The Wondering Birder: Birding Recently.

Hi readers, here is a post over viewing the last couple of weeks.....

9/08/15- something pretty different turned up at Sandwell Valley on Sunday so I thought I would do a post on it. Yes we opened up the hide a little later than usual but were surprise when three waders were walking around with the Black headed Gulls in the form of three Ruff this was something a little different for the valley which I thought I would start the post on. The rest of the day was a little quiet as a whole although a single Common Sandpiper was around all morning a single Buzzard flew over and there were a few Pochard around. Bellow are a few pictures from two weeks before this date of a few attempts I made trying to photograph flying Hirundines.

Swallow in Flight.

House Martin in flight.

23/08/15- So another Sunday spent in the Sandwell Valley hide was on the table and this week a few interesting birds were around. For starters the three Ruff were still around! Yes and apparently if they stayed around until the the following Tuesday they would be the longest staying Ruff the reserve has ever had. The Ruff were residing all around the reserve and interestingly enough were not really sticking together and actually were some ding most of their time speared from each other. I was told two of the birds were females and the other was a male due to its slightly darker colour. Another interesting bird that was also near to breaking a record was in the form of a Little Egret the Egret was showing very well and very near to the hide another bird that if it stays around until Tuesday will break a record for the longest staying bird apparently. In addition to the Egret the Kingfisher seemed to be showing very well and appeared very close to the left of the hide but just about not long enough to get a shot of it. And finally a single Common Sandpiper was also around all morning.

Wintering ducks were also increasing in numbers with three Shoveler feeding to the left of the hide and a single Teal on the main island. An increase in Starling numbers was also clear with a small flock of the birds beginning to form. The same goes for Black headed Gulłs as an increasing number of the birds were turning up on the reserve again presumably returning from breeding grounds at Middleton and various other places. A single Oystercatcher resided on one of the rafts and three Common Terns also remained with the young birds still taking food from the parents which is odd seen as they are as big as their parents and could feed themselves by now.