Eye To The Telescope

The Bitter Harvest Of A Dying Bloom

2010-10-03T22:26:00.002+01:00

This is without a doubt the hardest blog entry I've ever had to write, and that is because it's my last.

I've been blogging now since March 2007, and when it comes time to put fingertips to keyboard I do sometimes struggle for inspiration.

Sometimes I pore over the lyrics to some of my favourite songs. Other times I'll delve into obscure poetry. Heck, you'll even recall that I had to dig some Jack Kerouac recently to get the old grey matter flowing, and I'm not sure I've completely got over the experience.

Yep, it's hard work - partly because in recent times I've looked to produce something a bit leftfield, atypical from the stuff you normally see on these kind of sites. And when I've managed to achieve that, it has been very rewarding. The comments and feedback I've had over the last three or so years, positive and negative, have been much appreciated.

If I've made you laugh, cry, sympathise, get angry, or get out there birding, butterflying or mothing, then I suppose I have achieved my goal. If I have failed to provoke a reaction of any sort, then I have indeed bogged it up good and proper.

Musical genius and legendary berserker Mike Oldfield once said that he likes to shed his skin every few years, and I have a tendency to do the same. I'm not hanging up the binoculars or mothballing the moth trap just yet, and I fully expect to continue enjoying the outdoors and wildlife for many a good year to come, but I definitely think that Eye To The Telescope has reached a natural conclusion and it is time to lay it to rest.

I had planned to continue until the end of the year, but why prolong the inevitable? For the sake of my own sanity, I think now is the right time to call it a day.

I recently saw an amazing, young musician at the Glee Club in Birmingham. His name is Ben Howard. I'd never heard of him before, but as soon as he started playing his guitar and singing, I knew I was in the presence of genius.

I leave you with some of his lyrics, taken from the song These Waters. Being the sentimental old fool that I am, I like to associate music with events from my life, and I think this tune will be a fitting reminder to me of the many happy hours I have spent writing about my time in the field. A massive thank you to everyone who has dropped in and shared my experiences over the past few years. Until we meet again, happy birding.

These Waters - Ben Howard

And through it all,
I stood and stumbled, waded through my thoughts and heart
Yeah through it all,
I fooled and fumbled, lost to the poet's frown.
I fought the wolves of patience just to let it lie down

And what we found
Down these coves of limestone and cockle shells,
What we found
Down these roads that wander as lost as the heart,
Is a chance to breathe again, a chance for a fresh start

The Butterfly Effect - August 2010

2010-08-22T13:08:00.004+01:00

For those of you who found last month's Kerouac-inspired blog entry a tad bizarre, you'll be pleased to here that my promise to base August's missive on Dylan Thomas' Under Milkwood was just a joke. So rest assured - there'll be no mention of the fishingboatbobbing sea, Captain Cat, nor any references to neddying among the snuggeries of babies, whatever the hell that means!

Dylan Thomas - berserker

Having said that, I have been down to Grafton Wood this month. Grafton Wood ... Milkwood - I'm sure there must be some puns to be had somewhere in there. Glancing through the first few paragraphs of the Welsh scribe's prose, I also see mention of Curlew, Skylark and Cormorant, and I distinctly recall a line that goes, "... sung like a linnet".

A missed opportunity maybe? Oh well, another time perhaps ...

So, back to Grafton Wood then. No Telescope points for guessing that I went there in search of Brown Hairstreaks, this being one of the places in the country, let alone the Midlands, to see them.

The number of butterflies in the wood was truly amazing. More Common Blues than you could shake a stick at, plus all the other usual species you'd expect - Gatekeepers, Green-veined Whites, that sort of thing. Then I picked out my first ever Brown Argus, which I always thought I'd struggle to ID correctly, but which in the field is actually quite easy once you know what to look for.

Brown Argus

They're a bit smaller than Common Blues [though female Common Blues are pretty titchy themselves] and they have a distinctly different kind of flight. I could try and describe it, but I'd end up using words like flitty, so I won't bother.

I also think they look a shade paler on the underwing in flight. Once you get a proper look at the wing markings, there should be no doubt - the Brown Argus, as its name suggests, is brown, lacking the blue colouration on the upperwing that a female Common Blue has.

Female Common Blues also have some white mixed in with the orange marks on the edge of the hindwing. The following photo shows this well.

Female Common Blue

I haven't got any great shots of the underwing, but if you get a good look at this you'll see that the Common Blue has an obvious extra spot on the underside of the forewing. There are other subtle differences, but the ones I've mentioned are those that helped me sort them out.

