Sat 6th April...........
Quiet, considering the weather, mind you it takes a couple of days of reasonable conditions for things to start
'catching up'.
Even so, a quick stroll down to Withymoor was noticeably different with Song Thrush, Robin, Dunnock, Chaffinch, Great and Blue Tit, Greenfinch and Wood Pigeon all singing and declaring territory No Blackbirds, they were too busy in groups of 3 and 4 'fighting' one another with various females looking on from their
'grassy knolls'.
What a difference a day makes walking back from Stourbridge at 9 o'clock it was positvely balmy. Bodes well for today.
Withymoor
LBBGull - none on the pool but 3's and 4's going over to.......somewhere.
BHGull - ca30
Tufted Duck - 5 males and 5 females
Grey Heron - 1 adult
PM 1330-1630
A 3-hour walk from Stourbridge Tip to the West Hagley Fields via St Peters Church then back over Stourbridge Golf Course (no Goshawk today) to MSPark and then........the Pub - nothing to celebrate more a drowning of sorrows and a quenching of thirst.
Buzzard x2 over Stourbridge Viaduct
West Hagley Fields
Buzzard x2
Skylark - a total of 33 feeding over a wide area of the newly made-up playing fields
Green Woodpecker - calling
Kestrel - female hunting
Dust Devil x 1 - quite a sight, looks like 'twister' season is upon us!
Despite plenty of habitat, i did'nt see anything of note on the freshly ploughed fields, i do expect to find something this week - if the rain allows.
Mary Stevens Park
BHGull - 25+
LBBGull - 1 ad
No Goosander
Tufted Duck 4 males 1 female
I did expect a singing
Phyllosc or two altho not the right time of day these do sing at different times particulary when migrating and sitting in a bit of Sun but it was not to be.
From time to time i pick one of my field note-books and thumb thru to a similiar period from years ago just to refresh my memory particularly with the run of current cr@p weather. Yesterday i pulled one off the shelf from
Mar/Apr 2005. Below is a summary of a week or so period.
25th Mar - Ismere area
Raven x2
Fieldfare 12+
Black Redstart female!, i remember this bird feeding in a puddle next to a dug heap (no Internet to report it for me in those days)
Chiffchaff 2 singing
26th Mar - Stewponey
Raven displaying
Chiffchaff
27th Mar - Wilden
Chiffchaff 6+
Waxwing 35+
Tree Sparrow 4+ (Ismere)
28th Mar - Clent
Buzzard x2
Raven party of 5
Chiffchaff 3+
Willow Warbler
Chiffchaff 10+
Blackcap 2 singing
29th Mar Kinver
Willow Warbler
Chiffchaff
Wheatear single female
So, the usual mix of residual Winter visitors and a good scattering of the early Spring migrants. No real change but this year
has been late.
In additon
THE bird of the year, for many, turned up...........locally!
Found on
1st April and reported, many thought a hoax. An adult male
Belted Kingfisher (
Megaceryle alycon, it even has the word
mega in its' name) was reported at
Shugborough Hall near Tixall in Stafffordshire.....MEGA or what? I had previously hitched to Ireland to see a long-staying bird in the 80's but it had decided to move aroud whilst i spent 3 days chasing my tail and i did not click with it unfortunately. When pictures of the bird were posted and it was the real deal i, along with my 'bro, turned up with several hundred other 'hopefuls'. It was all in vain the bird was
NOT relocated and seemed to vanish into thin air. The day was salvaged with Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and a pair of displaying Oystercatcher and superb views of swimming
Otter on the calm water of Tixall 'wide'.
The bird, amazingly, was relocated hundreds of miles away in Scotland and one of the first birders to confirm it's ID was the son of the finder in Staffs (read the account below).
http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=512
Below is the original image on a murky April 1st by
Roger Broadbent, some excellent field sketches by
Steph Thorpe and a link to the sighting.
Incidentally, 'alcyon' was the daughter of Aeolus - ruler of the winds, she threw herself into the sea and drowned and was re-incarnated as a bird. I suppose the Kingfishers rising out of the water fits the bill. Most people associate the phrase with a harking back to peaceful, enjoyable more settled periods. Birdwise the bird was a harbinger of Summer by the North American indians of the Great Plains, the species spends the Winter away and when it arrives back on the breeding grounds it is the times of plenty similiar to the returning Buffalo.
Gone on a bit but one link leads to another, it's about time for another
'Belter'
Laurie:t: