The Wondering Birder: The Weekends Birding

Hi all, this week I have a sum up of all of this weekends birding, I managed to get out in birth Saturday and Sunday and had a quite successful weekend, most of my time was spent at Sandwell Valley as I'm sure you will have expected from me, however a few other locations were also on the agenda. So I will go through Saturday and Sunday seperately to sum up the weekend as a whole.

Saturday 19th April- so with nothing to do I decided I would catch the bus down to Sandwell Valley, in the hope of getting a few more warblers on my year list along with other migrants that are commonly seen around the valley each year. I spent a few hours in the hide from about 11:30 till 13:30 and then moved onto walking around a bit more. Before I got down to the hide I had a look at the marsh from the marsh screen, with some likely Sedge Warblers calling I was egged on to stick around but I couldn't get onto any, a Kingfisher flew through the marsh and later flew over the main island from the hide.

So after looking down the marsh I made my way to the hide and stuck around for a few hours, it turned out there were a nice 2 Common Sandpipers on the main island showing very well as well as at least 3 Little Ringed Plovers. The morning was beginning to look quite good, plenty of House and Sand Martin were flying around ask well as a few Swallow, also a nice surprise year tick for myself was in the form of a Common Tern which flew through a couple of times throughout the time I spent in the hide. A Grey Wagtail made an appearance also, the drake Pochard was still around as well as 3 Goosander. I also managed to get 2 Willow Warbler which appeared to be carrying nest material on my walk around, I won't give away the full location but their behaviour looked promising.

The two Oystercatcher were as usual on the island and are still on the nest. After spending some time in the hide I decided to walk near the bank opposite the hide to see what warblers were around, I managed to get some decent views of my first Whitethroat of the year, which was calling continuously, I also managed to see a male Blackcap catching flies down Kingfisher Corner. So not a bad visit to Sandwell Valley, a few good yearticks and some nice Warblers and with the tern. It was nice to have a good look around the RSPB side of the reserve in a bit more detail something I don't do as often as I would like.

Easter Sunday (20th)- So on to today, firstly I would like to wish you all a Happy Easter and I hope you haven't been eating to many eggs (think of the calories people). I want you all to understand my obsession with Sandwell Valley, twice in one weekend and I am still thinking of going over again in the week, yes again! Anyway in all seriousness today there were actually quite a few nice birds around, mainly similar species to Saturday but with a few extras. A Little Grebe was in the reeds opposite the hide again (same on Saturday) and made appearances throughout the morning, we also got all the Hirundines that made appearances yesterday throughout the morning, What was good news was that a second Common Tern has appeared leading into the possibility of me trying to nest again this year, hopefully with the new more reinforced ramps they will be more successful this year. A Whitethroat made an apearance behind the hide late morning as well a single Common Sandpiper also flying in late morning,

A Jay was flying through all morning and a stunning Kingfisher flew by a few times throughout the morning. Two LRPs were also showing well all morning. Also a nice yeartick in the form of a Reed Warbler made an appearance early on in the morning low in the reeds something I had spent ages trying it see yesterday, which amounted to a lot of time spent staring at reeds to no avail, but today U was more successful. The Oystercatchers were again swapping between each over all morning. We also had Buzzard and Sparrowhawk. We also have a couple of Lapwing nesting on the island, and that is literally all the Lapwing we have there are hardly any at the moment.

So with the second visit to Sandwell Valley over we decided to head over to Walton Hill where a few Ring Ouzels have been seen all week, something we really wanted to see for the year. On arrival we saw rain and a fair bit of it, a driving bird watcher stopped us on our way to the oath and gave us directions to where he had seen a Male Ouzel just a little while ago, so following his directions we embarked on our quest to Walton Hill Farm, we arrived a a Horse Paddock field where a male Ouzel had been seen and began looking, quickly we got on to a male RING OUZEL which was showing well in what looked like a garden next to the horse paddock field, we got views for about five minutes until the bird flew off presumably to the field where the birds had been seen all week.

So running out of time we began to head back to the car, we also got nice views of a Meadow Pipit to another good yeartick. When we got down to the carpark we met a couple of birders and explained where the Ouzel was, we began talking about Artic Terns and they told us they had seen 10 Artic Terns at Edgbaston Reservoir, so running out of time fast we headed over there to see what we could see.

On arrival I could instantly see flying Terns, I decided to get out of the car to hVe a better look, I noticed at least 10 Terns in a group on the water, they flew around and you could see their longer tails and eventually when ey got close enough the fully red Bill, they were ARTIC TERNS around ten or so all together, something I had done a lot of reading on and ID work but never seen before so I was happy with the Terns and the good look we got of them.

So not a bad weekend over all good yeartick a and a lifer a success in my books, I may be visiting Sandwell Valley in the week a Grasshopper Warbler has been reported over Swan Pool, something. I have heard but never seen so well worth it for me, I will keep an eye on reports and hopefully it's still there when I decide to have a look over there, first however I need to find the exact details on where the bird has been hopefully some success, otherwise Cuckoo Bank will be a place to look at again when I actually find out where it is. As usual there should be a post next weekend if not before. Finally it was nice to see a return from Bob Bunn in the hide today he has had some time away for a while and made a return today, great to see you back Bob! Bellow are a few pictures from today,