19/07/15- Sunday began as a normal birding day as a whole. We began by visiting Sandwell Valley as usual to fill in my time as a hide guide for the morning. The new center I must say is looking great there's a new volunteers room with biscuits of course so I can't complain. It was very good to see the old center view restored that being the view of the marsh from the center it reminded me of the old center which had the same view and allowed me to look forward to the many years this center will hold the same view. After signing in it was down to the hide for the morning and already I was told up in the center of a couple of Black Tailed Godwits showing down on Forge Mill Lake so we headed straight down to have a look. The two birds were showing quite well and were in great plumage I must say. At one stage they landed right in front of the hide however quite a few people gave off some "oooooo's" and "ahhhhhh's" which sent them back into flight again before we could even look at them. They stuck around all morning though and mainly resided on the rocks to the left of the hide with the Lapwing. Quite recently the Lapwing have been staying on the marsh but have been scared off by a dragon, someone decided to place a wooden dragon sculpture on the marsh which has quite rightly scared everything off, I guess its something for the kids to look at but not so good for bringing birds into the often very quiet marsh. A single LRP was around all morning which looked like a younger bird which I think has been around all summer, a few Pochard were also still around and we also got a great flyby view of two Kingfishers early afternoon.
Other than that the morning was pretty quiet as a whole. So I signed out at the center and it was off to the afternoons birding. With a few good birds turning up here and there we decided to head over to Upton Warren for a few wading birds, most specifically we wanted to get the Whimberal in the bag. We arrived and there was no sign of it, however there was plenty of Green Sandpipers feeding around a single Ruff also in nice plumage and also a single Dunlin was showing well. And of course as usual there was a good number of Avocet all over the flashes, I think I must argue against the view that scare a lot of wading birds off it is common knowledge that they are hostile birds when it comes to looking after their young but to me there was a good number of different species on the flashes on Sunday so perhaps the birds are working to live together a little better. Plenty of Curlew were on the grass at the far side of the flashes but no sign of the Whimberal whether or not it was well hidden somewhere we shall never know.
20/07/15- Me and my friend James planned to go up to see the Red Footed Falcon up in Stoke on Monday in the hope that we would get the amazing views people had been getting throughout the couple of weeks the bird had been around. So we headed up there to see the bird, it would be the second Red Footed Falcon I have ever seen but the first in this plumage so I was still pretty excited to see the bird. We arrived after initially parking on the complete wrong side of the colliery at the right place and began to look at the bird actually pretty much instantly. Birders were already on it, initially it was showing pretty badly sitting up in an Ash Tree behind some leaves giving us just about good enough views. We waited around a little and had little luck in seeing he bird any better. We gained some info on the Black Redstarts location which was located in a car park just further up the road so we began the walk up to see if we could bag any good views of that bird while we waited for the Falcon to move around a little. And no luck again the Redstart wasn't actually there but a quick look down the road proved useful it appeared that the Falcon had moved up into the Horse Paddocks it was favoring most.
So we moved down to see what views the Falcon was giving, and quite frankly I was surprised at how close it was. The bird was sitting on some telephone wires giving us all a good look. So I was quite happily watching it sitting on the wires and taking a few pictures of it up there while I had the chance to. And then without me even realizing the Falcon landed just feet away in front of me. Initially I thought it had found something to eat down there which in actual fact it had but it was of course not from the field. Photographers wanting a picture actually brought Locusts with them to get the bird closer to them. Now come on as a photographer myself I at least have respect for the bird and know field craft when bird watching I much prefer to see the bird naturally because then there's a sense of achievement in seeing it. The way I see it the bird isn't a model that is there for a photographers use it is there to be seen and photographed in its natural form and not as if its at a falconry center. I even witnessed one man entering the field which got me a little mad no respect for field craft at all. Trouble was we were pretty outnumbered most people wanted to do it, I was taking pictures but I have my boundaries which I wouldn't cross to get a picture, like feeding it like a pet!
Anyway after the feeding stopped we managed to get quite good views of the bird on the wires for a very long time and I managed to get some shots and views of it that I was pretty happy with. I think the reason the Falcon is quite so friendly it because it it a younger bird so it has a lot of trust in us and has little experience to think otherwise. After a while the Falcon flew up to the Black Redstarts location so we moved up there and you'll never guess what turned up. Yes the Black Redstart was showing very well in the car park and was even view able on the same row of posts as a Red Footed Falcon was. The Black Redstart also showed very well and gave very close up views the best I have ever had of the species before. I have to say it was a very successful day to get such good views of two quite rare birds in the same area that isn't even a reserve, it just goes to show you never know what you might see in some places.
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| Red Footed Falcon |
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| Red Footed Falcon |
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| Red Footed Falcon |
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| Red Footed Falcon |
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| Red Footed Falcon |
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| Black Redstart |
Thanks for reading and good birding- WB
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