A bit of Staffordshire twitching

Hi readers, no Sandwell Valley today a bit of twitching was in order. A bird I have wanted to see for a while has been about at RSPB Middleton Lakes for the last week or so, and me and Dad decided we couldn't risk missing it. The bird in question is a Great White Egret which is a species that is slowly beginning to be seen in the UK more often, in fact I think there has been several seen in Staffordshire this year alone. But despite the rise in the number of visits from this species I still hadn't seen one and have wanted to for a while. The only trouble is most of them don't seem to stay to long in Staffordshire especially this year, but luckily enough this one has decided to stay for a while.

As we arrived we began asking around for the exact location of the bird and I have to say everyone was really friendly today. It was nice to chat to some of the birders who were about and exchange info on where the birds were. After finding out where the bird was seen we began walking down. But first we spotted something amazing a MACAW...... okay the birds owner was with him but I didn't expect to see a Macaw while walking down to do some birding.

As we got down to the main lakes things began to look bad, a birder told us that he hadn't seen the bird yet, but I had heard it was very elusive at times so despite things looking bad at the beginning we still continued on in hope of seeing the bird. I haven't been to the reserve in a few month so to me and Dad things looked different from previous visits.

We arrived at one of two viewing screens where we were told would be a good place to see the Egret, so we began walking along the causeway the bird was said to be seen near. I was checking the pool opposite where the bird has been seen when Dad said to me look there it is. I turned round and was presented with great views of my first Great White Egret. Throughout the morning the bird changed position and flew from pool to pool, before leaving we had good views of the bird again but even closer.

When the Egret went out of view we carried on further up the causeway after hearing about a female Wheatear being about, no one could find the bird so we didn't see it but I did get another year tick which I didn't expect. Again Dad said to me what species of waders are these, I looked up and a was presented with 6 Black tailed Godwits near some Canada Geese. The birds were looking very nice with their orange plumage still in tack, and another year tick I didn't expect to see.

We also saw a few Little Egrets (year tick) throughout the morning and a flying Kingfisher. I must say we had a good morning and early afternoon at Middleton I think we may return again at some point. I had a little chuckle to myself when we were alerted to a Bar Headed Goose sitting on an island. It was a first for me but it was obvious the bird was an escapee from a wildfowl collection but still something good to see for observational reasons. Here's our main sightings from the day,

RSPB Middleton Lakes- Great White Egret x1, Black Tailed Godwit x6, Bar headed Goose x1, Little Egret x4, Lapwing 5+, Greylag Goose 10+, Canada Goose 10+, Grey Heron 5+, Kingfisher x1.

I was hoping we would see a Marsh Harrier on our visit but there didn't seem to be any about. It was a good days birding and the great views offered by the Egret were just perfect. I'm now wondering how long the bird will stay around seen as its been there for a week or so already. We had also been told of a Lesser spotted Woodpecker hanging about but we didn't get any views of the bird.

Anyway a successful days twitching was had today. I want to remind any regular readers that I have set up a WMBB Twitter account, if you want to follow please go ahead, follow by following @WMBB1 on Twitter, the support would really help me out.

Not the best photo but here's the GWE.

There should be a post in the week sometime and there will be one on Friday most likely on a visit to the Valley.

Thanks for reading and have a good week all- WMBB