And water fell from the sky (constantly)

Hi readers, this weekend you may have noticed it rained a lot and constantly. Although the weather was horrible I still went birding on both Saturday and Sunday, some may call me crazy but I call it having extreme fun. Really the weekend has been relatively unsuccessful in seeing the birds we wanted to but the odd little gem came out of it. Any way I will now go on to write about Saturday and then Sunday seperately, 

Saturday- Saturday was spent birding in North Staffordshire at Tittesworth Reservoir, at about nine in the morning I was awoken to say John Holian had offered a trip out birding for the day and my only clue as to what we would be looking for was I hadn't seen it before. In all me John Holian, Sharon Holian, and Brian Marsh went up to hopefully see the Glossy Ibis that had been in staffs for the last week or so. On arrival we had a quick look from the causeway to see if the bird had turned up yet, we quickly found that it hadn't so decided to do a patrol of the fields in the area which gave us no luck. 

So we decided to go over to the car park that would give us a quite good view of the reservoir, we waited for an hour or so with no success, so again we had another unsuccessful scan if the surrounding fields, we had to have stayed int the area for four or five hours waiting for the bird but it was not to be and it didn't turn up, and hasn't been seen since. You can't always win, there was also a Brambling about in the bushes near the car park but I missed that bird to. Anyway here's some of the main birds that were about while we were around, 

Tittesworth Reservoir- Mallard 20+, Black headed Gull 20+, Cormorant 5+, Kestrel x1, Canada Goose 10+, Carrion Crow 5+, Chaffinch 10+, Great crested Grebe x1, Brambling x1 was seen by John and Brian. 

So Saturday was another dip day for this month, but as I say you can't always win, hopefully another Glossy Ibis shall turn up soon. However three Glossy Ibis (Shropshire, Staffordshire, and Northants) in the UK all disapeared yesterday, maybe they are not a fan of the British rain. 

Sunday- Now onto today's birding, the rain was considerable worse today but we still carried on, with no other volunteers about as such we had to open up the hide today which wasn't to much fun in the down pour. After opening the hide we got to the birding, a nice drake Goosander was about on the main lake, and a good 21 Cormorants were also around. There was a good number of Snipe feeding on the island but while we were around no real sign of the Jack Snipe that had been seen in the week. Later on in the morning a Water Rail decided to call but we couldn't get a view of the bird. 

There were plenty of Teal throughout the morning and in total 35 Lapwing when I counted. A good morning with the weather we had in my opinion. Soon the hide will be shit for a week or two due to the  work that is being carried out on the main island soon. Anyway here's the main sightings from the mornings visit,

RSPB Sandwell Valley- Water Rail x1 (called), Canada Goose 20+, Lapwing x35, Goosander x1, Pochard x1, Grey Wagtail x2, Cormorant x21, Black headed Gull 20+, Teal 10+, Snipe 3+, Tufted Duck 10+, Gadwall x2, Starling 5+, Crow x1, Goldfinch 5+, Coot 20+, Moorhen 5+, Great crested Grebe x3, Little Grebe x1, Grey Heron x1. 

So not the worst of mornings By all a counts, the valley has been picking up lately with a visiting Bittern turning up one day the other week. Maybe with the work being carried out on the island things will start picking up, fingers crossed. 

After the visit to the valley we decided to later continue our birding at Bartley Green Reservoir, this week we deicded to further explore the area as it was, and that got us a good views of a "Resident" Green Sandpiper that has been around for around 2 years on a moat like formation near the church. We also came across another birder who said he had flushed a Jack Snipe in one if the fields, we did have a look around but we could find the bird in the fields. I was expecting we may come across a couple of Scoters on the res seen as a few have been around over the last few days but no sign of any today. Here's the main sightings from the visit, 

Barltey Green Reservoir- Grey Heron x1, Great crested Grebe x2, Lesser black backed Gull x1, Black headed Gull x1, Green sandpiper x1, Mistle Thrush x2, Jack Snipe (flushed by other birder). 

Things seemed a little better around the Bartley Res area today. We were meanifn to catch up with the odd Redwing or Fieldfare today but didn't seem to get any. Anyway not a bad weekends birding really with the weather I wasn't expecting to do any. I may add some photos from various occasions in the week if I get the chance I shall tweet about it If I do. 

Thanks for reading and enjoy the week all- WMBB