It rained, it rained a lot.

Hi readers, as you will have guessed today was spent birding, firstly at Sandwell Valley and then later into the day at Chasewater. So as I said the birding day began at RSPB Sandwell Valley, on opening the hide we had a little trouble opening a dodgy window which seems to be playing up recently but eventually we got it open and began the birding as usual. Today also gave me a chance to see the new island from the hide therefore allowing me to see what I will be looking at for many Sundays to come. I have to say you can see how it works on looking at it, all the channels are viewable even when they end meaning as birders we don't miss anything that goes into them. In my opinion Snipe numbers are still quite low with only four being viewable from the hide this morning, I also spotted the Water Rail behind the island in the reeds this week it offered great views. The resident Robin that pops up on the hide window looking for food also turned up today and I got a reasonable photo of it, I will however be working with this bird for better photographs in the future.

The hide Robin.

There were plenty of winter ducks around today including Goosander, Shoveler and of course Teal. Otherwise it was quite quiet round the Valley today which was really to be expected. Additional birds seen by visitors a Willow Tit and the Ring Necked Parakeets were seen. A nice surprise of a Green Woodpecker also flew over the main lake which is something we don't see everyday at the reserve, anyway here's the main sightings we had,

RSPB Sandwell Valley- Water Rail x1, Snipe x4, Tufted Duck 20+, Pochard 20+, Mute Swan x2, Canada Goose 5+, Goosander 5+, Cormorant x1, Grey Heron x2, Gadwall 10+, Lapwing 20+, Shoveler x3, Black headed Gull 30+, Lesser Black backed Gull x2, Teal 5+, Coot 10+, Moorhen 5+, Green Woodpecker x1,

So a quiet morning and I'm still taken by the lack of Widgeon on the reserve it is very strange, something has to be keeping them away. Anyway moving on now, we decided to have another crack at the gull roost at Chasewater and this time we were actually successful! On arrival it looked like a very dark cold and drizzly afternoon/ evening and I have to say it was if you count drizzle as freezing cold rain with strong winds blowing it into your face then yes it was drizzling a lot, don't think its over there's more to moan about. We decided to watch the roost on a different side of the reservoir today rather than on the dam. The weather progressively got worse as the evening went on and visibility through my scope became borderline impossible, we did however find that leather gloves help to clean the rain water from the lens so we did eventually get to do some birding.

With only a couple of other birders with us it looked as if everyone else had decided to hide in their homes today, luckily we had some good news, one other birder had spotted an Iceland Gull near an orange buoy marked 2, this was one of the species we had been searching for, for weeks and finally the moment had come for us to see it, although visibility was bad I got the lens clean enough to get a clear view of the bird and you could see it was an Iceland Gull and a nice looking one at that. We looked at the bird for five or ten minutes and then ran away to the car, I was totally drenched and freezing cold, I thought it was maybe not the coldest but at least the wettest evening spent at Chasewater, but I can't complain really because we saw the Iceland Gull. Here's the main sightings from the visit,

Chasewater Reservoir- Iceland Gull x1, Herring Gull 100+, Lesser Black backed Gull 100+, Coot 5+, Mallard 5+, Mute Swan 10+, Cormorant 10+, Black headed Gull 1000+.

So although there was a lack of variety from the res tonight the Iceland Gull was there and we saw it finally. And what's the moral of the todays story, always make sure you have a lens cloth or tissue to keep you scope clean. There should as usual be a post next weekend on Sunday and who knows where we shall go and what we shall see, only time will tell.

Thanks for reading and have a nice week- WMBB