Cattle egret and more!

Some days are rubbish, some are a bit meh, some are quite pleasant.  And then, every once in a while, there's a day that smacks you right in the face with its awesomeness.  Today was one of those days.

Strolling to the Saxon Mill, we started our morning along a private stretch of river we are lucky to have access to.  Enjoying all the usuals as we walked, it wasn't long before we reached an open floodplain.  We had been on the lookout for marsh tit and treecreeper, which we still don't have on the Warwick 100 list this year, but hadn't had any joy.  

In the distance, on the other side of the river, we spotted a couple of egrets in the horse fields.  There have been up to four little egrets in these fields over the last few weeks and a great white egret was recorded there in December, so we weren't surprised, but they're always nice to see, and we went for a closer look.  

"That one's beak looks a bit yellow..."  "Nah, it can't be..."  "Hang on, let me take a pic..."  "I'm sending this to the 100 team for their thoughts..."

cattle egret (credit Alec Cuthbertson)

One of the many benefits of being part of the Warwick 100 is that we use each other for ID confirmation, asking questions without feeling stupid and we all celebrate our successes as a team.  Today was the perfect example of this.  Confirmed as our first ever cattle egret and our 73rd bird of the year, there were cheers all round and three of the team went straight to the area, viewing the bird from the other side of the horse field.

After watching for a while, Jack and I continued birding around the Saxon Mill, picking up a pair of peregrines perfectly perched on a pylon (!) for number 74, along with all the regular birds.  We took a look at Flash Gordon, not really hoping for anything, but surprisingly three smart shovellers took us to 75.  Sometimes the birding Gods just smile on you.

Symmetrical peregrines

Shovellers on Flash Gordon

On to Avon Wood.  This is a wonderful thirty-two acre site of privately owned young woodland, managed traditionally, and quite brilliantly.   It has been great to watch the area grow over the last few years and it is becoming quite the spot for wildlife.  I love to go at dawn to watch the barn owl hunt and there's been records of woodcock, water rail and otters too.  

Today there was an enormous finch flock moving from tree to tree, making a cacophony of noise.  The group was made up of siskin, goldfinch, linnet and over twenty lesser redpoll.  I've never seen so many at once, it was a feast for the eyes and the ears, and took the Warwick 100 team to number 76 for the year.  

Lesser redpoll

And to top it off, just as we were enjoying them, Jack heard a familiar flight call and looked up to see a yellowhammer flying over - number 77.

What an amazing morning we had.  With a call of red kite coming from another team member as we made our way home, the Warwick 100 ended the day on 78 for the year, 138 for all time and enormous smiles on our faces.

Lizzy

West Midlands All Dayer May '23

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.

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.  

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.

hoards of hirundines

skylark at the racecourse

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

Ring Ouzel Fabulousness

Sometimes the stars just align...

I was in a coffee shop a few days ago, when I spotted a friend I hadn't seen for over a year.  Popping over to her table, we had a lovely natter.  Then she commented that it was very odd - she had only thought of me this morning when a strange bird had turned up in her garden.  I asked her about the bird...

"It was the size of a blackbird, just like a blackbird really, but had a big white patch on its chest.  I had a look in the bird books and I think it's a ringed ouzlett." She said.

Of course, up my heart-rate went, but I tried to keep calm and consider that it could just be one of our local leucistic blackbirds. "I have a dodgy picture that I can send to you, I took it on my phone."  She continued.  Heart rate a little higher.  The picture arrived an hour later.  Heart rate through the roof!

taken by my friend with her phone

She gave me her address and I hastily checked the boundary of the 100 area to see if it was tickable for the Warwick 100 list.  Ack!  about 100 yards outside.  Frustrating not to be able to get it on our list, but still a great record for Warwickshire (only the fifth ever winter rouzel, apparently).

I couldn't get away from work/life for a couple of days but, yesterday, I received a message to say he was in the garden again.  Having broken up from school for a mere ten minutes, I hotfooted it to the address and hid, shivering, in my kind friend's garden for an hour.   I'd only ever seen one ring ouzel before; on a birding trip to Dungeness some years ago, with Jack.  That one was flighty and a long distance away.  But here this one was, right above me in a rowan tree, an absolute beauty of a bird. He'd eat for a couple of minutes, fly off and return almost exactly eight minutes later.  

