11th April

A little look at Venus Pool mid-afternoon produced the highlight of 3 adult Little Gulls hawking around the pool (there were large numbers moving through the rest of the Midlands today as well), they were there when I arrived and disappeared about 40 minutes later; other birds included 2 Common Sandpipers and a good 54 Stock Doves in the recently tilled top field.

Little Gulls

Common Sandpiper

Shoveler

Sand Martin along the river yesterday

Little Orme

There were a few birds cruising past the cliffs on the Little Orme in the sunshine, showing well.

The Cormorants were looking very smart in the sunshine

Great Black-backed Gull

Raven

Peregrine

Fulmar

8th April

A few hours birding at the Point of Ayre in the morning produced a few bits with the highlights coming as the big high tide flooded a small area of saltmarsh / reeds flushing a Short-eared Owl, a Jack Snipe and at least 4 Water Rails out of cover.   Other birds included a single Wheatear, 5 Little Egrets, good numbers of Stonechats and Skylarks in the dunes, a distinctive all-white, leucistic Herring Gull roosting within a huge Gull flock on the beach at Gronant Dunes (tried for a while to turn it into an Iceland Gull) and a slight trickle of Finches heading west along the coast including Linnets, Goldfinches, Siskins and Greenfinches along with a couple each of Swallow and Sand Martin.

                Drove on a bit further and walked up the Little Orme where there were no migrants but it was really good to see good numbers of seabirds back on the cliffs including Kittiwakes, Razorbills, Guillemots, Fulmars, Cormorants and Shags along with a pair of Peregrines, 4 Ravens and a pair of Chough.

 

Skylark

Stonechat

Jack Snipe

Water Rail

Wheatear

Leucistic Herring Gull

 

 

 

 

Long distance Wren!

Just had news through of a brilliant recovery of a Wren I ringed last autumn in Norway.   It was ringed at Lista on 9th September 2015 and was killed as it flew into a window in Le Bignon, Loire Atlantique on the French coast on 19th March 2016, a very impressive 1,338Km to the SW!

It wasn't this one but this was on the Norwegian coast

4th April

Spent a good long time at Grafham Water from first light where the highlights included a Sandwich Tern off the lagoons and my first singing Sedge Warbler of the year in the reeds around the lagoons where there were also 4 Avocets and singing Willow Warbler, 6+ Blackcaps and a few Cetti’s Warblers; other birds included 2 very smart looking male Bramblings, 5 Redshank, a few Swallows, 2 Grey Partridges and a Kingfisher.

Record shot of the Sandwich Tern - good numbers were moving through the Midlands at the time

A Redshank on the dam early morning

Early morning Muntjac

Coot

Goldeneye

2nd + 3rd April

My first few male Wheatears of the year were already singing and displaying on Titterstone Clee in the afternoon of the 2^nd.   A little walk along my small section of the River Teme in Leintwardine first thing on the 3^rd produced a few bits including a Kingfisher, a Dipper, c15 Sand Martins and pairs of Mandarin and Goosander before a look at Venus Pool produced my first House Martin of the year with 60+ Sand Martins and 10+ Swallows while 2 drake Goosanders were the only other slightly different thing from last time.

 

Sand Martins

Dipper

 

I don't often stoop to take pictures of Canada Geese but they were messing around in front of the hide at Venus Pool so I kind of had to!

Shelduck

 

 

Mistle Thrush

This smart Mistle Thrush was a surprise in the nets this morning.