Shortly afterwards I discovered my first ever Purple Hairstreak, which had come down from the oak trees and was loafing around on some beech. Out of camera shot unfortunately, but it afforded half-decent views for a minute or so, before disappearing back up towards the canopy.

I continued on, noting more and more species, like Brimstone and Peacock. It might be easier to list those that I didn't see. Also, there were several Southern Hawker dragonflies and a few Common Darters, plus some day-flying Silver Y moths. I was in my element.

However, still no sign of any Brown Hairstreaks ...

I bumped into another butter-nutter, who said he had had no joy with the hairstreaks either, but he had seen a White Admiral and a Dark Green Fritillary [... the butterfly we never found], so I went off in search of those [two more potential lifers, I might add!].

I found the White Admiral without too much trouble, but the Dark Green Fritillary eluded me once more. I did, however, find this extremely tatty Silver-washed Fritillary, apparently of the form valesina, as it had no orange colour to it at all. It still flew quite well despite missing large portions of its wings, but certainly wasn't as flighty as those that I've seen in their pomp in the Wyre Forest.

Silver-washed Fritillary [presumed valesina form]

White Admiral

I left without having seen any Brown Hairstreaks, but I was content with the three lifers. I will be back again next year for another go. There is an organised walk in a couple of weeks' time, but I'd rather find them myself to be honest. Whilst having one last search for the elusive insects, I did spy a Migrant Hawker dragonfly though. A nice bonus.

I had intended to do a bit of twitching the following day, but there was little on offer in the way of birds, so I hatched a plan to go out butterflying again. This time I went down to Aston Rowant, which is a stronghold for the Silver-spotted Skipper. The Chalkhill Blue also frequents this site, and there was always the possibility of a late Essex Skipper, so hopes were high.

Silver-spotted Skipper and Chalkhill Blue were relatively easy to spot once the sun came out, and one of each species was even kind enough to pose for some photos. Also on site, more Common Blues, Brown Argus, Small Copper and a Brimstone or two, but no sign of any Essex Skipper. Plenty of Red Kites in the area too - a bird that I always enjoy seeing.

Silver-spotted Skipper

Chalkhill Blue

Ironically, what I think may have been a Dark Green Fritillary flew through the car park as I was munching on a piece of pork pie. It had gone before I could get the bins up to get a closer look.

It seems that this species is turning out to be my bogey - albeit one that I intend to pick next year in Devon.

Until then, it remains ... the butterfly we never found.

Snake, Rattle & Roll

I had hoped to include a short video that I took at work of a grass snake. I've seen two or three over the past few years, but this is the first that I've managed to catch on camera. Sadly, I can't seem to get the file into a workable format, but if you meet me out in the field, I'll be happy to show you the footage!

The grounds at work have been delivering the goods on a regular basis recently - Banded Demoiselle, Azure, Common Blue, Blue-tailed and Large Red Damselflies have all been present this summer, along with Southern and Brown Hawker dragonflies and a Common Darter or two. The better butterflies have included Common Blue, Marbled White and Small Skipper.

Speaking of damselflies, I must take a minute to mention Graham Sherwin. Graham has produced an excellent DVD, available from his website:

http://www.gswildlife.co.uk/index.html

The DVD was reviewed in a recent edition of Birdwatching magazine and I became the proud owner of a copy this month. If you are into dragons and damsels, then this really is a treat - excellent footage and loads of tips to help ID the various species in the field. Heartily recommended.

The dragonfly equivalent should be out next year and already looks like being another essential purchase.

News From The Trap

The mothing has continued this month, although the weather has meant the trap has been out a bit less than usual. Still, I have bagged a few more lifers - Copper Underwing, Svensson's Copper Underwing, Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Chocolate-tip and Sallow Kitten.

I'm not really sure how long the moth season lasts for, but I will keep putting out the trap until numbers tail off. I have manufactured a rain guard now, so I am more inclined to do a bit of mothing even if there is a threat of rain.

Next month I hope to have more bird news. There should be some goodies moving through the Midlands in the next few weeks and I am keen to bag a few more lifers if they present themselves.

The Birding Month - July 2010

2010-07-20T17:52:00.008+01:00

I've been reading a lot of Jack Kerouac this month, and this blog entry is inspired by and is in the style of his most famous novel, On The Road. Pictures follow, which will probably make more sense!

