June Patchwork challenge & weekend butterflies

June updated table

 Large White

 Gatekeeper (Male)

Small Skipper

 Ringlet

Marbled White

Thought I'd undertake a bit of umpiring to help out my two lads teams at the weekend. I'd not recorded any umpire sightings for a while but Saturdays efforts resulted in a family of Mistle Thrush, 12 Swallows, Buzzard and a Chaffinch whilst Sunday I added Kestrel, Raven and Pied Wagtail to the weekend list.

Whilst walking around the pits on Sunday I took a few photographs of the butterflies I came across for a bit of added interest. I have added an additional page to the blog which records which species have been seen there historically by Jon. 

Short-eared Owl is mid May bonus

Short-eared Owl

Short-eared Owl 

Whitethroat

Shortie in flight above the pits

April Patch Challenge table

 Damselfly

 Skylark

 Reed Bunting

Goosanders on main pit

When away in Norfolk last weekend Mike Inskip reported a Ruff , Black-tailed Godwit & a Grey Plover. The Plover & Ruff were the first records of the year. The red-headed Smew made a second visit of month when arriving late in the afternoon. 

The first visit after my trip to Dorset resulted in me finding a Short-eared Owl which is one of my favourite bird. The graceful Owl was hunting the central area before landing the fields my the main pit. I managed to get a couple of record shots before the bird was mobbed by the local corvids and took cover. I did return in the evening where Mark and I had some fantastic views before the bird's hunting drew attention of the corvids again. This was the first time I'd seen a Short-eared Owl at the pits and is a welcome two pointer in the patch challenge (April table above).

Our Goosander count reached three at the weekend, a strange sighting at this time of year. Three Cuckoo's were seen down at Abbots Salford in addition to one calling on the top of migrant hill. Two Pochard remain around the main pit and we are hoping they may attempt to breed. This would be a new record for the site. 

A Common Tern briefly fished the south lagoon in front of us before moving on. There really wasn't anything else of note sadly. The winds are the varied weather seem to have stopped the flow of migrants. The Shortie certainly made the week ! 

Final days of February at pits

 Siskin

  Siskin

 Wigeon

Great Crested Grebe

 Afternoon flock of Black heads

 Common Gull

 Fallow Deer

  Fallow Deer

As February drew to an end the patch year list had grown to 92 species (97 points) with 10 species added. This weeks additions were a male Mandarin, Kingfisher & Great Crested Grebe on Monday at Abbots Salford. In addition there was a flock of 300+ Black-headed Gulls and seven Common Gulls in a pre-roost whilst wildfowl included six Wigeon and 30 Pochard.

Back at Salford Priors the bird of the week was definitely the Sparrowhawk. I've had fantastic views throughout the week including one brilliant view when I followed a female hunting up a lane to catch a Blackbird and then to see the Blackbird fightback in a hedge to force an escape, probably with a bad headache !

A pair of Oystercatcher are looking for possible nest sites around the pits whilst there looks to be two pairs Shelduck doing the same.

Species still outstanding for the year are Dunlin, Curlew, Common Sandpiper, Stonechat, Little Ringed Plover and Redshank. 

Goosander, Brambling, Siskin & new access

Mondays single Goosander

Greylag Geese

Abbots Salford

Siskin

Feeding Siskin

Upside down Siskin

Treecreeper

 Long-tailed Tits on the feeders

 Goosander pair

 Two of the seven Shelduck on the frozen main pit

Buzzard over Pophills

January Patch Challenge Midland Table

A very mixed bag of weather this week resulted in our first Goosander appearing on Monday which was followed up by a pair on Tuesday which then hung around all week. Paul and I had our first walk around Abbots Salford after access was granted. The walk around the lakes there is much easier that Salford Priors therefore is ideal as an additional area to survey to the pits. The area has two pools, which are used for fishing, a couple of islands, crops fields, pasture, good hedgerows and a river, so I'm hoping we had record a few additional sightings. Previously I could only record what I've seen from the gate. On the one side of the lake three Siskin showed very well right above us. Two Treecreeper landed is the trees on the river bank. The dodgy local Snow Goose was keeping company of the Canada Geese our only disappointment was we never added Kingfisher or Great Crested Grebe to our patch list. 

