Mostly not on the patch - February 23

Today I fancied a change. Richard B was due to arrive at 09.00 am and as I knew he hadn't ever seen an Avocet or a Hawfinch, I had both lined up for him.

First though, our garden elbowed its way in to the story when a male Siskin arrived on the feeder and stayed long enough for several photographs.

Siskin

Shortly after this shot was taken I returned to the kitchen to find a male Sparrowhawk perched on the fence. Annoyingly it took flight just as I pressed the shutter. Hopefully it didn't have bits of Siskin in its talons.

So to Upton Warren. I had been a little nervous that the overnight freeze might have persuaded the Avocets to move on, but fortunately there was one ice-free patch where 14 Avocets still remained.

Avocets

On the way to the flashes we had walked alongside the sailing lake where an Oystercatcher flew in to pose.

Oystercatcher

The field behind the flashes contained at least 110 Lapwings probing for worms. With little else to see I escorted Richard to the Moors Pool where he was suitably impressed by the number and variety of wildfowl on show.

Little Egret

Curlew

Pochard

Teal

The one bird I was hoping to see was the over-wintering Whooper Swan. I hadn't seen any reports of it on-line since 19 Feb, and I was expecting it to have gone. So a sleeping swan on one of the islands remained only an item of interest until it briefly woke up revealing it was indeed the Whooper Swan. It then went back to sleep, but for a while did at least show enough yellow on the bill to rule out Mute.

Whooper Swan

So with Richard thoroughly satisfied with his birding experience we returned for lunch. The afternoon brought a new possibility. A church at Studley had hosted 14 Hawfinches yesterday and the grounds were easily accessible for Lyn's wheelchair. So the three of us headed straight over there, and within 15 minutes of arrival we had all seen a beautiful male Hawfinch.

Hawfinch

The only slight disappointment is that the view we all got was clear, but rather brief. The bird flew from the top of a tall tree to the bushes where I took the photograph. Richard, wheeling Lyn, couldn't get to me in time to see it this time. We spent another 40 minutes there, during which I saw three Hawfinches, but the others missed out.

We did consider rounding the day off by trying to see the murmuration of Starlings in the centre of Redditch, but somehow we never made it.

Another time perhaps.

Friday February 16

A frosty start heralded a fine sunny morning. I headed straight for Arrow Valley Lake and started birding. The lake was about one third ice, and I counted 159 Black-headed Gulls and seven Lesser Black-backed Gulls standing on it.

The open water hosted pretty much the same birds as last week, including nine Great Crested Grebes, two Shovelers, and a pair of Goosander. The latter were clearly an item, and this was confirmed when the drake began to display.

A displaying drake Goosander

Several Grey Herons are now incubating on their island tree nests, and a single Little Egret flew in to perch in its usual spot.

Little Egret

Mallard

A pair of Mistle Thrushes were chasing one another around, and singing birds included a Treecreeper.  Alarm calls from the island helped me to locate a male Sparrowhawk perched on top of a tree. This was all very lovely but I couldn't face a second circuit so I drove to Ipsley Alders to try my luck there.

Within a couple minutes I had scored. I raised my bins to check out a corvid, a Rook, when I noticed a raptor circling behind it. After a few seconds I could just about make out some black and white around the head which confirmed my first impression that it was a Peregrine. Unfortunately it would have required a lot of luck to get any kind of image for the camera, and indeed the attempt failed, the bird appearing to vanish as I switched back to the bins to try to relocate it.

This was an Ipsley Alders tick, and only the second I have seen over Redditch since we moved here. Not that I have looked much. The rest of the walk around was pleasant enough; a Green Woodpecker, a drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker, and lots of little birds in the woodland including a party of furiously calling Goldcrests (seven strong).

I also bumped into Andy Harris who was clearing away wood shavings from a recently coppiced area next to the pool. Andy works for the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust and we exchanged stories about the reserve. On one occasion someone had photographed an Adder here, miles from the currently understood distribution of the species, and in somewhat incongruous habitat. Apparently there was no doubt at all about the identification, and with no further sightings the Trust were left to surmise that perhaps a well-meaning person had released their pet snake on the site.

Or perhaps they really do occur here.

Thursday February 8

A walk around Arrow Valley Lake on a frosty but cloudy morning was reasonably productive. I had decided to take a few photos to add to my gallery on the Patchwork Challenge site (when they finally get it working).

As it turned out my first photograph, of Black-headed Gulls standing on the ice, produced an unexpected Patchwork Challenge tick because I must have forgotten to add the species to my list on their site.

Black-headed Gulls

More conventional year-ticks followed when I spotted that the first Oystercatcher was standing on a tyre in front of the yacht club, quite an early return.

Oystercatcher

Judging by the state of its bill it had been digging into the soil to look for worms. A little further around the lake I was pleased to see a pair of Goosanders swimming in the open water.

Goosanders

One Shoveler still remains, and a pair of Tufted Ducks has appeared. I counted eight Great Crested Grebes, and saw a single Little Egret. A Greenfinch was singing in spite of the chilly morning, and a flock of eight Bullfinches was also noteworthy.

Here are some more pics from this morning:

Lesser Black-backed Gull - adult

Lesser Black-backed Gull - 2nd winter

Moorhen

Little Egret

Saturday February 3

A walk to the paper shop in damp drizzly conditions turned up a Hawfinch again this morning. Bad luck for Richard B who came for a walk with me yesterday.

This is the first sighting for two weeks.

Friday February 2

I was joined by Richard B this morning, and for a change I took him for a walk around this patch.

It was a very pleasant sunny morning, and t didn't take long before we were watching a good-sized party of birds in the little copse at Winyates Green. About 35 Siskins were feeding in the alders with at least four Lesser Redpolls, these being a welcome patch year tick.

Lesser Redpoll

We reached Ipsley Alders and really just saw more of the same there. From there we walked along the course of the Blacksoils Brook towards Arrow Valley Lake.

Starling

More birds were singing this morning, including the above Starling.

At Arrow Valley Lake we bumped into Trevor Jones who was hoping to see the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. The lake contained the usual selection of waterfowl including two Little Egrets and three Shovelers. Most Great Crested Grebes are now in breeding plumage, and three Grey Herons are now on nests.

Great Crested Grebe

Walking back through the country park we happened upon a very showy singing Goldcrest. It was frustratingly hard to do it justice with the camera, and I only managed one shot.

Goldcrest

Back at Ipsley Alders we saw more Goldcrests, a Sparrowhawk, and a couple of Treecreepers.

Thursday February 1

I finally got around to printing off a BTO checklist last night. This produced an unexpected year-tick when I realised I had accidentally missed Wren off my list. I saw one on January 1, but to save myself the trouble of rewriting the list, I thought I'd tick it when I saw or heard another one.

It took me until 17.10 this evening to finally hear one as I was getting out of my car on the driveway.