I am still quite active locally birding it’s just that I don’t actually see much worth reporting and I do not post on social media. There are half a dozen of us in a WhatsApp group but even there I do not pass on detailed information on breeding birds and particularly during the breeding season. Information such as that is just shared with one friend whose car we use when needed. My own birding that I class as ‘local’ is within 5 miles of the house and for that I use a range of bicycles depending on season. With regard to passage or wintering birds I am more than happy to give information to people in the group to put on social media. Again I am circumspect if there is likely to be a disturbance factor.
For me the welfare of the bird is paramount no matter what season.
It always amuses me when you see an incident involving bird photographers and disturbance. There is usually the Code for birders/Togs attached. Most of this is waffle. Common sense and respect for the animals and plants is all that is required and not a table of dont’s for the selfish and hard of thinking. The welfare of the bird comes first that’s all people need to know…..
There are far too many parasitic photographers that lack the discipline, fieldcraft and patience required and due to social media feel they have a right to the information that is gained through hard work, old skool birding and faithful patch-working. I do not intend to fuel their requirements.
Since my return from Georgia late-September it has without doubt been the most miserable period and worst Winter birding conditions that I can remember…..bar none! Everywhere I go has remained in a Somme-like condition for months with hardly any Sun and little gentle breeze to remove the saturation. Roll on Spring. I am looking forward to nearly a week in Malaga from next Tuesday. I have a coupla visits to the reserve at Rio Guadalhorce - I picked up a Lesser Crested Tern last February. May sees a 2 week trip flying from Brum to Tirana for 4 days of birding on the Albanian coast before an overnight ferry to Bari and onward to Naples and Pizza. We fly back from Pisa. Ryanair now fly direct from BHX to both Seville and Tirana for those interested.
September will either be Burgas for finding my own stuff using the Western Black Sea flyway or…..back to Batumi. What’s not to like? November has potentially Oman pencilled in if my mate can allocate funds or it’s December in Maroc with The Bride for a coupla weeks probably as far South as Zagora in the Draa Valley and a week around coastal Essouria. Fingers crossed a lot can happen in a year e.g. no planned return trip to Eilat for a month April/May
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Locally it’s a time for both Winter Gulls and checking out Raven, Goshawk, Peregrine, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Red Kite potential. We have 3 more new nesting sites for Raven between Stourbridge and Kidderminster. The Merry Hill Ravens are back for a 4th consecutive year with the male feeding the female who is on the nest mid-Feb. They have reared a total of 9 young to fledging thus far. A 2nd pair of Gos displaying and calling on suitable days has been located. These are local birds and not the Wyre Forest diaspora of which these year on year now breed in woodland not contiguous with the core breeders. Lesser Pecker has drawn a blank so far with not a single calling bird - I am not interested in the well-known Kinver pair that have been photographed to death. As for Red Kite we now have nearly 4.5k breeding pairs. So many that we are now exporting first clutch eggs back to Spain from whence some of our reintroduced birds originated - how times change / coals to Newcastle. Despite that I know of none breeding locally and if you do keep it to yourself. We have 3 pairs within 5 miles of Bewdley. A pair of locally breeding Peregrine still elude me despite photographing mating birds in Brierley Hill 3 years ago. There are plenty of suitable low-rise tower blocks will ample Pigeons on the menu so it’s just a matter of time I suppose. I don’t count the breeding pair at Halesowen as they are now too high profile. I do check but it is from afar and not like some of the idiots standing below. The pair have even generated heat in a local WhatsApp group - the same group that convicted ‘bird botherer’ Lindgaard unsuccessfully tried to join. He is a reformed character but you past never goes away mate…..
Attached are 2 pictures from Saturday. One of the male MH Raven calling and the other of a rather smart ‘Continental-type’ sinensis Cormorant on Netherton Razzer. In addition is a local Waxwing 1 of a dozen sitting in a Birch by Lidl in Brettell Lane. I haven’t chased any as I would rather happen across my own and so thus far I have only had a couple of overflying, calling, birds at Aldi, Stourbridge - maybe they are associated with supermarkets and not Rowan? Lastly is a photo of one of the Bewdley Red Kites from last year on the nest taken from a public right of way. This bird fledged 3 chicks…..
Good birding -
Laurie -
