RSPB Middleton Lakes

We took a trip up over Birmingham to Middleton lakes on Thursday. It's been a a long while since we have been and on the way home we remembered why! But more of that later.

It was a surprisingly lovely day weather wise, the sun stayed out most of the afternoon. As I said it's been a while since we have been and it was nice to see the work done on the paths, in past visits we could have done with waders, but hopefully with the work done not any more.

So onto some birding....

The walk through the woodlands out to the lakes was lovely with the star being a Nuthatch collecting seed from posts and railings that someone had put out;

Chaffinch and Robin, plus Coal, Blue, Great and Lon-tailed Tit also turned up.
Couldn't resist a picture of a Tree Rat...

as it was being quite 'cute'.

We continued out over the canal to the lakes and walked around anti-clockwise, deciding not to cross the bridge to Dosthill. So up to the hide or as the RSPB insist on calling it 'The Lookout'. There was plenty of Coot, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Mute Swan, Moorhen, Cormorant and Canada Geese about.

From the hide, we added Wigeon, Teal, Little Egret, Little Grebe, Great White Egret, Grey Heron, Pheasant, a solitary Goosander, Shoveler,

plenty of Black-headed Gulls,

and a large flock of Linnet swooping around.

 The highlight was a Scaup that showed in a channel with some Tufties, before disappearing behind a bank, sadly I wasn't quick enough to get my camera on it.

After a late lunch in the hide we proceeded around to the Jubilee Wetlands where we saw a Shelduck to add to our list and had great fun watching the Greylag Geese coming in to roost:
Final approach, undercarriage down,

 landing aborted going around again,

 trying again,

 then the next lot doing a circuit.

After waiting in the fading light to see if any starlings showed up for a mini murmuration, (about 30 did turn up briefly) we brought our afternoons tally up to 42 with a Collared Dove.

So back to the car as it got dark, then for the supposedly 35 minute ride home that ended up taking 2 hours!! Now we remembered why we don't go to Middleton in the winter!

Haden Hill

Popped out yesterday for a brief walk in between the rain for a walk along the river in the Corngreaves NR section of the park, up to the main pool.

Nothing much to report other than a first for the park for us a Cormorant fishing on the main pool, I didn't take the camera as it was so dull, so no photos to go with the post.

On the way back down to the lower car park we did see a Goldcrest, sheltering, as the rain had started again, so we made a hasty retreat back to the car.

Kinver Canal

We took the opportunity to go for a walk from Kinver (The Vine) for an amble along the canal, with the canal on our left and the River Stour on our right, there are plenty of benches along the route, so we made use of these for our obligatory coffee stops and open air hides.

Probably due to the mornings murky weather it was very quiet, birding wise, but there was some decent afternoon sunshine making it a very pleasant walk,

with the promise of a really good Beef & Horseradish Baguette and a pint of Enville Ale (and a fruit based drink for the lady, to borrow a catch phrase from a certain comedian) at the Vine on our return.

This time I had charged the battery for my camera, however due to the lack of birds, photo opportunities were few and far between. I did manage a couple of shots:
Long-tailed Tit,

 a well camouflaged Grey Wagtail

 and a young Heron.

There were plenty of Jays about today, but none stayed still long enough for a photo. The area were we usually see Treecreeper and Nuthatch were empty, so really apart from the above it was only common birds including a very distant sighting of a Buzzard.

Even the sewage works was quiet, with just a Robin and Blue Tits about. We did manage 19 species in all, plus the baguette was excellent!

An idiot at Upton!

The title of the post refers to me! It's only that I hadn't charged the battery for my camera, so couldn't take any shots of the Whooper Swans when we went on Monday, just to prove we were there though took a photo from the Water Rail Hide on my phone.

We had a nice few hours though, with the 4 Whoopers showing well, 4 Little Egrets milling around and 3 Snipe on the island in front of the Lapwing hide (seen in the distance in the above photo)

A brief bit of excitement ensued as a Sparrowhawk blasted through the feeders by the Water Rail Hide, not catching anything though. A Water Rail was heard but not seen.

There were of course tons of Coots, with a solitary male Wigeon preferring their company to any of the other ducks that were about. It was nice to see quite a few Pochard about along with the other ducks, Tufted, Shoveler, Teal and Mallard.

A kingfisher put in a supersonic appearance flashing across the water in front of us, blink and you'd have missed it.

Both Great Crested and Little Grebe were also in abundance all now in winter plumage.

