Could the day be any better!

Hi all, today was a little different than usual, we spent the day birding in Warickshire doing a bit of twitching and I have to say it really paid off today. We first went for the Morton Bagot area which is somewhere we have never been, we got the location and began the journey. At first the day looked quite nice, and part way through the journey had to be one of the biggest storms I have seen in a while, it consisted of Rain, Hail, and a little bit of Snow at times, it absolutely poored down, however luckily the day suddenly became sunny again when we arrived on location.

After passing a birder he directed us on exactly where to go and we began our walk to the pool where the bird in question had been for the last week or so. On arrival we got the bird more or less straight away a Green Winged Teal, and was with the other Teal most of the time, it showed well throughout the morning along with a few other year ticks in the form of Linnet, and Little Ringed plover. It was nice to meet Richard the Morton Bagot Birder while watching the bird, I advise you to check out his blog if you are thinking of going to see the bird. Here's the main sightings from Morton Bagot, 

Morton Bagot- Green Winged Teal x1, Teal 10+, Green Sandpiper 3+, Little Ringed Plover x3, Lapwing x2, Skylark x2, Linnet 30+, Sparrowhawk x1. 

With the success of the Teal we moved on towards a Private Site where a Firecrest had been residing. we decided to find out for ourselves if the bird was still around and went over to the location where the bird had been, we bumped into a birder on arrival and he told us the bird was there which came as a surprise to us, so we headed into the woods where the bird apparently was and began scanning the trees. I have to be honest here I had never heard the Firecrest call before and hadn't researched it before hand to know what the call was, we weren't planning on going to see the bird. 

Lucklily enough a birder by the name of Matthew Lissimore helped us out on finding the bird, we noticed an interesting call before we began talking to Matthew which did turn out to be the bird, that birders instinct eh! We could hear the bird calling regularly and eventually picked it up higher up in the trees, it moved round quickly and we just about got enough views to ID it correctly. Never the Less it was a Firecrest and a stunning one at that, Matthew showed us some of his photos of the bird and I have to say they were some awesome shots of the bird. The bird did return a little later on and gave only quick views but the call was very loud and very close too. 

I have noticed a lot of mixed feelings about the Firecrest from birders mainly, these feelings mainly regard Luring, this is an issue that has always been around and as a birder and a photographer myself I do disagree with Luring overall, it disturbs the bird and that's something we do not want to do, it's a stunning bird and yes it's always nice to get a photo of it looking its best but, in my opinion it's better to do that naturally, let the bird show off its colours it's self of its own accord, I can completely understand why people use luring as a way of getting the bird to show off its crest but I don't agree with it, I'm guessing the lack of reports regarding the bird is because of this issue, the more people that lure the bird in the more disturbed it will get and the more likely it will leave and that's something we do not want. 

A stunning bird like a Firecrest is something we want to keep around, and by luring it, it may become less likely for it to stick around, thats my opinion on the matter, as a photographer I am happy to get any shots of a bird like a Firecrest with or without its crest up, it doesn't matter to me. 

We did go over to Bartley Reservoir to look for Sand Martin but no sign of any, only a Great crested Grebe and a few Lesser Black backed and Herring Gulls were around. 

Not very many photos today, in fact none of any good, the Firecrest was miles to quick for me at my skill level and the Teal was miles away, overall a great day two lifers and a good few Year ticks to so a successful double twitch this weekend. Next week the post will probably be on Saturday instead so look out for that one, no idea where we will be going but Sandwell Valley will most Likely be somewhere we end up going to.

I have a challenge for you all, spot the Green Winged Teal,

Where is it, you tell me!

First person to spot it gets the satisfaction of spotting it, well on a photograph at least.

Thanks for reading and have a good week all- WMBB