We are very lucky here in Warwick, to bird as a community. Each new sighting in the Warwick 100 area gets reported on our WhatsApp group, followed by a flurry of responses from other team members; celebrating both the individual finder and the team's success. This is usually then followed by a barage of jokes and mild insults - all part of knowing each other pretty well by now! When the opportunity arises to join the entire West Midlands area as a community for a day, we jump at the chance.
The West Midlands All Dayer, run by West Midlands Bird Club, is a fantastic, twice-yearly event that started as a bit of fun between friends in the 1980s. Now, a significant number of birding teams - from Shropshire to Warwickshire, Staffordshire to Herefordshire - race to find as many species of bird as possible in 24 hours. With such a geographical range, there is a huge diversity of sites inlvolved - from megasites like Middleton Lakes, Ladywalk and Belvide to small 'unbirdy' patches like ours. For us, it is not a 'race'...we know we can never compete with the wetlands, pools and migration paths of some of those birding hotspots. For us, it's a chance to get involved and feel part of something bigger, along with making the excitement of a day list come to life. When spotting a sparrow is a 'boom!' moment, it has to be a good day!
Our All Dayer started with my being woken at 4.20am by a blackbird. Number one ticked! I thought I might as well get out and about, so made my way on my bike to our local barn owl's haunt just before dawn. No luck with Barny this time, but I managed to notch up several regulars and had a list of 30 by 6.30am. A lesser whitethroat made me smile, as it was our 100th bird for the year (hitting our target one day earlier than last year). While I was taking a sound recording, a cuckoo called in the distance - a great record for Warwick, for the day and the year! Off to the golf course, adding a few more locals like great crested grebe and buzzard, then to the Saxon Mill fields to see if any migrants had dropped. Nothing doing, but I did get to see a wonderful young stag by the river.
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| Stag at the Saxon Mill fields |
At this point, the rest of the team started to stir, with Steve, David, Rick and Alec all contributing with bullfinch, goldcrest and sadly, a dead red kite reported (which we obviously didn't count).
I had some chores to do and a lunch date with my Mum (watching Charlie get his new hat) as the team hit the 50 mark. Top respect to a couple of the group, who braved the worst of the weather in the middle of the day, to pick up canada goose, treecreeper and raven.
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| Treecreeper - Alec Cuthbert |
Full of coronation chicken sandwiches, I went out again, choosing Hopyards and the sewage works. A huge flock of hirundines, including sand martin, and reed warbler on a local pool made it worth the trip, while records of willow warbler, nuthatch and sparrow hawk came in from elsewhere. Meeting up with Steve, we took a stroll around the racecourse to see if the ellusive whinchat was about. There was no sign of anything out of the ordinary, although the skylarks were showing well.
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| hoards of hirundines |
Even some of the ordinary everyday birds were notably absent today - grey wagtail, greylag goose, black-headed gull, kestrel or peregrine never made it to the list.
Eventually we all decided to call it a day with a total of 64 bird species. A brilliant result, with lots of conversation (including jokes and mild insults) on the WhatsApp, as well as keeping up with the #westmidsalldayer posts on Twitter. A HUGE thanks to Phil Andrews for coordinating the event, we are already looking forward to the September one!
Lizzy
Here is the list...
blackbird
blackcap
blue tit
bullfinch SV
buzzard
Canada goose SV
carrion crow
chaffinch
chiffchaff
coal tit
collared dove SV
coot AC
cuckoo
dunnock
ferel pigeon
gadwall AC
goldcrest RT
goldfinch
great crested grebe
great spotted woodpecker SV
great tit
green woodpecker
greenfinch
grey heron
herring gull
house martin
house sparrow
jackdaw
jay
kingfisher
lesser black-backed gull
lesser whitethroat
linnet
little egret AC
little grebe AC
long-tailed tit SV
magpie
mallard
meadow pipit DM
mistle thrush SV
moorhen
mute swan
nuthatch DM
pheasant
pied wagtail
raven AC
Reed bunting
Reed warbler
robin
rook
sand martin
sedge warbler
skylark
song thrush
sparrowhawk SV
starling
stock dove
swallow
swift SV
treecreeper AC
whitethroat
willow warbler DM
wood pigeon
wren
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