With the coming of July began the part of my life you could call my week's vacation in Wales. Mrs Reg was my companion. Mrs Reg was a pretty blonde with immense ringlets of hair like a sea of golden tresses. The following seven days were, as W. C. Fields said, 'fraught with eminent peril' - and some top-quality wildlife. Somewhere along the line I knew there'd be birds, moths, everything; somewhere along the line the pearl would be handed to me.

We were in Criccieth now.

The gulls danced down the seafront like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after birds that interest me, because the only birds for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or do a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!' What did they call such birds in Goethe's Germany? Schwarzschnabel-sturmtaucher? Strandpieper? Baßtölpel?

Then came Monday, the time of unsuccessful butterfly hunting among the dunes near Caernarfon. I didn't have enough gen to find the Dark Green Fritillary. I figured to worry about that when I got to Dinas Dinlle.

We walked around aimlessly awhile. 'What the hell am I doing up here?' I cursed. I began crying and swearing and socking myself on the head for being such a damn fool. The sun began to get red. Nothing had been accomplished. What was there to accomplish? 'Mañana,' said Mrs Reg. 'Mañana, man, we make it; have another Pimms and lemonade, man, dah you go, dah you go!'

One last glimpse of Dinas Dinlle across the hot lights of the Dingles Restaurant & Bar, and we turned our back and fender to it and roared off. Nothing happened that night; we went to sleep. Everything happened the next day.

First thing I did was go out across the cornfield to check the moth trap. Mullein Wave, Coxcomb Prominent and True Lover's Knot were all new.

It was mid-morning. And how can homely afternoons in Llangybi with its farms and stone walls and St Cybi's well - the little places where spotted flycatchers breed - produce a moth like the moth that spooked Mrs Reg? She was in the back garden talking happily when suddenly a Large Yellow Underwing flew into her arm and made her howl. It had come out of one of my egg boxes.

She yanked and slapped at her arm and tripped over the step, and in a few minutes her arm had begun to swell and hurt. 'Damn!' It made the trip seem sinister and doomed. We went to the bathroom and put some Savlon and a plaster on it.

That evening we went into an Indian restaurant and had shish kebabs and chicken jalfrezi with boiled rice; it was delicious. It had been a long day.

Wednesday. It was time for us to move on. In no time at all we were back on the main highway, heading for Nefyn. It was drizzling and mysterious at the beginning of our journey.

There were the most beautiful bevies of birds everywhere I looked in Porth Dinllaen that afternoon - guillemots, kittiwakes, sandwich terns - but I had no time for thoughts like that and promised myself a bit more mothing the following evening.

And as I sat there listening to that sound of the summer night which the Big Brother theme music has come to represent for all of us, I thought of all the moths from one end of the country to the other and how they were really all in the same vast backyard doing something so frantic and rushing-about.

The air was soft, the stars so fine, the promise of every new moth so great, that I thought I was in a dream.

Whither goest thou, Early Thorn, in thy shiny car in the night?

I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one new moth to another till I drop. This is the night, what it does to you. I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.

In myriad pricklings of heavenly radiation I had to struggle to see a Burnished Brass, and it looked like God. I saw that my life list was a vast glowing empty page and I could do anything I wanted.

Friday. We zoomed through Chwilog, over the River Dwyfor at Llanystumdwy, and straight for Criccieth. And here for the first time in my life I saw my beloved storm petrel, white rump in the summer gloom, flicky-winged, disappearing over the waves. A pain stabbed my heart, as it did every time I saw a bird I loved who was going the opposite direction in this too-big world.

I ate carrot cake and ice cream - it was getting better as I got deeper into the holiday.

Now we resumed the road to the magic field. The great mountains rose snow-capped before us; we bowled right for them. Behind us lay the whole of Llangybi and everything Mrs Reg and I had previously known about life, and life on the road. We had finally found the magic field at the end of the road and we never dreamed the extent of the magic - a Golden-ringed Dragonfly. I tingled all over from head to foot.

So in Criccieth when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over Abersoch and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to Anglesey, and all that road going, all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Porthmadog I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars'll be out, and don't you know that God is Pooh Bear? the evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the magic field, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what's going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rages of growing old, I think of the Dark Green Fritillary, I even think of the Dark Green Fritillary the butterfly we never found, I think of the Dark Green Fritillary.

