Hi readers I'm back for another post, it has admirably been a while since I've posted I have been pretty busy with getting set up for uni but I will still try my best to keep posts coming up on the blog I haven't forgotten about the blog don't worry. This will be a shorter post there hasn't been to much time for twitching lately but a few visits to Sandwell Valley have been on the agenda over the past few weeks (sometimes I've been nursing a slight hangover). So last Sunday it was a pretty positive visit to Sandwell Valley with quite a few good birds seen throughout the visit. The best bird of the day went to a visiting Med Gull which turned up mid morning and then disappeared bellow you can see a record shot of the bird taken with my phone.
So as a whole that was the best bird seen. The two escapee Muscovy Ducks remain in the ramp still bringing in the odd question from visitors. A single Little Grebe remained around all morning showing pretty close to the hide. A good number of Cormorants were also around throughout the morning showing well. We had a passage of 10+ Swallows come through ,throughout the morning most likely birds flying off to Africa no doubt. A good passage of Jay also happened throughout the morning a fair few passed by. We also had a couple of flyby views of a Green Woodpecker also. In migrant news here are increasing numbers of Shoveler on the main lake as well as Teal and also three returning Wigeon were also on the main lake showing pretty well.
That's your lot in terms of birds for Sunday. I did attempt to experiment with a couple of time lapses using my phone something I've been enjoying doing at university a little more if they have uploaded onto the post correctly they should be on the blog to watch through if you are interested. Hopefully if they turned out good enough I will keep putting them up on the blog as I find gem really interesting to watch for some reason.
4/10/15-
Our Sunday began as usual at RSPB Sandwell Valley with a few little highlights the birding wasn't to bad especially seen as we were just sitting in the hide all morning. The first bird of the note was the eclipse or young male Pintail that was on the lake throughout the morning and into the early afternoon. The bird didn't show to well but stuck around and gave us something to keep an eye on. A few Snipe were showing well on the right hand raft to the left of the hide also. A single Great Spotted Woodpecker flew by mid morning and calls from a Green Woodpecker were heard a few times through the morning. Shoveler were in good numbers throughout the morning and were spread out across the lake and near the island, there was however no sign of any wigeon. A single Kingfisher also showed on the number 7 post for a short while before making its way up the main lake. A single Cettis Warbler had been heard by many visitors throughout the morning although not by myself. The bird had been around for a few days and seems to have been favoring the bank opposite the hide. And as ever was pretty elusive but pretty loud at the same time apparently.
During the afternoon we paid a quick visit to a field near Bartley Reservoir where my Dad had seen a couple of Stonechat the day before. Naturally we decided to have a look again and loan behold the birds were around. A stunning looking Male and female Stonechat were showing very well on top of the fences along the field, we watched the birds catch flies and had great views of them. I suspect they will be off on migration at some point soon and are feeding up, it was great to see the birds so well especially the cracking looking male bird. It is likely a couple of terrible record shots are bellow just to show the birds.
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| Stonechat |
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| Stonechat |
25/10/15-
Another Sunday dedicated to some birding as usual. We decided to mix things up a little this week by going up to the Malvern Hills to have a gander at what was around including a Snow Bunting which had been knocking around for a week or so now. So we arrived on location and began the very, very long walk across the hills. The Bunting was on the North Hill so we embarked on the walk to there. On the way there was big numbers of Meadow Pipits pretty much everywhere probably 50+ birds in total. On the walk Meadow Pipits were pretty much all we saw other than a few stunt planes along the way.
We arrived on the North Hill and I have to say it was one of the steepest hills Ive ever had to walk up, it was pretty much vertical. Two Raven were around throughout the walk up the hill and a single Kestrel was also showing well but its presence made us a little worried about seeing the buntings. We got to the top of the hill and noticed a couple of birders looking at something so obviously we were naturally interested. And loan behold there were two stunning looking Snow Buntings showing very well. We kept out distance but could have only been around 10ft away on the path. The birds flew and almost landed a foot away from me which game me a surprise. The birds showed well for about half an hour and then seemingly disappeared probably feeding deep in the grass somewhere but it was such a great bird to see I couldn't be happier to get one. On the walk back we managed to bag ourselves a Stonechat to add to the days tally. Bellow is the best record shot that I got of one of the buntings.
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| Record Shot of one of the two Snow Buntings |
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| Raven Flying by. |
Thanks for reading and bearing with me in the long gaps between posts, I will try my best to keep the blog updated as much as I can so keep a check on here and on Twitter for when new posts come out.
Thanks for reading and good birding- WB
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