Musselburgh - Lagoons & Seafront

 In between celebrating my Birthday we paid a visit to Musselburgh, spending a while in the left most hide as that was where the majority of the birding was to be had, then finishing off with 15 minutes or so at the sea wall before heading off for some Prosecco!

The lagoons were dominated by the large number of lapwings, but among that lot there were some great birds.

Black-tailed Godwit;

Ruff;

Some distant Snipe;

and Green Sandpiper;

There was also a solitary Wigeon, some Teal and the odd Curlew dropping in and out. There was also 4 or 5 Grey Heron, the most I think we have seen here.

At the sea wall, there were plenty of Guillemot and Razorbill close in, more evidence of this strange phenomenon going on this year all along the coast. Going fishing 😊;

 Further out apart from the Gulls, Gannet and Goosander were seen, plus great views of three Velvet Scoter through the scope, much too far for the camera, this is when I had an adapter so that I could digiscope with the phone.

As we walked back to the car some Little Grebe were seen on the boating pond, as well as a large flock of small birds heading into the trees. These turned out to be a mix of Goldfinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit and a solitary Willow Warbler.

So a nice couple of hours.

Back at Ladywalk NR

 Paid our third visit to Ladywalk this week, very quiet, although we did see some Egyptian Geese, haven't seen any of those since February in Norfolk, those lovely days before Covid.

See here are a few photos:

The aforementioned Egyptian Geese, seen from hide A,

Gadwall,

Goosander on the river,

As usual plenty of Herons.

Two of the three Little Egrets seen,

Yes it's a hide, in fact it's hide B!

Shoveler,

yet another Heron,

a Muntjac,

a Great Crested Grebe with youngster.

The sun came out so this Cormorant took the opportunity to dry those wings, bad design!

And finally one of the four Green Sandpipers seen foraging in the shallows.

As usual a lovely walk, our favourite at the moment, might spice it up next time and go clockwise 😄

Ladywalk NR - Our second visit

So after being away in Scotland, not birding (much!) we decided to pay our second visit to Ladywalk NR part of the Teme Valley Valley Wetlands area. With not being able to visit Upton Warren our regular haunt for the last 10 years, this is fast becoming our favourite reserve. It's just a beautiful and peaceful place, despite being virtually next door to a massive Sainsbury's Distribution Centre.

I guess because it is a members only reserve and everyone that we encountered is sticking to the Covid advice, the hides can stay open, the WMBC trusts its members, Unlike Worcestershire Wildlife Trust.

Anyway I'll move on! As you would expect for August from a birding standpoint the reserve seems very quiet, although there were quite a few people about. Birdsong has almost gone completely with the majority of birds conserving their energy and building themselves back up for migration or the winter to come. Having said that there was plenty to see, not terribly exciting, but still good nonetheless with a total of 44 species seen.

There were of course plenty of butterflies about, I'll start with a few snaps of those:

A Small White,

Comma

and Peacock

there were of course others but butterflies like birds don't always sit still!

We had some mammals too;

A distant Muntjac from the first hide

and a Rabbit.

So on to the birds, as usual (well for a second visit!) the feeders at the first hide were busy, mainly with Blue and Great Tits, the youngsters particularly getting stuck in. The other main visitors were what seemed to be a family of Greenfinch, otherwise there was a quick visit by a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a Nuthatch and two male Pheasant, one a juvenile.

Moving on we had a coffee in the second hide, but there wasn't much going on, so we carried on to the Riverside Walk Hide, where the waterfowl were much easier to see.

A family of Little Grebe with the adults feeding their Grebelets.

There were tons of Cormorant about with the majority chilling out on the scrapes.

A Female Tufted Duck was busy looking after her ducklings.

Other birds of note were a couple of fly by's by Little Egret, plenty of Lapwing and distant Sandpipers, which I guessed at the time were Green Sandpiper. One of the bushes to the right of the hide held plenty of Linnet and a few Starlings.

We carried on to the Bittern Hide for lunch (late as usual!), stopping at a bench overlooking the river on the way, where we had a lovely Kingfisher shoot by and watched the Canada Geese having a paddle;

At the Bittern Hide I managed some decent shots of the Green Sandpipers;

and a young Lapwing:

I couldn't resist another Cormorant shot;

The cute factor was supplied by a Gadwall with 7 ducklings:

Another youngster being looked after was a Great-crested Grebe although they refused to come close enough for a good photo;

So that's about it the walk around also produced some Reed Bunting, Juvenile Blackcap and a Willow Warbler, the end walk through the woods back to the car was very quiet, in fact we didn't see anything!

But 44 species and a lovely almost normal day out apart from the anti-bacterial gel and a great walk was well worth the 40 minute drive.

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.

A Quiet August so far, but still managed a new species!

Mid August already and our first post of the month. With Tina leaving work and Birthdays we haven't had any birding opportunities other than the Garden and yesterday evenings visit to Upton Warren. I did manage a cycle along the canal one lunch time as far as the reservoir at Netherton, so I will start with that.

The Canal, Warrens Hall & Netherton Resevoir.

This will be brief! Both the Canal and Warrens Hall were very quiet, just the usuals, Mallard, Coot, Moorhen, Wood & Feral Pigeons, Magpie, Grey Heron and House Sparrows:

 The star though was the Little Grebe on Bumble Hole

So onwards to the Reservoir, this was busy with Black Head Gulls, Lesser Black Backed Gulls, Coot and Moorhen of course, but in addition a Mute Swan family; 2 Adults with 8 Cygnets and a pair of Great Crested Grebe (no Grebelets though!)

Finally a butterfly! A Gatekeeper I believe.

So onto Upton Warren yesterday evening.

We only ventured to the flashes as we knew there were Redstarts about and we have yet to see one.

We arrived about 6ish and stayed til about 7:30.  Of course no sign of the Redstarts, but the Lapwings, Curlews and Sandpipers were a treat:

In addition to that I searched with the scope over ny the Farm but no sign of the Little Owls, but did find a Buzzard perched in the tree behind the stump that the Owls have used. 3 Common Terns visited briefly for a spot of fishing, I tried to get a shot but failed miserably.

After some searching we found the Ruff over the farside of the Flashes, it eventually came closer but decided to hide behind an island and some Mallard, but did pop out briefly to show me its back!

No sign of any Plovers, which was disappointing. On the duck front apart from the Mallard, there were a few Teal about. So after a fair while and with my stomach rumbling we were thinking of leaving, when Tina spotted some movement in the bushes to the right and behind the hide. A male Redstart, but as soon as I found him he flew off behind the bushes, I just saw a flash of red as he went. So all thought of tea were forgotten and we settled down again. Our patience was rewarded when a female Redstart flew up into a Hawthorn Bush and skittered about flashing her red tail at us. She gave us a decent display before disappearing behind the bushes. No photo's sorry I just enjoyed watching our first ever Redstart.

So off home, happy... Would liked to have seen the Juvenile Cuckoo though... and will have to go over to the Moors for some Spotted Flycatcher next time.

Finally as we walked back, Tina spotted this tiny weird thing fluttering in the grass:

Sorry about the quality of the photo, but I only had my 500mm lens on the camera, not best suited for macro work! Just looked it up a White Plume Moth.. Unless anyone knows better!

TTFN