24th April

Another little walk down the River Teme at Leintwardine in the morning was fairly quiet but a singing Redstart and 2 Snipe were new for me there; other birds included 3 Mandarin and the pair of Little Ringed Plovers.   A walk then up to the top of hill overlooking Leintwardine in the sunny conditions produced at least 10 more Redstarts including many singing males and some good views of Red Kites, Buzzards and Ravens as they cruised along the escarpment.

                The sunny conditions continued but there was a very cold, brisk northerly wind making Titterstone Clee not feel very spring like however there were at least 6 Ring Ouzels along the approach road which appeared out of nowhere with a Peregrine inches behind one of them!

 

The Ring Ouzels were always pretty close but it was really tricky getting a clear view!

This Kite had just been buzzed by another but I was obviously too slow to capture that!

Raven

Buzzards - the bottom one is on the pale side but not really notable in the great variation that Buzzards show!

Worms!

 

21st April

Spent the morning at Grafham Water, it was nice and sunny with the highlight being great views of a Nightingale in Brambles around the edge of the lagoons; that was where most of the other action was as well with a great selection of summer migrants in full song including my first Grasshopper Warbler, Garden Warbler, Whitethroat and Reed Warbler of the year along with many Blackcaps, Lesser Whitethroats, Sedge Warblers, Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs and Cetti’s Warblers – it was just like summer!

                Other birds included the Red-necked Grebe again off the dam, an adult Little Gull which spent the entire morning on the lagoons, two latish Bramblings over by Dudney Creek – with the fine male even starting to give a bit of a sub-song, a Red Kite, 10 Common Terns on the reservoir, 6+ Yellow Wagtails and a single female Goldeneye still hanging on.

 

Red-necked Grebe

Little Gull

Common Terns

Yellow Wagtail

Shelduck

 

 

 

20th April

Visited Whixall Moss for the first time at lunchtime where the highlight was a cracking near adult Marsh Harrier which flew north at 12:15 (probably the first I’ve seen in Shropshire!); it was a glorious day with plenty of displaying Curlews, soaring Buzzards and singing Willow Warblers.   A walk along my little section of the River Teme at Leintwardine in the afternoon where there were pairs of Little Ringed Plovers (seen mating), Common Sandpipers and Mandarin.

Little Ringed Plover

Mandarin

Buzzard

17th April

Walked along the river again from Buildwas to Leighton and back in the afternoon where it was pretty similar to yesterday but there were 4 Little Ringed Plovers in the large, bare field at Buildwas – my first of the year, a Green Sandpiper, just a single male Redstart and a single drake Pintail following a group of Mallard around trying to blend in by harassing the female Mallards just like the others were doing!

                There was another male Redstart near my ringing site at Wyke in the morning while another Cormorant flew south over Wyke in the evening.

 

Little Ringed Plover

Mandarin

Kingfisher

Skylark

 

Iberian Chiffchaff

I finally got round to twitching the long staying IBERIAN CHIFFCHAFF in Telford, late morning today; as already mentioned it showed brilliantly well in the sunshine, singing its head off, I managed to get some half decent pictures that I would be happy to get of a normal Chiffchaff never mind the specific Phyllosc I was aiming for in a wood full of Willow Warblers and Common Chiffchaffs - the loud and distinctive song clearly helped though!

The Telford Iberian Chiffchaff

 

Below is an Iberian Chiffchaff that we caught on Gibraltar in Feb 2013, we were identifying them in the hand on a variety of features including a wing length of >66mm with a long looking primary projection, weakly but still emarginated on the 6th primary, legs intermediate in colour between Common Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler with pale yellow soles, broad and obvious supercillium, often meeting above the bill and there was also something in the colour of the lower mandible but I forget!

This, I remember was a very bright and obvious individual, immediately obvious even metres away when walking up to it in the net but we caught several others that were much more subdued in colour, especially the yellow on the edges of the primaries.   The Telford bird is not as bright as this individual and the supercillium is not as broad but in the good light today it did have a pretty yellow chest (almost forming a pectoral band).

 

16th April

After the heavy snow (!) had moved through I walked along the river from Buildwas to Leighton and back again where the highlight was probably my first 5 Redstarts of the year – four males (three of which were singing); other birds included 2 Dunlin, 5 Common Sandpipers, 3 Oystercatchers, 17 Goosanders, 6 Mandarin and a Kingfisher.   I then finally got round to twitching the singing IBERIAN CHIFFCHAFF near Granville CP in Telford, it showed fantastically well almost as soon as I got there, singing and feeding right in front of us down to a few metres, shaking its whole body as it finished the distinctive trill at the end of its song.

                A look at Venus Pool mid-afternoon just produced a smart male Yellow Wagtail, a female Redstart along the hedge round the top field and the pair of Wigeon still hanging on.

 

Redstart

Wheatear

Yellow Wagtail

 

Sand Martins

Common Sandpiper

Oystercatcher

 

12th April

Got slightly shafted by last night’s weather forecast as several hours of solid, heavy rain greeted me at Grafham Water from first light but I stuck around, it brightened up and I managed a very respectable 82 species through the next few hours!   Highlights on the reservoir included 2 adult Little Gulls and 3 Arctic Terns off the dam as soon as the rain cleared where there was also a stunning summer plumaged Red-necked Grebe, single Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Yellow Wagtail (my first of the year) and a flyover Curlew.

                Later on at the opposite end at Dudney Creek there were 2 more Little Gulls (an adult and a 2^nd winter), my first Common Tern of the year with presumably the same three Arctic Terns; there were plenty of birds around the woodlands with good numbers of singing Warblers including 3 Lesser Whitethroats (my first of the year), 9 Willow Warblers, a Sedge Warbler and lots of Cetti’s Warblers, Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs – with a couple seen with nesting material.  

The lagoons were fairly quiet with 4 Avocets and a Green Sandpiper the highlights while random birds included a Red Kite, 2 Sparrowhawks, at least 7 Green Woodpeckers scattered around, 5 lingering Goldeneye, a few Swallows, House Martins and Sand Martins, a Kingfisher and a Little Egret.

                            

Red Kite

Dunlin and Ringed Plover on the dam

Little Gulls

Blackcap

Grey Wagtail

Pied Wagtail