The Worcestershire way

 Lakeside at Hewell

 Lake at Hewell

Song Thrush

Hewell habitat

 Greater Spotted Woodpecker

Muntjac

 Avocet return to Upton Warren (Flashes)

Oysercatcher

After a number of back to back busy weekends I opted to stay closer to home to drop in at the close Hewell Grange Prison as I'm very lucky to have permission to visit this private lake and woodland.  When the signing in and out takes in a procedure that needs to be followed it's great to have the place to yourself. Hewell Grange is a county house in Tardebigge on the edge of Redditch. The mansion was finished in 1891 whilst the gardens were designed by Capability Brown and Humprey Repton. Th estate was sold to the Government in 1946 and has since become a prison of various designs.

As I headed down to the lake the over night corvid roost was waking up and creating quite a spectacle. In the field lakeside  60+ Fieldfare were accompanied with 30+ Redwing and a Green Woodpecker. The lake held 3 Great Crested Grebe, 100 Black-headed Gulls, 3 Herring Gulls, Coot, 20 Tufted Duck and a number of Mallard.  The regular flock of Canadian Geese were in the meadows on the east side of the lake.

Bird song was the loudest I'd heard this year and a Song Thrush seemed determined to be the loudest. A flock for 6 Redpoll fed lakeside and all the following were also noted :- Jackdaw, Treecreeper, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Chaffinch, Dunnock, 3 Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Robin, Magpie and Rook.

I was then on cricket practise taxi duties so I took advantage of the session by calling in to Hilliers when I saw two Munjac Deer, Raven, Nuthatch and a number of garden birds. I did glimpse a view of a Marsh/Willow Tit but I didn't get a good enough view to ID it. 

I was unsure on Sunday where to head but given the roadworks on the M5 that could hamper my trek to Slimbridge I turned towards Upton Warren. This was my first visit to the Flashes this year. It was good to see the feeding station refurbished in the December work party was working well with plenty of visitors. 4 Avocet has returned to their spiritual home and were feeding on the far side. Other species of note were Black-headed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Fieldfare, Redwing, Green Woodpecker, 2 Oystercatcher, 2 Shelduck,  Stock Doves and Goldfinch.

Late afternoon I headed down to Arrow Valley Lake where over 300 Black-headed Gulls were strangly on show. 50 would be a good number normally. I observed at least 5 of 8 Herons showing nest building tendencies but it was looked tough work in the howling wind. Great Crested Grebes had increased to 16. It was great to see 4 Reed Bunting back in the reeds as I hadn't seen any on site for a period of months. 11 Cormorants, 40 Canadian Geese and 3 Herring Gulls were all noted.