Quick start to February at the Pits

Yellowhammer

Pied Wagtail

Fieldfare

Yellow-legged Gull 

Oystercatcher on Pophills

  Sleeping Pintail

Salford Priors Church

Dunnock

Heavy rain and wind has once again battered Salford Priors this week causing the nearby River Arrow to break it's banks. A midweek meeting about the pits restoration took place with representatives of CEMEX, RSPB, Warwickshire County Council, West Midland Bird Club and three of the regular recorders which I'll do a separate blog about as soon as I can. 

My abdomen woes have continued but I've definitely had some improvement. Patch visits have been time limited but I've still managed to record three patch year ticks.

Chris Lane had recorded a Yellow-legged Gull in January but I'd not managed to see it myself. Thankfully I found what we think was the same bird early in the week on the main pit keeping company with two Herring Gulls. Three Lesser Blacked Backed Gulls were also recorded on a midweek visit.

When recording the impressive count of seven Green Sandpipers on Pophills, our annual Oystercatcher flew onto the island for it's visit of the year. Reading the other blogs and reports, they seem to be returning to their breeding grounds everywhere this week. Shelduck numbers increased to a maximum of four birds however only two were present on Sunday. Skylarks were singing high above the fields in three different locations.

Both Paul and I have been searching hard to try and find a Brambling in with the finch flocks around the orchards. Whilst no Bramblings were located, the orchards contained good numbers of Yellowhammer, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Fieldfare and Redwing. 

Three birds outstanding on the patch list at the ends of January were Nuthatch, Tawny Owl and Little Owl so I've been trying every crevice possible within the boundary to find these birds. Thankfully I finally managed to see a Nuthatch in the Salford Priors church yard. Tawny & Little Owl next week ………….

Black Redstart in Sharpness

 Digiscoped Black Redstart

  Digiscoped Black Redstart from distance

 Distance view

 Pied Wagtail

 Grey Wagtail fly catching

Sharpness Docks, Gloucestershire

In my three years of birding seriously the Black Redstart has been a real bogey bird which has just avoided me where ever I have been. There has been no lack of effort as I even double dipped the species a couple of weeks ago 90 miles apart. 

I didn't need a second invitation when Vern and "Breaking" Phil were going for a drive down the M5 at lunch time. ("Sauntering" Phil was apparently shopping, poor chap) 

The docks looked to be a great location for the bird with a number of flat and vegetated roofs and I'd noted in the British Breeding Atlas a breeding dot was shown in this area. As soon as we parked up I saw a bird drop from the large building in front of us into a tree and then pass us to the top of the nearest house. The flight view showed the red on the  tail and once landed you could see his robin size, domed head and vibrating tail. It's sessions like this you really appreciate having a superb telescope. 

During the session we located two different birds that seemed to be working their way around the docks every 30 minutes. The good light enabled me to get a few digiscoped images however it wasn't easy as the birds were on the move all the time. Vern's image can be seen here. With less than a 100 breeding pairs (RSPB) it was a real pleasure to see such a beautiful bird.

Other birds noted during the visit included Grey & Pied Wagtails feeding in the same location as the Black Redstarts, Wigeon on river, Mute Swans flying downstream, Robin, Wren, Black-headed Gulls and a single Curlew.