A Bit of Garden Stuff

With the sun shining spent a few hours lazing in the garden over the past few days, not much going on but took a couple of photos, the Cricket is from my phone camera.

A Speckled Bush Cricket (had to google that, not an expert on Crickets) decided to stare at its reflection for a while,

 talking about Cricket.... England, Ben Stokes, Jack Leach.... Awesome, say no more.

 House Sparrow admiring the Marigolds

 and a Goldfinch having a look to see what's going on.

In addition Tina spotted a couple of bright red beetles, looked those up and turned out to be Red Cardinal Beetles, nice to see, but didn't have a camera handy!

Bitten at Middleton!

Sorry, not a Bittern, just bitten to death by midges and mossies as we walked through the trees up to the main part of the reserve. Now two days later our arms are covered in lumps and bumps that itch like ......... (add your own word here)

But hey ho, that's what you get for going birding in the summer!

It's over a year since we have been to RSPB Middleton, we just find it such a pain to get to from where we live, the M6/M42 is always a nightmare, but otherwise we would have to go through Birmingham also not a fun prospect.

But go we did, but was it worth it? Well shall we say it was a lovely walk... The walk from the car park through the woods was very quiet, although we did see our first Swallows for ages around the farm and if you like rats then the feeders by the boardwalk are excellent. Am I painting a grim picture, I don't mean too but that's what you get for visiting in August.

Once we arrived at the main part of the reserve over the canal bridge,

the mossies didn't bother us as much, we chose to walk anti-clockwise around the lagoons up along the river, but the same as our last visit the reserve seems very overgrown and despite there being lots of benches and places to sit the views are across the reserve are non-existent, even the path has been diverted away from the river, so not much to see.

Eventually we got to the hide with only seeing Mallard, Gadwall, Swan, Coot, Moorhen and Starlings on the way, plus a few butterflies and lots of Damselfly and Dragonfly. Oh and a ton of Canada Geese on the river.

Sorry I forgot the RSPB want us to call the hide 'The Lookout', not a hide. Here we had more success, with Green Sandpiper and Snipe showing well, along with a Little Egret, Teal, tons of Gadwall, Lapwing, Great Crested Grebe and Mute Swans. There was no sign of the reported Garganey, although on twitter today there are now 5!
3 Snipe,

 Little Egret

 and Green Sandpiper.

We stayed a while in the hide, sorry lookout, this added a Great White Egret that flew along in the distance, which we caught up with at the screen at the Jubilee Wetlands.

So not much else to add other than some distant Egyptian Geese and a Rabbit!

We won't rush back to Middleton, its 23 miles of arduous driving, even tried a different route back, ignoring the satnav, which was better, but still not great. I think we will leave it until the winter when the vegetation has died down and the winter waterfowl hopefully turn up. Might even see a mini murmuration.

Another Upton Warren Visit

Last week we took some good friends for an afternoon at Upton. Parking at the sailing club we visited the flashes first, with waders showing particularly well; Avocet of course, a Snipe, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Black-tailed Godwit, Little Ringed Plover (and chick!), Curlew and Lapwing.

There were a few Common Tern about,

along with the usual Coot, Moorhen, Mallard, Great Crested Grebe, Canada Geese and a single Juvenile Shelduck.

After a late lunch at the Sailing Club Cafe (Good sandwich!!) we popped over to the Moors Pools, visiting all the hides, we added Greylag Goose, Cormorant, Mute Swan, Little Egret, Gadwall, Reed Bunting, a Juvenile Chiffchaff, Buzzard and Kestrel. Plus Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tit.
The Little Egret

 and one of the Gadwall.

Surprised not to see any Little Grebe and we missed a Kingfisher by about 20 minutes, but you cant win em all! Be boring if everything turned up all the time! Still 43 species seen in an afternoon which isn't too shabby.