Damn that's early!

Hi readers, another post has begun, and as usual it's a round up post on last weekends birding, again it was initially meant to be a quiet one but we ended up having a lot of success throughout the day. The Sunday began as usual with the birding beginning at Sandwell Valley some would say we literally live there and I would quite disagree with them either. We arrived to a wet morning although it wasn't cold so things weren't to bad down the hide, throughout the morning the Lapwing were very flighty which by all means was great to see they were acting very territorial towards other birds on the main island so looks like a few of them are about ready to set up nest already, or am I being very enthusiastic about things? Most probably. Pretty early on through the morning a little surprise arrived in the form of a Little Ringed Plover now this is very early to see from what I read online it was 10 days earlier than last years and then what made it even better was that according to Birdguides it was one of two reported in the UK at the time so you can't complain about that!

It says it right there. ;)

     

So that was our star return for the day as a whole. Plenty of Snipe were around throughout the morning and very flighty indeed and although we didn't see it I know a Jack was seen in the afternoon. The Oystercatcher pair are also back and seeming very sleepy on the island most o the time. A single Kingfisher also flew by very briefly. Two Great Crested Grebes were showing very well and also regularly displaying in and off. Still 10 Wigeon remain along with a few Teal and Goosander. The Pintail was also still on the marsh I am wondering how long this bird will stick around for it's been months now and it's great to see it every week lets hope it becomes a sort of permanent bird in the valley if that is it hasn't already. I heard of a Stonechat also seen in the afternoon and missed by us, something I haven't seen in a while but we can move onto that species a little more next. 

Record shot of the returning LRP ;/

The Swan known locally as Attila. 

Great Crested Grebe.

Great Crested Grebe. 

Canada Goose (They always make a good shot) ;)

(The same goes for Coot to) ;)

So the rain got worse as usual in a Sunday lately, what was funny was we agreed if the weather was better in Saturday we would go out then but we totally forgot and missed out on a stunning Saturday's birding and got rain instead but it's okay because we had an umbrella which I needed because my coat doesn't have a hood (yes I know). We traveled down to Lutley for a very brief look around in the rain in case a Stonechat (of which 11 had been seen there yesterday) decided to brave the rain and pop out for a view which of course it didn't. However on looking through the fields we had flocks of Linnet and really good numbers of Skylark showing very well, we also had a couple of Mistle Thrush and a couple of Buzzard. 

Close Up Skylark. 

Horse. ;D

The rain had died down but we were struck for time so where to next I hear you ask? Bartley Reservoir of course. We arrived at the reservoir seeing little gulls but I decided to scan them anyway and guess what happened to be with them? A stunning adult Iceland Gull showing very well, I quickly got out of the car to get the bellow shot using my phone through my scope, while doing this the bird flew out of the reservoir giving me just enough time to get the picture of it just for record purposes. It was a great surprise to see this bird I don't think there has been one at Bartley for a few weeks but correct me if I am wrong, it was in great plumage and showed very well for half an hour or so before it flew out at 15:45pm. 

So there you go then the end of a very good day overall, the Iceland was a surprise but it made the day for sure, the LRP also being one of very few in the country turning up at Sandwell was also very good to see so as a whole a very good day considering we went to all the usual places we get to of a weekend. Hope you enjoyed the previous post too it was great to see the Red Kite so randomly in Wolverhampton that was a star bird to see. There should be another post soon depending on the birding had and if I get chance to do any over the next week. I also want to thank everyone for the support on Twitter I reccently reach 200 followers it's great to see people finding and interest in my posting so thanks to everyone that is keeping up with the posts it really does mean a lot. 

Thanks for reading and good birding to all- WB