Honestly there was no rain!

Hi readers, you are reading a post at the end of a actually quite sunny and reasonable warm day of birding which you have to admit is somewhat surprising with the current weather problems across the country. It was nice to enjoy a day without water falling from the sky and just pure birding without the rain. We decided to have a look round our usual haunts this week and this began with the place we are obsessed with as usual Sandwell Valley. I'm very pleased to say that the female Oystercatcher (Stumpy) with one foot has arrived to join her mate, fingers crossed for a successful breeding year for them again. Plenty of Snipe were on the main island or rather islands, but throughout the morning decided to disperse presumable over to the marsh. Other than that the morning was quite quiet.

However not long before leaving all the gulls were flushed, so I began scanning for birds of prey in the sky and I did manage to get onto one that interested me, the bird flew over the trees at the back and then plummeted downwards and most interestingly folded its wings back while doing so, the bird was very silhouetted so it was impossible to identify, but I wouldn't mind saying it may have been a Peregrine seen as a few of them have been seen in the area recently it is easily possible. Anyway here's the main sightings from the hide today,

RSPB Sandwell Valley- Oystercatcher x2, Mute Swan x6, Poss Peregrine x1, Buzzard x1, Pochard 5+, Goosander 20+, Canada Goose 10+, Snipe 10+, Shoveler x2, Wigeon 5+, Tufted Duck 10+, Coot 20+, moorhen 5+, Goldfinch x2, Lapwing 10+, Black headed Gull 50+, Herring Gull (juv) x1, Lesser black backed Gull x2, Cormorant x1.

After hearing about some Barnacle Geese being around yesterday we decided to get over the Swan Pool to check if they were around there, sadly they were not but another quite interesting specimen was on the main pool in the form of a Continental Cormorant a known subspecies of the Cormorant, the bird was on the main pool swimming quite near to use, I shall place a photo bellow to show you the bird,

Continental Cormorant at Swan Pool.

You can see the bird has the features of a Continental Cormorant leading me to ID it as one, the white markings on the head stood out instantly, I was very interested to see the bird in the Valley area, its something that doesn't turn up to often so I enjoyed looking at it. 

After some dinner we decided to head over to Engine Lane, with no Ibis around we had a good look at a Grey, Pied and likely White Wagtail which were feeding in the paddocks, I'm not on where the Ibis is although it was seen at Chasewater last night I'm not to sure about tonight, and the bird was absent from Engine lane, the only other place I think it may be going during the day could be back at Goscote lane in the memorial garden, it may be worth a check during the week. Anyway with the quick check at Engine lane complete we decided to get over to Chasewater, hoping that tonight would be as successful as yesterday was judging by the news produced from the place. 

So we headed over to the reservoir and began scanning, Dad pointed out a Common Gull to me but when I looked at this bird it wasn't a Common Gull oh no, in fact it turned out to be a Kittiwake, and the first I have seen, I have been researching them for a while and got the ID perfect, the slender yellow bill, and grey mask like formation on the back side of the head, well that't the way I will be describing it anyway, there is a photo in a little while anyway. The bird was surprisingly close to us and seemed to stay separate from the rest of the gulls until later in the afternoon when it joined the black headed Gulls. 

We watched the bird for a while and moved onto the wooden balcony, and things only got better. The larger gulls were firstly quite close in, and we got a good look at them, after a while of watching them, a birder said to us he thought he had something interesting, after a few minutes I got onto it, and it turned out to be a stunning adult ICELAND GULL a real stunning example of the species that I enjoyed watching, the bird did appear to have a cut near its eye, probable caused by a scrap with another bird or something. Furthermore a Great Northern Diver turned up making this visit to Chasewater well worth it. Here's that picture of the Kittiwake for you to have a stare at, 

Kittiwake, Chasewater 

So a new bird on my life list and great views of a stunning adult Iceland Gull, not to mention the Diver as well, Chasewater, I love you, if I had a valentines card with me today I would have addressed it to Chasewater and threw it in the water, I was very chuffed with the evenings visit as you may just be able to tell. Again as usual the next post should be next week if not before, a visit to Sandwell is on the table as usual but the afternoon could be visits to anywhere, only time will tell. And if I am correct this post is number 200 so a great number 200 post in my opinion, so many great species in one day and all in one place, has allowed me to write about a lot this week. 

Thanks for reading and have a great week all- WMBB

Update on Post: Hi readers, I have been corrected on my ID on the Cormorant, I have been told that the bird in question is a Atlantic form of the species, which after looking over it myself via the internet also I am inclined to agree with, you see we all make the odd mistake and I have to admit I have very little experience with Cormorant sub species so thank you for the help on this one. It turns out this bird was a Carbo Cormorant emerging into full breeding plumage as described by a Bird Forum user. To me this is a good thing a mistake like this is something. I can learn from, I now have more experience with the species and I can take that into the field, mistakes are made, and this does not fase me one bit-WMBB