Avocet Time at Upton

Thursday took us off to Upton Warren, primarily for our first views of the Avocets now that they have returned, from various forums we knew that they were now back in good numbers, it was just a shame that after a couple of days of glorious sunshine, that the only day we could get there was rather dull! But here are a few Avocet photos anyway,

Other birds at the Flashes at Upton were; Shelduck, Shoveler, Gadwall, Teal, Mallard, Black-headed Gull, Lapwing and a glimpse of a Curlew.
One of the many Lapwing

Walking back to the car park a couple of Goldcrest put in an appearance, but wouldn't give me a good view for a photo, this was the best I could do!

At the Sailing Pool we counted at least 10 Great Crested Grebe, all looked like they were pairing up and doing some courtship posturing, but no weed dancing yet!

We popped over to the Moors Pools and stopped at all the hides for a while, although it was fairly quiet, we added Tufted Duck, Cormorant and Little Grebe to the list of Waterfowl,

The feeders to the right of the concrete (Water Rail) hide were busy with Greenfinch, Reed Bunting, Tits and Dunnock with the odd Chaffinch showing up.

A couple of Canada Geese performed in front of the hide,

A pair of Bullfinch did show briefly, but thats about it apart from the Rats!

So 40 species in all today, with the Avocet bringing us up to 97 for the year.

Upton 'Snipe' Warren

Went down to Upton on Sunday afternoon for our first visit this year, the car park over at the Moors was very busy, so we expected the hides to be rammed but was surprised to get settled down in the concrete hide.

Within a few minute we had a brief glimpse of a Water Rail, but he dissapeared into the reeds, he came out again and raced across the shoreline in front of the hide, I managed to get a couple of hasty shots, of which this is probably the best:

The entertainment continued with a 'tree' rat:

and some frightened Black Headed Gulls.........

.......... because of this attack by a Lesser Black Backed Gull:

The feeding station to the right of the hide was very busy with Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tit, Reed Buntings Galore, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Robin, Dunnock and a lovely female Pheasant. The Moors had of course Mallard, Tufted Duck, Pochard, many Cormorant, BHG, LBBG, Coot, Moorhen, Little Grebe and Great Crested Grebe. For the small bird pics go to the galleries (Upton Warren 2013)

We left the hide and headed over to the other side via the very muddy path around the pool by the car park hoping to see the Siskin and Redpoll but we had left it to late. So we settled down in the West Hide, we were astonished by all the Snipe just in front of the hide, it was only in 2011 that we were still struggling to see a Snipe and got our first over at Sandwell Valley, I lost count near the 40 mark, on the Bird Forum the count went up to 83! So I better put a least one photo up:

Plus a Jack Snipe trying to hide: (the light wasn't good now, sorry!)

So apart from adding the Snipe over this side, we also added Teal, Shelduck, Lapwing, Grey Heron and our second Water Rail of the day, couldn't find the Black Tailed Godwit though. Never mind still a great couple of hours (32 Species recorded)