Hmmmm, I thought.  I wonder which direction he's flying in... 

A bit of following the flight path and peering down the road and my mood lifted even more - he was flying straight into the Warwick 100 area as part of his circuit!  Bird number 112 for the year and an amazing, if chilly hour spent.

Thanks so much to my non-birding friend for taking an interest and telling me about the 'strange' bird.  She doesn't want her address given out, so apologies to people who I know would want to have seen him.  But it just shows that some brilliant birds can turn up in the most unlikely of places!

  

taken by Lizzy

West Midlands All Dayer

Having been birding for some years now, I've learned that it can be a bit of an isolated hobby at times.  

For many birders (myself included) this is usually no bad thing, as we are a strange bunch - perhaps not as social as some, generally happy in our own company and pretty understanding of the fact that our passion is really rather boring to most.  But everyone needs some sort of social interaction and to feel part of a group/pack/clan at times.  The Warwick 100 team provides this for me on a local level.  While I still mostly bird alone, I know the team is there, only a WhatsApp message away.  Other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter allow me to keep in touch with birding friends across Warwickshire, the West Midlands and the whole of the UK - giving me a wider sense of belonging.  

The West Midlands All Dayer is a twice-yearly event, organised by the brilliant Phil Andrews, where some 27 birding sites across the region come together to record all birds seen in one day.  It is a competition, with the big guns like Branston GPs, Belvide and Ladywalk recording numbers that we in Warwick can only dream of.   But taking part is lots of fun and it's great to have a day where even a blackbird or robin can be exciting!

I set my alarm for 5am on Saturday, hoping to get barn and little owl before sunrise.  Nothing doing, sadly, but there were lots of the usuals, with the beautiful skies over the golf course making the early start worthwhile.

Once the sun had risen and I'd collected as many new entries as I could around the golf course, I went to photograph the starlings on the wires before moving to the Saxon Mill fields.  Suddenly, a noise I hadn't heard since my last trip to Bardsey Island came out of nowhere.  I knew immediately what I thought it was so, starlings forgotten, I started to look up and around.  There it was, in the distance, but definitely heading toward me.  I grabbed the camera to get the record shot, then straight to the binoculars to enjoy my first ever whimbrel on the patch.  My day was made before 7am!

Onwards to the Saxon Mill and a stroll up to the sheep fields to see if I could bag wheatear or yellow wagtail.  More of the usuals added to the list, I arrived at the fields to find several marquees and a crowd of villagers setting up a horticultural show.  Ah well, never mind!  A very late swift was a surprise overhead as I walked back to the river.

At this stage, others in the Warwick 100 were starting to contribute from their respective patches - bullfinch, peregrine, collared dove, jay, blackcap and greenfinch all added to the list from various members of the team.  

I stopped for lunch (and to watch a very entertaining Everton v Liverpool match) while sparrowhawk and grey wagtail joined our growing list.  

Back out late afternoon, with just a couple more birds added along the river, including gadwall and Cetti's, there were still some major omissions; no sign of Canada or Greylag goose (and no chance whatsoever of a Tundra Bean!) Ravens are usually a daily sight over my house, but not today, and others like treecreeper and mistle thrush were staying firmly hidden.  As I started to flag and think about going home, a message came out over the WhatsApp from Chris...whinchat on the racecourse...

This I had to see for myself - I hadn't seen one for years.  I hotfooted over to the racecourse to see this little beauty and have a natter with Chris, who pointed it out to me.  Another super bird on the list for the day and I think a great one to finish on. 

It was so nice to have been involved in the event, with the Warwick 100 now having a total (59) we can try to beat at the next All Dayer.  We are also very pleased to be the only site to record whimbrel in the region - Warwick ain't so bad after all!

Well done to all the sites that took part and a huge thank you to Phil for keeping all the records.

See you in Spring!

Lizzy