On Reflection

Lanceolated warbler, Shetland Isles - bird of the year, but not photo of the year!

31st December 2010

I think for me 2010 has been a great birding year. So many memorable moments that I've forgotten some of them already. Some great twitches: the American Bittern, Mamora's and Syke's Warblers. The most satisfying tick though, was Lanceolated warbler on Shetland. By no means the rarest bird of the year but a bird I'd never got near since dipping a bird in the dark at Rimac, Lincs. sometime in the last century.

The most disappointing 'dip' though was undoubtedly missing out on the Brown Flycatcher at Buckton, East Yorks.

Enjoyed a lot of local birding this year with one or two good 'finds'. The County year list kept me on my toes. I ended up with 182 species not including a couple of noteworthy sub species. This was a couple of species better than the previous best. I must thank all those who have fed me with information from all corners of the county.

STOP PRESS:

Six Waxwings have just landed in the garden again, reminding me of an unforgetable moment I'd forgotten when I woke to find 20 outside the bedroom window.

I was also lucky to have enjoyed a few very successful trips to some of the more far flung parts of the Western Palearctic region, saw some wonderful birds and met alot of really nice people.

So to Friends and Birders everywhere have a great New Year.

Big flocks

Waxwings, a small portion of the flock building up on Coventry road, Hinckley, Leics.

A Mistle Thrush desparately tries to resist the invading hoards of Waxwing.

Thursday 30th December 2010

Restricted to Garden birding for much of the day as I had to stay in for a delivery which didn't arrive till the afternoon. Did manage to get to Hinckley though to see the flock of Waxwings that is building up there. I counted 91 birds initially but there were considerably more than that by the time I left, maybe a couple of hundred. It was quite foggy and also raining so I sat in the car near the Rowans they were feeding on. When they came down it was chaos with a Mistle Thrush desperately trying to keep them away. The birds were also easily flushed by a steady stream of passers-by. At one point the birds were trying to grab berries virtually in flight and a hail of berries rained down on the car roof. I wouldn't mind but its had its annual wash already!

White fronted Geese near Kingsbury

White fronted Geese, part of a flock of 55 birds with Canada geese in fields along Bodymoor Heath Lane, Kingsbury, North Warks.

White fronted Geese

Pink footed Goose with Canadas

White fronted Geese

Tuesday 28th December 2010

A dull, damp, windless day but much milder than of late. My family had dispersed so in theory it was birding time again BUT there were still things needing to be done so as the fog closed in mid afternoon I was resigned to not doing any birding for another day. That was until Jan alerted me to the fact that my redundant mobile was ringing somewhere in the house. I located the phone but missed the call. When I realised it was none other than TP himself I was spurred into action. There were 55 White fronted geese with the Berwicks swans at Bodymoor Heath, Kingsbury. Did I have enough time before dusk? Well, we'd just have to see wouldnt we. Paul Hyde who found the White fronts, and Steves, Haynes and Cawthray were on site when I got there. Excellent, nice to see a flock of White fronted geese (184) like that in the County along with the Bewicks and a single Pink footed Goose. I'm indebted to Tom Perrins for taking the trouble to phone to check I'd picked up the original message which I hadn't. Cheers Tom I owe you one.

Merry Christmas and Thanks

Christmas Eve
After some last minute shopping for like 10 gallons of milk etc. I managed to get to Coton for a much needed White fronted Goose. By the time I got there there it was a beautiful day but unfortunately no sign of the goose. Did get to see the red head Smew though and great views of the Bittern so it was well worth the trip.

Anyway many thanks to all those who have shown interest in the blog and particularly to those 'followers' and others who have been so supportive with their positive comments over the year, and in conclusion:

'May I wish a Happy and Peaceful Christmas and a prosperous New year to you all' - Queens speech 2010

Woodcock in the Snow

Woodcock

Tell tale signs of Woodcock activity, this 3 hole pattern was repeated at regular intervals as the Woodcock probed the grass and leaf litter below the snow.

Thursday 23rd December 2010

Having checked out the Rowans in Grendon and found that instead of the 2 Waxwings there yesterday, there were now 21, I moved on to some woodland. I was delighted to find 3 Woodcock. The first one was flushed but the other 2 were watched for some time probing the snow out in the open. Quite a treat.

I'd picked up a pager message earlier in the day about a Mediterranean Gull at Long Lawford near Rugby. I still needed Med. for my County year list but after dithering had decided to stay local. When the message was repeated in the afternoon I decided I had to go for it although the light was starting to fade. I eventually got to Long Lawford and started to look for gulls, even when I found the right road there were few gulls and I feared I'd missed the boat. I then spotted Helen waving at me and JJ and I took up a vantage point where John had seen the gull throughout the day. It wasnt too long before the Mediterranean Gull (183) showed well, flying around with a couple of Black headed gulls at roof top height. It had been an eventful dead the only down side was finding a Tawny Owl dead on the road on the way to the Brewery.

4 Thrushes, 8 Swans, c20 Waxwings and Several thousand Wood Pigeon

Four species of Thrush in the garden early this morning although none of them stayed long and the Mistle Thrush was a fly over. Garden birds have been few and far between despite the harsh weather but there has been a small flock of Long tailed tits and a few Goldfinch today as well as the regular Coal tits and Chaffinches and common garden species. I haven't seen a Wren or a Greenfinch in the garden for months.

Fieldfare

Song Thrush

Swan flock, including 4 adult and 4 juvenile Bewick Swans off Bodymoor Heath lane, Kingsbury

Wednesday 22nd December 2010 later:

Managed to get out for a short but quite eventful couple of hours in the afternoon. On the way up the A5 to Kingsbury a few Waxwings flew over the dual carriageway at Atherstone and landing in trees next to the Industrial estate. Further on I popped in to Grendon to find 2 Waxwings on 'my' Rowans but they didnt stay long due to the attentions of a very hostile Mistle Thrush. Near the junction of the A5 and the M42 the vast expanse of white towards Birchmoor was punctuated with black dots. There must have been several thousand Wood pigeon on the ground.

Arrived at Bodymoor Heath lane to find Graham Mant and Dave Hutton viewing the flock of swans at the back of the field, one with scope and one with camera. The Bewick's were quite distant and out of range for my camera. Dave and I drove back to Mancetter but there was no sign of any Waxwings in the area they were reported yesterday. However, I had to drive up the A5 again later and again a flock of over 20 Waxwing flew over the A5 into the industrial estate.

Waxwings in Leicestershire

Waxwing, Burbage, Leics.

Waxwing

Song Thrush, the tongues of many birds contains 5 bones which accounts for the 'jointed' appearance shown here which allows the thrush to manipulate the berry.

Waxwing

Waxwing, showing off with two berries

Waxwing

Sunday 9th December 2010

Getting preoccupied with Waxwings I'm afraid. They seems to becoming as much a part of the British winter bird scene as a Robin perched on an old garden spade. The big advantage of Waxwings is they come to you or at least a Rowan tree near you. Which with the driving conditions we have across the country at the moment is no bad thing. So as my nearest Waxwing location was at Burbage, Leicestershire I decided to have another go having drawn a blank yesterday. Again no Waxwings but my disappointment was tempered by meeting up with localish birder Carl Baggott. No substitute for a tree full of Waxwings but nice to meet up with an old friend. Apparently a flock of 45 or so had been seen that morning but had been flushed by a Sparrowhawk and so were unlikely to return for some time. I went home to take Jan into town to find we had both forgotten a date for coffee with some friends. Oops and apologies. After our belated visit I went back to Burbage. This time there were Waxwings about I counted 23 although numbers fluctuated.