So our full list for two hours, just at the Moors, we didn't venture over to the Sailing Club or Flashes this time:

Blackbird

Black-headed Gull

Blue Tit

Bullfinch

Carrion Crow

Coot

Cormorant

Dunnock

Great Crested Grebe

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Tit

Greenfinch

Grey Heron

Herring Gull

Kestrel

Kingfisher

Lapwing

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Little Egret

Little Grebe

Magpie

Mallard

Moorhen

Mute Swan

Pied Wagtail

Pochard

Reed Bunting

Robin

Shoveler

Snipe

Sparrowhawk

Teal

Tufted Duck

Whooper Swan

Wigeon

Woodpigeon

Wren

A Meander Around the Isle of Wight

We have just returned from a short get away to the Isle of Wight, I have never been before although Tina has albeit some 40 years ago! Things have changed....

We started off with a day out to the Needles, somewhere that I'd always wanted to see, unfortunately the weather wasn't great, very dull and a bit windy, but we still had a good time and a nice walk, with a Stonechat,

and a Spitfire showing well!!

I din't have the big lens on the camera when it flew by and we were also in the Cafe at the Old Battery, so it was taken through a mucky window, looking in to a mucky sky!

A bit of sunshine to show off the Needles would have been nice.

We also saw Raven, Kestrel, Skylark add Meadow Pipit as we walked along with the coloured sands/rocks.

The next day the weather wasn't good, the morning started very wet, so we went to the National Trust reserve at Newtown as it reportedly has three hides, it in fact only has two the woodland hide is apparently now inaccessible. But we mad the best of it and went the first hide about a 20 minute walk from the car park, past some lovely Dahlias!

The hide no 1, viewed from hide no 2!

The top deck of the hide is accessed by a ladder, so beware! We went up for hopefully better views in the murk. So we did get some good sightings, from the reserve; Turnstone, Grey Plover, Godwit, Little Egret, Redshank, Dunlin, Brent Goose, Grey Heron, Teal, Wigeon, Shelduck, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Cormorant and Ringed Plover.

As we walked to hide 2, (as seen from hide 1!)

a Buzzard showed itself,

as well as Collared Dove and the usual hedgerow suspects.

Our last full day took us in lovely sunshine to the RSPB Reserve, Brading Marshes. Not a lot was seen to be honest, but it was a lovely walk.

After a few hours on the reserve, which I think is definitely a work in progress, paths a too far from the water to see much and a distinct lack of viewpoints/benches, we drove into Bembridge and had a great very late lunch at the 'Best Dressed Crab' cafe. The seafood sandwiches were superb! Plus a bit of Birdwatching from the Cafe/Houseboat:

We followed this with a drive upto Culver Downs and had the pleasure of watching a Peregrine attacking two Ravens, It was so good I forgot to take a photo!

So that was our brief sojourn down to the Isle of Wight!

Upton Warren on a Blustery day

Well no posts for ages and then three in quick succession! I'll put it down to Birding Therapy!

So Thursday afternoon saw us motor down the M5 to Upton, I cant believe our last visit was in April and it's only a 25 minute (traffic permitting) drive away. Very remiss of us!

We had been tempted by the reports earlier in the week of a Jack Snipe about, but of course forgetting there was a work party at the Flashes this week, where it had been seen for a few days meant that there was no sign!

As I said it was our first visit in quite a while and the state of the Flashes after out hot summer was still a shock, even though I had seen photos, it was quite desolate. Apart from a few Teal, Mallard, Three Grey Hersons, there was only the large flock of Lapwing, with heads down out of the wind.

This was one of the three Herons that turned up, but being a dull day the photo doesn't door this great bird justice:

We stayed about an hour with only distant Buzzard and Kestrel adding much interest.

We walked back to the car park and drove over to the Moors, enjoying the smooth ride on the newly tarmaced track. We only ventured to the Lapwing Hide as we did need to get home to run a few errands, however we did stay longer than planned and got caught in the rush hour traffic.

So the Moors was its busier self with plenty of Gulls, the odd Canada Goose, Cormorants and two Little Egrets showing well, but again poor light for photography, but here you go;

There were also plenty of Little Grebe about,

 but I think in all the years we have been birding, this is the first time I have seen one just sitting at the waters edge.

Like the Flashes there were plenty of Lapwing about;

sometimes getting a bit agitated along with the Black-headed Gulls.

As for ducks, in addition to the Mallard, there were again a number of Teal, some Shoveler, Tufted Duck and a few Gadwall. I had a fleeting view of a Kingfisher as it raced away from us, but sadly Tina didn't see it. Up to the point we left we had not seen any small birds at all, but picked up a few as we dipped into the new hide on the way back to the car.

In the end we totalled 33 species for 3 hours, not bad when I thought we weren't going to make 20!

Haden Hill Park

Went for a short walk at Haden Hill and Corngreaves NR on Tuesday, the weather was glorious, but the whole place seemed devoid of birds. We hardly saw anything although a couple of Buzzards put in an appearance:

apart from that, just Woodpigeon, Magpies and Crow, with Mallard and Moorhen on the pool. That was it! Apart from a Squirrel with a gobstopper!

and some gorgeous trees of course.