Yesterday's dip

Hello readers, sorry it's a little late but I was out last night and didn't have enough time to post. So yesterday we took a week away from the Valley and decided to go to some different areas. Originally we were going to go to Middleton Lakes but time was not on our side so we decided to travel a shorter distance and first went over to Gailey Reservoir. We hadn't been up their in a while so we thought it would be worth a little look. Really things were quite quiet while we were about the main bird of note was a Grey Wagtail other than that it was quite quiet round the res. Here's the sightings we got, 

Gailey Reservoir- Littlr Grebe 5+, Great crested Grebe 5+, Black headed Gull 20+, Coot 10+, Grey Wagtail x1, Chiffchaff (calling) x1, Pochard 2-3. 

So after Gailey we decided to make a little decision, with the Pectoral Sandpiper being around at Doxey all week we realised we could to miss out while it's there. Although we knew about the terrible conditions of the path leading the the birds location and the fact that we were extremely unprepared for that situation we still decided to give it a go anyway.

On arrival we passed a few birders who warned us we really would need Wellingtons but we had arrived now there's no going back! On arrival we realised how bad the path was, and I wouldn't say it was I walkable with willies but with a pair of thin trainers on I didn't think I would make it through. So lucklily we were able to get some sort of view from part way up the path and soon began to realise the bird wasn't around at the moment. 

So we decided to take another path that was a left turning just before the scrape, hoping there was another way to view the scrape, we were quite wrong and only had a view of a small fraction of the scrape. While looking around from this view we got resonable views of 2 Ruff, which was not a terrible sight. So on walking back towards the flooded path I noticed another way round, through what I can only describe as some marshy cow grasing meadows that are located just to the left of the flooded path, although they were still wet it was considerable better than the main path was. 

I have to say it was a little strange that no one walked over the grasing meadows like we did, not one person I hope we didn't break the law or something by doing it. Anyway we stayed for around half an hour or so and struck for time we had to retreat with no success in seeing the bird. 

What I found funny was that the bird had been around for about two weeks and the day we decided to go it decided to go to, oh well you can't always win in the birding world. And the visit to Dozey was a good one I haven't been there for two years, it was the place I saw my first Bitterm on the first of January 2011. Even though we didn't see the desired bird we had a few other species on the visit so here's the main sightings, 

Doxey Marshes- Ruff x2, Canada Goose 50+, Snipe 10+, Wigeon 5+, Shoveller x2, Reed Bunting x1, Kestrel x1, Buzzard 2-3x, Starling x1, Grey Heron x1, Lapwing 20+, Teal 5+.

So we didn't get the bird but not a horrific morning of birding really! we had a few little gems on a couple of site visits. Next week should depending on what's about should be a regular Sandwell Valley, and that place has been picking up lately first a fly through Spoonbill then a Bittern last week, maybe we shall see more birds like this at the Valley in future, fingers crossed eh. 

Thanks for reading enjoy the week all- WMBB