White-tailed Eagle without doubt (Local bird sightings 1st to 25th February)

White-tailed Eagle (Antony Page)

Goosander

Cormorant

Little Egret

Goosanders at Arrow Valley Lake

The pits remain very quiet currently and a vast reducion of visits makes it more unlikely any birds will be found. However ! On a lunchtime visit, I picked up a very large raptor flying away from the pits heading towards Broom & Bidford. It kept going higher and higher, I throught White-tailed Eagle and it certainly fitted all the ID feature from the distance. I took a couple of images but there were just black dots. Was this one of the wandering re-introduced White-tailed Eagles from the Isle of White?

Last Wednesday, I was about to leave for work when I got a message from Anthony Page from local nature group "I've just seen your Eagle". He had gone fishing in Harvington, close to the pits, when he saw this huge raptor fly over. Thankfully he had his camera and was able to fire off some great shots for evidence. Despite a lot of searches there was no futher sign, however the tracking device informed us it was a three year old bird that then headed towards Penkridge/Stafford before ending up in Yorkshire Dales.

The February WeBS count was undertaken in thick fog. 5 Little Grebe, 8 Cormorant, 1 Grey Heron, 21 Mute Swan, 360 Greylag, 130 Canada geese, 0 Shelduck, 6 Gadwall, 110 Mallard, 25 Shoveler, 4 Pochard all drakes, 40 Tufted Duck,  M0 Moorhen, 70 Coot, no sign of Oycs, 1 Snipe, 50 Stock Dove, 30 Skylark, 20 Meadow Pipit, 1 Grey Wagtail, 2 Cetti’s Warbler.

American Robin kickstarts 2022 twitching year

 

 

American Robin gives me the perfect pose

 

What a beauty

Red circles indicate areas seen often, 

green is where birders are meeting as seen below

Residents of Hill Road get an unusal welcome

As a rule I have my phone on silent when I'm working and then flick through any alerts when I take a break. Last Tuesday I working through emails when I could see messages and alerts suddenly building up on my home screen. I had to take a look, and it seemed an American Robin had been discovered in Eastbourne. A quick check on the maps revealed journey time was 3 hour 15 minutes, about the same as Spurn, I can do this. So I informed the boss I needed some emergency leave, checked with the Squire (couldn't go until weekend which I couldn't do) and a plan was hatched to leave on first news in the morning if it was still there.

By 8.00am I was on the M40 heading south. Solo twitches can be very dull but I tend to mix journey up with a few podcasts and some new music. The Red Kites are always good to pass 40 minutes trying to count (22 on way down, 41 on return). The traffic was very kind until just outside Eastbourne, East Sussex where I had a 25 minutes delay due to road widening.

I followed the directions until I started to see the colour of the pedistrains change to khaki and I safely parked in the residential area. Birding in residential area is never easy, locals must have had quite a shock as a handful of birders increased very quickly. 

A friendly birder informed me on arrival that the bird had been showing well on & off and it was out of view behind the houses. I made the most of the twenty minutes wait by eating my lunch and enjoying the winter sunshine. Then the bird took flight over the house to land in another garden. Initially in full cover, it popped out when the postman walked past it. YESSSSSS........what a cracker. This first winter American Robin showed brilliantly and I was at perfect angle to get a few nice record shots.

For those readers who don't know, the American Robin is actually a thrush and is close to a blackbird size than our Eurasian Robin. There has been 24 previous records in Britain this was most definatley my first. I had seen many on visits to USA, where they are a common garden bird, again like our Blackbird. A resident informed me the bird had been around for three weeks and given the supply of berries I'm sure it will hang around if it can avoid the local Sparrowhawk. 

I do hope the visiting birders continue to behave and not push the patience of the very understanding residents. 

Lifford Reservoir - Ring-necked Duck

 

A change to the normal on Sunday, when I made the short drive over to Kings Norton to see a female Ring-necked Duck discoved by Adrian Platt the previous day. Being such a small piece of water ensured the views were excellent from all sides. This was only the second record for the West Midlands for the species whilst there have been numberous in Worcestershire.

Local bird sightings (25th Jan to 30th Jan)

Sadly not the Geese I wanted to find with the flock

 

 

Salford Priors GP :- Very few reports this week perhaps linked to the crescendo of the shooting season. I visited early Saturday intending once again to get a Jack Snipe on the site year list. Yet again I had no such luck and only 2 Common Snipe were recorded. The days of 25 Jacks & 60 Common are now a distant memory. Wildfowl numbers were very low again, to be recording no Teal at this time of year is dreadful. The Squire added a female Merlin to the year list on Sunday. There remains good numbers of Brambling in the area.

Very distant Tawny Owl

Other local sightings:-

Old Yarr :- Large finch flock remains but sometimes feed out of view.

Studley :- 30 Redpoll, Tawny Owl, Little Egret & Marsh Tit.

Further afield

Iceland Gull

That's a white wing

Lapwing

Green Woodpecker

 

Brambling (Upton Warren)

Cormorant

Pintail (Upton Warren)

Curlew

Great Crested Grebe

Further afield :- The week started of well, as I stopped at Edgbaston Reservoir on the way to the office and was lucky enough to see the juvenile Iceland Gull arrive and also added Yellow-legged Gull to my year list. If you intend to go and see this Gull you need to park on Reservoir Road as the carpark is now closed. The bird is generally observed on central/eastern side.

I also had a rare visit to the Moors at Upton Warren on Sunday. The reserve was looking in it's normal prestige condition. Siskins were feeding in the alders along the path and there were two stunning drake Pintail outside the hide. Note to self - need to go more often.