Rare and Scarce Birds in Staffordshire (7 Viewers)

[The Moore-hen]

News for the 20th Feb

Firecrest - still Penn Common in Light Wood
2 Iceland Gull - Blithfield in Tad bay also redhead Smew (yday 3 Iceland Gull roosted and Black Redstart still)
Juv Iceland Gull - Belvide roost also 1w drake Scaup

Extra News for 19th Feb

Juv Iceland Gull - Chasewater roost
Great Grey Shrike - Upper Longdon
Red-crested Pochard - female at Cop Mere
18 Crossbill - Hanchurch Woods

 

[andyr]

Great Grey Shrike

Hi All

The Upper Longdon bird was showing very well again this morning, but there was no sign of the Shooting Butts bird - reported to have been seen again on Saturday - in the hour or two that I and several other birders were around there early afternoon.

Cheers

Andy R.

 

[Kevin Groocock]

Hi All

The Upper Longdon bird was showing very well again this morning, but there was no sign of the Shooting Butts bird - reported to have been seen again on Saturday - in the hour or two that I and several other birders were around there early afternoon.


Not knowing the Longdon area at all, is the Great Grey Shrike easy to locate? What is meant by "Clearfell" - a property or open land? Any info welcome :t:

 

[andyr]

Hi All

The Upper Longdon bird was showing very well again this morning, but there was no sign of the Shooting Butts bird - reported to have been seen again on Saturday - in the hour or two that I and several other birders were around there early afternoon.


Not knowing the Longdon area at all, is the Great Grey Shrike easy to locate? What is meant by "Clearfell" - a property or open land? Any info welcome :t:

Hippo

As Great Grey Shrike go, in my somewhat limited experience, this bird shows very well and easily most of the time... ie when it hasn't gone missing for a couple of hours or so !
Upper Longdon is just off the Lichfield to Rugeley road, the easiest turn-off - clearly signposted - being the one close to the petrol-station near Rugeley. Go right through the village and the clearfell is on the left just past the last houses. Clearfell is previously forested land, where the conifers are often completely removed to allow the regeneration of the ground-cover, but stumps and woodpiles etc are left for wildlife ... eg Shrikes !
The Upper Longdon clearfell is on land sloping down from Startley Lane, where there are a couple of places to park - the more rough and ready one being on the left at the brow of the hill. The bird can often be seen from here, perched on top of the two tallest tree stumps, without getting out of your car !!!

Good luck if you go.

Cheers

Andy R.

 

[Kevin Groocock]

Cheers Andy, very much appreciated.

 

[Neil-T]

Mealy Redpoll visiting on and off over the past week still.

 

[geoffw1946]

Hi All

The Upper Longdon bird was showing very well again this morning, but there was no sign of the Shooting Butts bird - reported to have been seen again on Saturday - in the hour or two that I and several other birders were around there early afternoon.

Cheers

Andy R.

The Upper Longdon bird was again showing well this afternoon. I walked the few yards from the car to a dead tree stump and could see the shrike in the distance, I turned around to speak to a fellow birder then looked back to find it had gone, only to look up and it was perched above my head on the stump, it took no notice of me what so ever.
Further up the road by a clear fell area just past Beau Desert Old Park car park were 3 or 4 Crossbill with a party of Siskins.
Geoff

 

[andyr]

The Upper Longdon bird was again showing well this afternoon. I walked the few yards from the car to a dead tree stump and could see the shrike in the distance, I turned around to speak to a fellow birder then looked back to find it had gone, only to look up and it was perched above my head on the stump, it took no notice of me what so ever.
Further up the road by a clear fell area just past Beau Desert Old Park car park were 3 or 4 Crossbill with a party of Siskins.
Geoff

Geoff

This is fascinating ! When I arrived about 10am this morning, I walked the 25 metres or so up on to the clearfell and the bird was down in the bottom right-hand corner, perched in a large bush. Straightaway it flew up the slope directly towards me and perched up about 30 metres away ! Once, a month or two ago, also when I was on my own, it flew up closer still and hovered alongside me, about 15 metres away, before perching in that sawn-off tree stump just to the right of the informal lay-by.
Can Nick P., Steve or any of the other maestros on this forum shed any light on this behaviour ? Like me Geoff, I believe you have seen this bird many times now too ...So, don't laugh, is it a 'social' thing ? ... or as I am guessing, and have already shared with one or two other birders, more a case of us spooking a beetle etc or two, and so helping it to feed ?

Any thoughts anyone ?

Cheers

Andy R.

 

[geoffw1946]

Geoff

This is fascinating ! When I arrived about 10am this morning, I walked the 25 metres or so up on to the clearfell and the bird was down in the bottom right-hand corner, perched in a large bush. Straightaway it flew up the slope directly towards me and perched up about 30 metres away ! Once, a month or two ago, also when I was on my own, it flew up closer still and hovered alongside me, about 15 metres away, before perching in that sawn-off tree stump just to the right of the informal lay-by.
Can Nick P., Steve or any of the other maestros on this forum shed any light on this behaviour ? Like me Geoff, I believe you have seen this bird many times now too ...So, don't laugh, is it a 'social' thing ? ... or as I am guessing, and have already shared with one or two other birders, more a case of us spooking a beetle etc or two, and so helping it to feed ?