Chris Lane found a pair of Brambling on Thursday around the orchards which I managed to relocate. I could not get near enough for a decent photo of the stunning male. Chris also found a Stonechat on the edge of Broom but despite two searches I couldn't relocate. Paul Hands recorded a Grey Partridge towards Abbots Salford which is the third record of the year to date.

Sunday's count included :- Mallard, Coot 65, Tufted Duck 128, Little Grebe 14, Canada Goose 87, Lapwing 19, Gadwall 10, Shoveler 4, Teal 52, Mute Swan 2, Jack Snipe 1, Snipe 10, Cormorant 37, Shelduck 2, Oystercatcher, Greylag 180, Pochard 1, Buzzard 3, Green Sandpiper 3, Meadow Pipit 1, Reed Bunting 4, Pied Wagtail 8, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Black-headed Gull 3, Linnet 12, Starling 5, Jackdaw 30, Rook 15, Sparrowhawk, Song Thursh, Greenfinch 4, Grey Heron 2, Stock Dove 4.

Patchwork Challenge Podcast Launches

This week saw the launch of the new Patchwork Challenge podcast. This handy podcast provides you with all the latest PWC news on top of birding news from further afield. Episode 1 features a round up of the Best finds from #PWC2015 and the leaders in #PWC2016. There is a conversation with Rob Adams from Spurn about migfest, the new Spurn Bird Observatory Trust building and the YWT visitor centre.

First impressions were very good. The challenge will be to find enough content without going over old ground. Personally I'd like to hear about some of the smaller patches and why people take on such tasks. 

You can find the podcast on iTunes or SoundCloud.

Midlands Minileague October 2015

With August being a distant memory of points galore I only managed a single point in October forcing me out of the top six in the Midland Patchwork Challenge. 

Midland Patchwork Challenge League Table

Patchwork Challenge - Midlands League August

The fantastic run of of birds in August including Spotted Redshank, Black Tern & Osprey has taken the mighty gravel pits up to 6th in the midlands patchwork challenge. With a six point gap to the place below we even hang on for another month despite adding not additions in September to date.

Midlands Patchwork Challenge

A two place rise in the Midlands league has now put Salford Priors well clear of Earlswood & Morton Bagot. Both will need very big Autumns to close the gap now. The hours spent on site has certainly reaped dividends in August so far so perhaps we may be able to close another space.

June Patchwork Challenge Table

Patchwork Challenge

Patchwork Challenge latest results have been published showing I'm just holding off the challenge of the local Morton Bagot & Earlswood. With only 3 extra species added since we could be under pressure however with Red Kite being worth two points you never know.

Oystercatcher returns to Salford Priors

Oystercatcher on Pophills Pit

Patchwork Midlands Mini League

I was pleased with our standing of 12th out of 30 in the Patchwork Midlands Mini League at the end of January. We certainly haven't got the habitat that a couple of sites have that entered. It was interesting we scored the same number of species as @earlswoodbirds but our two 2 pointers (Jack Snipe and Scaup) pushed us up a couple of places and Morton Bagot recorded 64 species. 

After yesterdays excitement up north it was more regulation birding today. Spring is edging closer as the Oystercatcher had returned to Pophills Pit. There was also a single Shelduck and two Wigeon to accompany the regulars. The Skylarks and Yellowhammers were both in good voice with the Skylarks showing very well. 

I didn't pick up anything new in the plantation despite a good walk round.The Teal on the main pit were showing well for a change but the Pochard and Tufted Duck numbers were lower than normal.

I headed over to the hidden pools on the hope of locating a Water Rail but had to settle for one Jack Snipe, 10 Snipe, 115 Teal, Reed Bunting and a flock of 45 Golden Plover which flew over at 10.00am. 

I finished off with a walk around Dunnington and Hillers (great for sausage sandwich and coffee) where the highlights were 2 Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, Greater Spotted Woodpecker, large flock of Chaffiches and a Long-tailed Tit which had been outstanding on the patch year list ! Phew ! Roll on next week.