Willow warbler - taken by Mrs Reg

Rock pipit digi-scoped at Criccieth beach

Antler Moth

Small Magpie

Buff Arches

Small Copper

Cinnabar caterpillar

Coxcomb Prominent

Garden Tiger

Grayling at Porth Dinllaen

Grey Seal at Porth Dinllaen

Burnished Brass

Early Thorn

Grasshopper warbler - digi-scoped near Llangybi

Dead moles - macabre

Meadow Brown

Golden-ringed Dragonfly

Thank you for indulging me. Next month's blog entry will be in the style of Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas.

The Mothing Month - June 2010

2010-07-02T18:52:00.002+01:00

Quite a deliberate change of title this time. With practically no birding to speak of recently, I have been fully absorbed in the art of mothing. The trap has been out on a regular basis and I have added a total of 47 species to the life list.

Some of my favourites are pictured below.

Spectacle

Scorched Wing

Pine Hawkmoth

Pale Prominent

Buff-tip

Pebble Prominent

Gold Spot

Green Silver-lines

Elephant Hawkmoth

Lime Hawkmoth

Poplar Hawkmoth

The mothing has also caught the interest of the local robins, who frequently turn up for breakfast as I'm inspecting my catch. In order to protect the moths I have now had to keep them cooped up during the day, releasing them the following evening.

Then last Tuesday I had another avian visitor to the garden at about 11.15pm, just as I was checking the trap before I headed off to bed. It was a splendid tawny owl, who took up residence on the top of a telegraph pole in the garden behind us. Despite the fading light, the owl afforded good views for several minutes, then gave a few screeches before flying off across our garden. Top dollar! I wonder if the owl was taking an interest in the moths too?

There are a couple of other pictures that I was pleased to get this month. Firstly, a fine red-eyed damselfly, which I have only seen once before, and secondly an early silver-washed fritillary in the Wyre Forest. Hoping to go back to see some more of these during July. Other butterflies added to the list during the month include meadow brown, large skipper, ringlet, small skipper and marbled white.

Red-eyed damselfly

Silver-washed fritillary

The Birding Month - May 2010

2010-05-28T08:55:00.007+01:00

Well, May and a bit of April to be completely accurate.

Following my birthday celebrations, I headed to Scotland and the Lake District with the family. Birding was never really the main focus during our trip, but despite this we saw a good number of decent birds, including some of my personal favourites like wood warbler, pied flycatcher, garden warbler and tree pipit. All of them self-found too, which always adds to the fun.

Other goodies included tree sparrows in the hotel grounds in Scotland, golden eagle, common crossbill, dipper and several ospreys, one of which flew down the River Tay whilst we were eating our evening meal. Lazy birding at its best!

Inevitably there was a large volume of Eddie Stobarts on the M6 and I duly took advantage, taking my year list up to 99 and the life list near the 350 mark. Like shooting fish in a barrel.

Dipper

Osprey at Loch of Lowes

Another Osprey

Common crossbill

Whinfell Forest - home to tree pipits

Haweswater

A camera-shy wheatear at Haweswater

Having returned from the holiday and settled back into normal life, I decided to have a play with the moth trap that Mrs Reg had bought me for my birthday. Early results were satisfactory, but having experimented with the trap in different sites and with the onset of some nice warm nights, my catch increased significantly. So much so that I ended up spending two and a half hours sorting everything out on the morning of Saturday 22 May.

During the month I have added 27 moths to my life list, including a few beauties. Some pictures follow.

Swallow prominent

Poplar kitten - this chap found its way up the sleeve of my t-shirt!

Brimstone

On Sunday 23 May my Dad and I headed to Norfolk for two days of intensive birding. We had three main targets in mind - golden oriole at Lakenheath, honey buzzard at Great Ryburgh and Montagu's harrier at Burnham Market. Setting off at silly o'clock, we arrived at Lakenheath at about 6.30am.

Hearing the golden orioles was a piece of cake - seeing them was a different matter. Finally after three hours of staring at poplars, I was able to get decent views of a male, which my Dad then spotted as it flew off. Mission accomplished.

Other sightings at Lakenheath included cuckoo, marsh harrier and hobby, along with my first ever hairy dragonfly, a four-spotted chaser and the first common blue damselfly of the year.

Hairy dragonfly

Four-spotted chaser

With a bit of spare time on our hands we visited Weeting Heath and added a stone curlew to the trip list, then a turtle dove and spotted flycatchers at Foulden Common a bit further up the road. This site also turned out to be something of a butterfly mecca. Brimstone, small copper, common blue, large white and a lifer in the shape of green hairstreak were all noted.

