Todays successful birding

Hi readers, today as usual was spent bird watching. And as I always say on these posts the first place we visited was RSPB Sandwell Valley, so I'm guessing the question in your heads is what did you see? Well to be honest today the valley was a quiet place with really only the regular birds being around. In total 8 Goosanders turned up, and we had quit good views of a Sparrow hawk which flew past the hide twice and straggly enough nothing was flushed when it arrived. At Kingfisher corner we managed to get the Ring necked Parakeets and good views of them to, there were around 3 or 4 birds in total so its good to see they are still around. There kind of becoming a local celebrity, everyone who's everyone knows about them, you could say there the reserves VIP guests that stay all the time (good joke?). Otherwise things were quiet and to quiet for my liking, me and Pete the Snipe spoke about Snipe numbers being lower in fact a Snipe count was done on the marsh this week and turned up an outstanding no birds which joking aside is very worrying and is something that needs to be monitored. There are usual at least twenty birds on the marsh alone and that's not counting the main island birds that are viewable from the hide. Anyway here's the main sightings from the morning,

RSPB Sandwell Valley- Black headed Gull 50+, Goosander x8, Sprawk x1, Buzzard x2, Tufted Duck 10+, Long Tailed Tit 5+, Goldfinch 5+, Snipe x4, Lesser Black backed Gull 5+, Canada Goose 10+, Gadwall 5+, Teal 5+, Crow 5+, Lapwing 10-20+, Coot 20+, Moorhen x1, Mute Swan x1 (Attila the Swan), Grey heron x1, Ring necked Parakeets 3-4x.

Work on the island commences in a couple of weeks so I believe the hide will be completely closed for the time the work takes place.  So when that happens these posts may be a little different for a couple of weeks.

Now moving on to the afternoon, we decided seen as a Great Northern Diver had turned up at Chasewater it would be a good option to go and see the bird. And see we did. Upon arrival it looked like bad news, we searched for the bird all over but there was no sign, then....... I got a split second view of something promising, the bird dived almost exactly as I got it in my scope so after waiting a while it re- surfaced and it was the Great Northern Diver our second one and second one at Chasewater too. We watched to bird for a while before progressing around the reservoir after that 10 or 15 minute view of the bird we didn't see it again so it may have either disappeared or hunkered down somewhere. After seeing the Diver we decided to go one step further, and attempt looking for rarer Gulls in the early roost. So we began having a look, at first it looked like bad news but then I caught sight of something good in my scope, pure black eyes, a heavy bill, and grey back, it was a probable adult Caspian Gull.

Unlike last week I am 99.9% sure of the bird we saw was Caspian Gull, the simple fact is I can ID adult birds quite well as I have seen one before and have done book and internet research into adult birds before hand its the juv birds I struggle with. So not a bad visit in all, a Great Northern Diver and Caspian at Chasewater both year ticks too, so a very successful afternoon. The view we got of the bird was for around 10 minutes because a speed boat decided to bolt past and flushed it after that we could get the bird again so I can only guess it joined the more bulkier groups of large Gulls. Here's all the main sightings this week,

Chasewater Reservoir- Great Northern Diver x1, Caspian Gull x1, Common Gull 5+, Lesser black backed Gull 100+, Herring Gull 50-100+, Cormorant x1, Great crested grebe 6+, Black headed Gull 200+.

So quite a successful days birding I would say, a couple of rarities in the bag and a whole lot of other nice birds. Next week the post will most likely be on Saturday as I have plans on Sunday and in the week I shall post a few pics from today if I get the chance. Also if you have tried to follow my Twitter (@WMBB1) I have made it private, if you follow as normal I will accept your follow as soon as possible, I tweet whenever I am posting so its the best place to keep up to date with my blog.

Thanks for reading and have a nice week all- WMBB