Sparrowhawks You are Dead to Me!

Hi readers, today's post is all about dipping and dipping in the worst possible way, but before I get to that bit we spent the the morning at Sandwell Valley where things were quiet, but it was a very nice morning as a whole, I like those mornings where there is a slow breeze in the air and where the sun is shining, and this morning was one of those lovely mornings. We went straight down to the hide to see what was about, the autumn returners are beginning to return properly now, around 4 or 5 Wigeon were about and for me even in eclipse plumage they are stunning ducks, they just have that shine about them I can't really explain it. Plenty of Teal were also about another nice duck. A single Med Gull appeared on the raft to the right of the hide, I'm pretty sure it was the bird that has been around for a while now but weirdly its bill was darker, it's likely it's been eating in the mud that has got on its bill and made it darker or something along those lines. A single Swallow also flew through late morning something we didn't really expect to see, in addition the Lapwings are still keeping up good numbers, a couple of Pochards were out on the lake and two Little Grebe were also by number 7 post. Other than that things were pretty quiet.

View from the hide

So we walked back to the car and decided to continue our birding further into the day, win a Temmincks Stint being at Upton Warren we decided to go for it and felt quite hopeful about seeing it. I don't want to come over all misticle but I did get a weird feeling about us actually seeing the bird on the way there, was someone trying to tell us something, or was I just really tired who knows? We arrived at the carpark and began going to the hide, once we arrived in the hide we were told by Hughie King that the Stint had been taken by a Sparrowhawk about an hour before we arrived! This is the point where the dip comes in by the way if you hadn't already noticed. Yes you have to stand back and say it was just nature taking its course but still it was a tadge annoying when we didn't get to see a good wader like Temmincks Stint. With the Stint down we stuck around and decided to see what else we could see. An Avocet was around feeding constantly, as well as a few Curlew, a Ringed Plover and a few Snipe. Not to long after we arrive a stunning Peregrine arrived with a kill and landed in a field , a second Peregrine arrived and landed next to it shortly after, what's more a croaking Raven was also around sitting in the old tree opposite the hide.

The view from the flashes. 

Lapwings flushed after one of the Peregrines flew through.

So although we missed the Stint we saw a few other nice birds so the visit wasn't to much of a dip overall. We moved over to the Moors Pools to see what was around over there. We got into the first hide filled with snapping photographers, it was funny to hear them snapping constantly, don't know why but it was, a Water Rail showed briefly poking its head out of the reeds, also a single Wigeon was showing well. We moved onto the next hide and first checked the lower section for more Water Rails to no evail, so we moved to the upper section. A Stock Dove flew through but there was admirably a load of them around the Flashes so nothing to surprising with that one. I had a flick through the gulls again to no evail all seemed to be Black headeds, plenty of Wigeon and Shovler were around also. Just before we left a surprising Little Egret flew in and then another one appeared after it had landed I reckon one was already around just well hidden. 

Our view of the Moors.

So that was that, we began walking back to the car, but we were stopped in our tracks with the piercingly loud call of a Cettis Warbler, the bird was extremely close to us, I mean a foot or two away from us, we had brief views of it just enough to see the bird properly, the call was extremely loud louder than I have ever heard one, but that may be because we were closer to it, I also noticed its call was slightly different at some points, it was calling more continually like other warblers but perhaps this was just something common I am not to sure the call continued most of the time in the same way as any Cettis but at some points it added a bit to the call, something very interesting to hear and learn, if anyone knows about this let me know in Twitter or in the comments.

Blurry shot of the Cettis Warbler.

That's it for this week, another post comes to an end, again as usual there should be a post next week as usual I reckon it will be a quieter one next week seen as we are not planning on going anywhere different but we shall see.

Thanks for reading and have a good week- WMBB