Then it was off to Great Ryburgh. Some birders were already on site and informed us that they didn't think the honey buzzards were around yet. Certainly, it did seem very quiet there and we only spent an hour before moving on. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of common blue damselflies patrolled the fields here.

Common blue damselfy

Our next target was Montagu's harrier. We put in about an hour looking for the bird, but to no avail. Somewhat disappointed we decided to spend a few hours at nearby Titchwell. This proved to be a good decision as there were some excellent birds on offer - Temminck's stint, garganey, little gull, grey plover and little tern to name but a few. Also a large red damselfly.

After checking in at our bed and breakfast in Holt, we ate at the Dun Cow at Salthouse, then spent the last couple of hours of the day on Salthouse Heath looking for nightjars. Despite hearing them, we never saw one, which was a shame. Finally, after 16 hours in the field we called it a day. Reports of a Savi's warbler at Stiffkey Fen that evening got us excited about the following day's prospects.

To cut a long story short, we didn't manage to see Savi's wabler the following morning. The words needle and haystack spring to mind, and we had no idea whether the bird was still around. Other birders present had little gen, so we felt we would be better off investing our time elsewhere.

We headed back to Burnham Market and were rewarded with good views of Montagu's harrier after only a short wait. Buoyed by this success and with time on our side we felt we should give the honey buzzard another go at Great Ryburgh. We joined several other birders and saw a couple of birds that looked almost exactly, but not quite unlike honey buzzards, though nothing to justify another entry on the life list.

After a shortish visit to Sydenhurst Common where I spotted a couple of cinnabar moths and many small heath butterflies, we went back to Titchwell. Despite not really expecting to see much different to the day before, we actually did quite well. Little stint, bar-tailed godwit, yellow wagtail and bearded tit were all new for the year.

Cinnabar

Small heath

In summary, a good month for birding with two lifers to show for it. Despite this, I think it was the mothing that I will remember and I'm looking forward to more good catches over the coming months. More details here in about four weeks' time.

The Birding Month - April 2010

2010-04-18T22:40:00.007+01:00

Like March, April has been another relaxed affair, but there have been some superb spots along the way.

Taking the foot off the birding pedal this year has meant that certain sightings have been all the more rewarding due to their unexpected nature. My first swallow of the year seen on the way to work on 6 April was one such example. Also heard my first blackcap of the year that morning.

The butterfly sightings started to roll in at the start of the month too. Peacock, small tortoiseshell and comma were all seen for the first time between 7 and 10 April.

Peacock in the garden

Comma in the garden

Finally, a bit of proper birding on 11 April. My Dad and I went to Titterstone Clee Hill to have a look for ring ouzel. A bit of a bogey bird this one for me. I had rubbish views of one on top of Caingorm in May 2008 and a few unsuccessful forays for it since. I'm pleased to say we had great views of it and had bonus spots of black redstart, peregrine and wheatear. A fairly terrible record shot of the ring ouzel taken with my phone follows.

Ring ouzel at Titterstone Clee Hill

Later that day, Mrs Reg and I paid a visit to Upton Warren. Mrs Reg has just purchased a new Canon camera and was keen to try it out. Birds seen included avocet, little ringed plover and green sandpiper. Unfortunately, Mrs Reg neglected to extend her zoom lens properly, so didn't end up with many decent shots. What a silly billy!

Still, Mrs Reg's blunder meant I was able to persuade her to accompany me to Earlswood Lakes for a second bite at the cherry on 16 April. We had a nice walk around the lakes, seeing common tern, willow warbler and also my first treecreeper of the year. This time the other half got some nice photos and I bagged a few decent shots of the terns.

Common terns at Earlswood Lakes

Also, these great crested grebes getting all lovey-dovey.

Grebes - amorous

Saturday 17 April proved to be a mega day on the patch. I hadn't planned to go out, but it was such a lovely day that Mrs Reg and I decided to take advantage of the weather and have a walk to Weatheroak Hill. At the magic field we enjoyed views of the lapwings and a skylark - all very nice, but regulation stuff.

Before long, the ante was well and truly upped when a pair of ravens turned up. Great birds. I amused myself by calling to them using a slight variation on my Chewbacca impersonation, though it wasn't long before Mrs Reg told me to shut up. Spoilsport.

However, even the ravens paled into insignificance on this fine day as I had heard a lesser whitethroat in full song not too far away. This was a first for the patch and with a lot of patience and a fair amount of pishing, I was eventually able to track down the bird. Mrs Reg kindly lent me her camera again and I was able to get the following shots. None of them are perfect, but I don't care. This is one of my favourite birds and there was much fist-pumping on the way home.