Any thoughts anyone ?

Cheers

Andy R.

I have seen this bird three times this winter, I think Gt Grey Shrikes generally have no fear of humans, although the only other shrike I have been close to was the Lincs. Steppe Gt Grey Shrike, which was a particularly tame bird.
Geoff

 

[smyrna]

Mealy Redpoll visiting on and off over the past week still.

Any photos of the bird? or have I missed them on an earlier post?

 

[paulthomas]

My thoughts are that the GGS may now associate us with the possibility of flushing some prey for it.

 

[andyr]

My thoughts are that the GGS may now associate us with the possibility of flushing some prey for it.

Whilst I agree with Geoff about the somewhat confiding nature of Great Grey Shrike, Paul and I are obviously both leaning more towards the "food" motivation. The photo in my post #2150 on this thread, of the Shooting Butts shrike from this time last year, adds some weight to this I suggest.
With two fellow birders joining me that day, the SB shrike flew straight towards us but, as soon as it landed on a conifer very close by, it looked straight down at the ground below, as I took that quick point-and-shoot pic ... immediately searching for prey and pouncing on a beetle almost straightaway if I recall.

Cheers

Andy R.

 

[The Moore-hen]

Extra News for the 22nd Feb

Iceland Gull - Blithfield briefly (prob a 3w)
Red Kite - Wetwood, near Eccleshall
Scaup - 1w drake still Belvide also ad Med Gull (also Knot found dead on the dam)

 

[The Moore-hen]

News for the 23rd Feb

Firecrest - still Penn Common in Light Wood
Great Grey Shrike - still Upper Longdon
2w Iceland Gull - Belvide also 1w drake Scaup
2 Mealy Redpoll - Dimmingsdale with Lesser Redpolls
Jack Snipe - Cuckoo Bank

 

[Adam M]

My thoughts are that the GGS may now associate us with the possibility of flushing some prey for it.

Agreed. Sure I read an article somewhere about continental birds being more confiding (cue joke :t: ), as human population density is sparser in the EU than UK. This means they simply don't recognise us as a threat, so they don't mind getting a bit closer to us (cue a second joke :t: ). Maybe that is also a factor?

Although, I would lean towards the food theory.

Adam

 

[terryeyre]

mealy redpoll?

a couple of these pale coloured birds with some lesser redpolls near dimmingsdale.heres a couple of lesser redpolls to compare

 

[Steve Turner]

a couple of these pale coloured birds with some lesser redpolls near dimmingsdale

Hi Terry

The overall ground colour of the plumage lacks the buff tones of Lesser, and the wingbars look nice and white, plus there appears to be a whitish 'tyre track' down the centre of the mantle - all good features for Mealy.

However, the head and mantle sides perhaps don't appear to be quite that characteristic greyish-brown you get with a Mealy.

It's difficult to tell from a lone bird photo, but structurally they do appear to be quite chunky/bulky, which is another good Mealy feature - were they noticeably larger/chunkier than the accompanying Lessers?

On balance, without seeing them in the field, I'd say that they probably are Mealies - what do others think?

 

[The Moore-hen]

Hi Terry

The overall ground colour of the plumage lacks the buff tones of Lesser, and the wingbars look nice and white, plus there appears to be a whitish 'tyre track' down the centre of the mantle - all good features for Mealy.

However, the head and mantle sides perhaps don't appear to be quite that characteristic greyish-brown you get with a Mealy.

It's difficult to tell from a lone bird photo, but structurally they do appear to be quite chunky/bulky, which is another good Mealy feature - were they noticeably larger/chunkier than the accompanying Lessers?

On balance, without seeing them in the field, I'd say that they probably are Mealies - what do others think?

I'd have to say that's a pretty fair assessment - I'm only viewing the pics on my phone so it's not that easy but head does appear quite buff but wing bars and ground colour look spot on. I remember finding 2 Mealy's on Perton a few years back with a small group of Lessers that could be difficult when isolated and feeding in the trees but when feeding on the ground alongside Lessers the coldness and bulkier structure were obvious.

News for the 24th Feb

Firecrest - Penn Common still in Light Wood

 

[Adam M]

Hi Terry

The overall ground colour of the plumage lacks the buff tones of Lesser, and the wingbars look nice and white, plus there appears to be a whitish 'tyre track' down the centre of the mantle - all good features for Mealy.

However, the head and mantle sides perhaps don't appear to be quite that characteristic greyish-brown you get with a Mealy.

It's difficult to tell from a lone bird photo, but structurally they do appear to be quite chunky/bulky, which is another good Mealy feature - were they noticeably larger/chunkier than the accompanying Lessers?

On balance, without seeing them in the field, I'd say that they probably are Mealies - what do others think?

Agreed. Covering up the head on the screen says Mealy. Cover up the body and it looks closer to lesser (not at the same time, or else it's just a hand). I'd lean towards mealy though overall, be good to see them alongside lessers though.

Adam

 

[midlands birder]

Firecrest still at Penn this afternoon.
Determined to get a recognisable record shot
And now ive got one!

MB