

Nuthatch

Having completed a circuit of the pool I decided to head for the field beyond the car-park where a large flock of Black-headed Gulls had gathered. Unfortunately they were quickly flushed by dog-walkers, but I had the compensation of finding a pair of Mistle Thrushes, and about half a dozen Redwings.

Redwing

My final year-tick was a Common Buzzard which flew from trees near where I had parked.

No doubt 2018 will prove as difficult to see good species of birds on this patch as 2017 was. I am nevertheless up for the challenge.

Monday January 1

For the first time in several years I was not away from my patches on New Year's Day. I decided to carry on with http://www.patchworkchallenge.com for another year, and therefore made the decision to start with the area covered by this blog (East Redditch) as it meant I could start listing birds from the house. Any potential late change of mind was rendered out of the question when we invited some friends over for a walk around Arrow Valley Lake followed by a late lunch.

I was as keen to get going as a seven year old waiting for Santa. After a slightly embarrassing false start when I realised the Tawny Owl I could hear was actually a noise made by my sleeping wife, the first bird of the day was a Robin singing well before dawn. The garden list soon boasted a reasonably long list which included a Chaffinch, and fly-over Rooks, Canada Geese, and Greylag Geese.

The walk to the paper shop added a Sparrowhawk, and some Siskins. There was disappointment too. The Fieldfare which had been claiming the garden for his own has disappeared, and much more of a worry was that my star bird of 2017, the Hawfinch, may have eaten all the Field Maple seeds in Costers Lane and is now absent without leave.

By late morning it was raining steadily, and the walk around Arrow Valley Lake seemed in jeopardy. Happily, as our friends arrived, so did the sun and the walk was on. 

As usual the place was packed with people, and lacked anything that might be called a scarce bird. Nevertheless we duly located a Kingfisher, and watched a Great Crested Grebe in partial summer plumage displaying to one in almost full winter plumage.

Photographic opportunities were plentiful.

Mute Swan

Herring Gull

The pair just following the display

Cormorants

I had intended to put more photos into the Patchwork Challenge gallery (New Year's Resolution and all that), but the site is currently undergoing an upgrade and I was foiled by the change.