A good days birding

Hi readers, me and Dad decided to do a little bit of twitching today, we first decided to go to Gailey in hope of twitching a Whinchat that was around for the last two days, it would be the first I had ever seen but sadly the bird didn't seem to be around, I checked bird news and it hadn't been seen all day so that didn't go to plan. Although while looking for the Whinchat we did get a couple of Yellow Wagtail and another couple of Red legged Partridge which were nice to see, otherwise everything looked quit quiet, here's our main sightings,

Gailey res- Yellow Wagtail x2, Red legged Partridge x2, Swallow 10+, Shoverla x2, Tufted Duck 20+, Great crested Grebe x1.

After looking around Gailey we decided to get to Clayhanger in hope of twitching a adult male Ring Ouzel that had been around for the last 3 days. A birder at Gailey told us that the bird had been seen this morning so we decided it was a good idea to try and get it. As we arrived we were met by another birder who told us the location of the Ouzel he also caused us to do something quite annoying and accidental, he told us to walk along some fields and keep to the left of the field and we should get good views of the bird, what we didn't realise is that the bird was literally feeding right next to the fence and we flushed it, I felt terrible about this until the Ring Ouzel returned back to the area it was when we flushed it, so we and other birders still got to see it again. Even when the bird appeared it was very secretive and was feeding amongst some bushes and would occasionally come into view. While standing in one spot looking at the Ring Ouzel we also saw Common Tern, Whitethroat, and Swift. These were all yearticks for me, here's our main sightings from Clayhanger today,

Clayhanger- Ring Ouzel x1, Swift x1, Common Tern x1, Whitethroat x1, Reed Bunting 5+, Shelduck x3, Greylag Goose x1. 

To end our birding day we decided to have a quick look around Essington Quarry Pool where 5 Wheatear had been seen yesterday. We decided to scan all the fields and had little luck, although we did get a small group of Linnet and a much larger flock of Chaffinch.  As we got further round the pool I noticed some birds moving around on the floor on the pathway we were walking on, I got my bins on them and realised they were Wheatear in total there were four birds 3 males and 1 female and the female was the first female Wheatear I had ever seen. We had to move forward on the path they were on so they flew into a field across the road but seemed fine in the field they flew into. Here's our main sightings from Essington,

Essington Quarry Pool- Wheatear x4, Linnet 5+, Chaffinch 10+, Blackcap x1, Chiffchaff x1, Tufted Duck 5+.

A small sightings list but some good birds in there. Without a doubt the Ring Ouzel was my favourite bird of the day, I haven't seen one for around 2 years or so, so it was nice to see the bird. I have to say overall the day has also been very productive with a lot of summer migrant yearticks that can be added to my list one of those being a early Swift around Clayhanger.

Anyway thank you for reading and have a good week all- WMBB