Saturday 18/01/13-
Saturday was a brilliant birding day or more specifically evening. John Holian gave me a call at around half 2 or 3 offering a trip up to Chasewater for the evening, I promptly said yes and got myself over to Johns. We got over to Chasewater rarely easily and first had a glance over the Gulls nothing of note had turned up yet although there was a likely Herring x Glaucous hybrid amongst the larger Gulls which was Farley easy to spot, you could see it had no black tip to its bill along with darker primary's. Anyway we decided to move further up the path to near where the island was on the reservoir we hoped to see the Glossy Ibis as it flew into roost as it has been for the last few days.
We waited around for a while taking turns one of us looking at the birds flying into the res and the other scanning the Gulls. After a long while John got something flying over with a side on view, the bird quickly dropped down and we lost sight of it, John was certain it was the bird so we stayed around for a while, he had said it looked to far off to land on the island, instead it looked more likely that it had landed in the bushes or on the shore opposite us. So we looked along the other side and couldn't seem to pick up the bird. So we deiced to hold it a little longer we joined other birders who were right opposite the island in the search for the Ibis, and after 10 or 15 minutes our wait was over, the Glossy Ibis had arrived and offered great flight views as it tried to land, it was constantly mobbed by flocks of Gulls so it took a while to land but eventually did.
So with the Ibis in the bag we decided to make our way back to the car, on he way back however we heard news of the Glaucous Gull showing up, so decided it was worth a look. On arrival we joined a group of birders who quickly got us on the bird, it was a clear first winter Glaucous Gull not to far away from us either, we watched it for a while and moved off back to the car. What a successful evening ehh, here's the main sightings,
Chasewater Res (sat)- Glossy Ibis x1, Glaucous Gull x1, Glaucous x Herring Gull x1, Herring Gull 100s, Lesser black back gull 100s, Black headed Gull 1000s, Goosander 5+, Little Grebe x1.
Sunday (today)- So now moving into today which turned out to be a little less successful but a nice birding day none the less, we first decided to get over to our old haunt RSPB Sandwell Valley where we decided to spend a while in the hide. It turned out to be a quite quiet day overall, most of the Winter ducks were about as usual, and a few Snipe were on the island. Buzzards were flying around all morning making the most of the thermals I would imagine. We decided not to go for the Diver today seen as we were struck on time, so we stayed for the usual amount of time we had and quickly went over to Chasewater.
From the hide things were very quiet one of the main birds if note was a Stock Dove otherwise it was just the usual birds. The main island seems to be keeping the Lapwings around as well as the Snipe so maybe it was a success after all. I was surprised how quiet things were today, a few Reed buntings did make an appearance which was something nice to see. As I have said things were quiet but it was a lovely sunny morning for birding, I have no idea if the Water Rail was about because the sunlight was literally blinding. Anyway here's the main sightings from this morning,
RSPB Sandwell Valley- Goosander x20, Black Headed Gull 50+, Cormorant x1, Pochard 5+, Tufted Duck 10+, Teal 5+, Snipe 5+, Coot 10+, Moorhen 5+, Canada Goose 10+, Stock Dove x1, Lapwing 20+, Reed Bunting x1, Dunnock x1, Bullfinch 5+, Chaffinch x3, Buzzard x3.
So bit the worst of mornings overall I think, we couldn't seem to get any views of Willow Tit on the feeders we seemed a little strange but there's always the rest of the year to see one and that's a long time. The diver was around today but as I said we had less time than usual so had to rush off towards Chasewater for a quick look at the roost. We first pulled in at Engine Lane for a quick look at the Glossy Ibis, it turned out the bird wasn't around since around 1pm so we stayed for a little while and then moved over to Chasewater we didn't stay into the roost as long as usual but we did see a few Yellow legged Gulls, and mainly a Herring, Greater black backed, and of course Lesser black backed. Gull and not forgetting Black headed Gull. That was all we saw really, so at around 15:45 we moved off and decided to have one last look at Engine lane to see if the Ibis showed itself at Four o'clock for its fly over to Chasewater, again it didn't show up and I'm not to sure if it has rooster at the Reservoir tonight or not.
Anyway thats all the birding from this weekend folks, I have to say it's been a great weekends birding, I want to get over to see the Lesser Scaup at Tittesworth but with time being an issue this week we couldn't, who knows what could happen next week if it's still around. Anyway I hope you enjoyed the post and there should as usual be a post next weekend, also if I get the chance I may do apictures post in the week sometime.
Thanks for reading and have a good week all- WMBB
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