Not the longest of tails.

Hi readers, another installment of Sunday birding for you all to read through as usual. This week Sandwell Valley was not on the agenda however we did visit somewhere just near the valley Sutton Park. A place we hadn't been to in a long while and with a Long Tailed Duck appearing on Powell's pool we felt it was worth the look. So on we went to Powell's pool. On arrival we began scanning and quickly got onto the Duck near some orange buoys, at first it seemed a good distance away but it ended up right in front of us. In the form it was in it had a shorter tail hence the title used. Other than the duck there wasn't to much else on the pool other than Canada's and Coots. I managed to get some good shots of the Long tailed Duck seen as it came so close, stunning views of the bird and probably the best I have ever had of the species.

Long tailed Duck, Powell's Pool

Long tailed Duck, Powell's Pool

Long tailed Duck, Powell's Pool

So as you can see we got some great views of the bird. After seeing the duck we decided to have a quick look at Swan Pool, things were quiet round there, the odd Cormorant appeared as well as plenty of Canada's, and Mallard. As well as this there were plenty of Mistle Thrush around. And I was extremely excited when we found this bird, a real stunner, something no one really ever sees, it was the first I have seen this year. Yes I'm talking about a Wren, a bird that I have not been able to see until today, but there it was and as March begins I finally got one.

Anyway as the usual we continued our birding into the afternoon and take a guess where we ended up yes Chasewater, but before that we called in at the the Cannock Tip, yes a lovely strawberry smelling place to see if there were any gulls that were view able, there were a few but nothing of any interest from what I could see, Chasewater also turned out to be very quiet in terms of gulls tonight and in my opinion its down to the amount of daylight now, the gulls are coming in later now because it doesn't get dark as early, well that's my theory anyway.

The Great northern Diver did make an appearance by the pink ramp on the main lake, but as usual it disappeared later in the afternoon, as well as this there was around 10 Goldeneye around and a single female Goosander which seems to appear sometimes. Just before we left, we noticed a small sized Bird of prey literally attacking a Black headed Gull or at least fighting with it, my opinion is it was a Peregrine but like the bird at Sandwell Valley a few weeks ago it was silhouetted and impossible to fully identify, it did seem very acrobatic in the air and folded its wings in a few times when flying off characteristics the Peregrine has, but I guess we shall never know for sure what it was.

I've been using a mini tripod today after I broke my main tripod last week, when I say mini I mean mini, If it was on the floor I would have been lying down, but I made do and managed to get some birding done, on the plus side its very easy to carry. There should be a post next week as usual if not before.

Thanks for reading and have a good week all- WMBB