Ye of little faith

Bittern - Whitacre Heath

Smew - Draycote

Cetti's warbler - Whitacre Heath N.R.

Monday 8th March 2010

Bits and pieces sort of weekend birding wise. Started at Draycote with 2 Great northern Divers and a drake Smew but no sign of the Red necked Grebe reported the previous day.

Sunday went to Whitacre Heath. Bittern and Cetti's warbler on the reserve but no sign of the Curlew from the bridge. Went home to watch THE MATCH. Well, I have a confession I gave up on my team. At half time the Villa were 2 nil down and playing like..... well it was poor. I deserted them and went out to look for LEOwls. I know I'm not a real supporter etc. I didnt get to know the result till this morning. Wem-bell-y, Wem-bell-y. What a team! In the end I didnt get to see Carew's hat trick or any Owls.

Today I did a walk from Burton Hastings to the Lime Kilns and back. One of the attractions of the walk was an area of rough ground with a ruined building. Although the area was only the size of a junior football pitch I'd had Stonechat there and flocks of finches. Today it was no more, ploughed over, homogenised, just part of a huge area of cultivation. At least the landowner had the decency to remove the Defra posters declaring the farm environmentally friendly or something like that. The last vestige of bio-diversity in a two square mile area had gone. I did find another little poster from an organisation called the Game conservancy. Amongst other things the poster declared that sprays were not used on the land to encourage insects. Wrong, the tell tale loops of tractor tracks suggested otherwise. Ok stepping down carefully from me soapbox, I did see a few birds. Still a good few Fieldfares about on the pasture land and a smaller number of Redwing. Also 1,000 Woodpigeon, a Cormorant, Mistle and Song Thrush, several Common Buzzards, mixed flock of Linnet and Chaffinch c30, 6 Common Snipe, 2 Grey Heron and c20 Golden Plover.