And the Gulling Truly Begins!

B2/11/14- Hi readers, as you will have gathered it's time for another post on my birding adventures in the Midlands. As you will have also gathered it includes a bit of gulling, something that is often considered seperate from birding in current times, because not all birders like it, but over the last couple of years I have grown to enjoy it and the thrill of searching through gulls always keeps me going.

However the gulling doesn't begin just yet, firstly we paid out usual visit to Sandwell Valley and spent the morning in the hide. This week things picked up a bit and plenty of birds turned up and the mor ing was full of action. Sandwell Valley isn't the sort of place that always produces mega rarities but for me that doesn't matter, I enjoy birding the site and in my opinion enjoyment is the main benefit to birding. So what was around you ask? My answer would be plenty of stuff. Firstly a clear rise in Wagtail numbers with 4 Pied Wagtails and a single Grey Wagtail were around the pied wags appeared to be younger birds so it may have been some sort of family group. Snipe numbers have risen also an absolute tone of them must be on the back of the island we caught a brief view of the entire group as they were flushed up and there had to have been 20+ birds around. 

While seeing this Snipe group going up I cast my eye on the area where they were coming from and something caught my eye in the reeds that created a good buzz in the hide a Water Rail! Something that can be harder to see from the hide because they simply don't come out of the reeds all the time. However an hour or so later another showed well further to the left of the reeds, and it's highly likely it was another bird there is certainly more than one in the reeds opposite the hide. A single and still stunning Kingfisher flew by on the main lake mid morning and a lovely Kestrel appeared a few times throughout the morning. The two Pintails are still around showing very well, the. Ale is looking stunning now in full plumage. Winter wildfowl are looking good plenty of Pochard, Goosander, Teal, wigeon and Pochard were out on the main lake.

Nice view from the hide.

One of many Snipe.

It was a nice morning in the hide but with the temperature clearly falling you may find us sitting in the hide with our Woolley hats and gloves on with a cup of tea in hand. But that hasn't quite hit yet so let's not think about it. So with a successful morning we went for a spot of lunch and then got back to it. With little around in the Midlands we sort of just decided to go for a look around Chasewater to check the roost out, it seemed to have been getting less coverage reccently but overall the roost action should be starting now. 

We arrived at Chasewater and began searching through the gulls for a while, and pretty quickly we got lucky a lovely looking CASPIAN GULL was sitting amognst the gulls showing very well and at a good enough distance to ID and keep looking at. The Gulls moved around a few times bt we kept up with the bird and it was still around even when we left late afternoon. Other than the Caspian Gull things were pretty quiet, the gulls were very distant closer to the far side of the reservoir which made a big majority of them difficult to look at, the Caspian was in a closer group which was getting bigger and bigger as a group during our visit. A few Greater Black Backed Gulls were dotted around along with a tone of Black Headed Gulls, Lesser Black Backed, and Herring Gulls. Also a nice looking Common Gull showed well. 

I have a feeling some sort of bird of prey flew through as light began to fade, the Lapwing and Gulls were all set of randomly specifically the gulls resting outside of the water in the far side, whether something did flush everything up I'm not sure but if something did it had to have been a bigger bird to flush the larger gulls up although we didn't catch anything I wouldn't say no to an owl flying through at some point. 

A good Sunday's birding overall, a rarer Gull in the bag and a good few species seen over at Sandwell Valley. Not to sure where we will end up next week it all depends on what turns up as usual, wherever we end up I shall be posting about it so keep an eye out for the next post. The birding is picking up with the winter birds around in good numbers now, so who knows what will turn up. Keep an eye out for the odd post during the week, I will be doing quick posts in various random subjects and articles found in the net. 

Thanks for reading enjoy the rest of the week all-WMBB