Lesser whitethroat - hell yes!

Another peacock, snapped by Mrs Reg

Also spotted a female orange-tip in the magic field. It was distant, but I was happy with my diagnosis.

To top off a good weekend, I saw a pair of peregrines high over the house on Sunday afternoon, and a willow warbler was heard in the trees behind our garden. Another was heard at work the day after.

The first speckled wood butterfly of the year was seen at work on 20 April, and I managed to clap eyes on a willow warbler there the day after. Not technically on the premises, as it was just on the other side of the fence on Kings Norton golf course, but the first I have ever seen at work.

On Friday 23 April it was my 40th birthday. Mother Nature's present was a male orange-tip in the garden. It turned up at about 4.30pm and settled on the ornamental grass. I dashed upstairs to get the camera to take some pictures, one of which follows, but I needn't have rushed - it remained in situ until Saturday morning, not flying off until nearly midday. Lazy beggar!

Orange-tips - sleepy!

Obviously, there are several days left until we are into May, but I am now off to Scotland on holiday. Hopefully there will be a few more decent observations before the month is out. I will include these in my next round up, which should be in about five weeks' time.

The Birding Month - March 2010

2010-03-28T09:50:00.002+01:00

A quiet month on the whole, with one or two highlights.

Kicked things off in good style with a visit to the Forest Of Dean, which I have not been to since 2008. Target bird was goshawk and we saw several from the New Fancy View watchpoint. Half a dozen common crossbills were also noted.

Later on at Boys Grave we had exceptional views of two displaying goshawks at relatively close quarters. Brilliant stuff. Also saw my first butterfly of the year here - a red admiral.

The following week, my Dad and I paid a visit to the Wyre Forest, which was uncharacteristically quiet. Of all the birds that we hoped to see, I think we only clapped eyes on a dipper. Actually, Dad didn't even see that, come to think of it!

We consoled ourselves with the Slavonian grebe at Grimley on the way home. We also stopped off at Upton Warren, but this was also devoid of birds. The avocets were nowhere to be seen.

Slavonian grebe at Grimley

Aside from that, I have been out on the patch the last couple of weekends. The lapwings are back in the magic field and I will be keeping close tabs on them over the next few weeks. This time next month they should be rearing their young.

Lapwing in the magic field

Lapwings

Digi-binned lapwing

I heard my first chiffchaff at work on Friday 19 March, but had to wait until Friday 26 March to see one. Two meadow pipits dropped into the grounds on Thursday 25 March, and a sparrowhawk was seen the day before that.

Yesterday afternoon a brimstone butterfly turned up in the garden, and later on there were visits from a goldcrest and a great spotted woodpecker.

A good month with the emphasis on quality, not quantity.

Casps, kites and shrikes

2010-03-08T07:15:00.003Z

Some additional photos of the Caspian gull seen near Stubber's Green a few weeks ago, the red kites at Gigrin Farm, and Morton Bagot's great grey shrike. These were all taken by my Dad.

Caspian Gull

Red kite at Gigrin Farm

White morph red kite

Great grey shrike at Morton Bagot

March has got off to a good start, with my first butterfly of the year seen in the Forest of Dean last Monday - a beautiful red admiral. More about that outing in the next post.

The Birding Month - February 2010

2010-02-26T16:16:00.003Z

The first day of the month saw me return to the Wyre Forest for the first time this year. Another dusting of snow didn't appear to be an obstacle initially, but proved troublesome as the day wore on. More of that later.

Three goosanders on the River Severn opened the day's account quite nicely, and a very vocal marsh tit as soon as I stepped out of the car gave me hope that this was going to be a productive day. Having set eyes on the marsh tit, I continued along the old railway line before heading into Knowles Coppice in the hope of a lesser spotted woodpecker.

Sadly, the forest was very quiet. A few great spotted woodpeckers were seen, but not their more diminutive cousins. After a lengthy walk around the forest and along Dowles Brook I had little to show for my troubles, save for a second marsh tit near Lodge Hill Farm, a dipper, a single lesser redpoll and this attempt at an arty-farty picture of icy leaves.

Leaves - rubbish

Heading out of the forest, I encountered a traffic jam on the A456 heading into Bewdley. Not being particularly keen on joining it, I headed instead in the direction of Cleobury Mortimer. This turned out to be a wise decision, as the traffic stretched back some four miles or so! I had to negotiate some rather nasty roads in tricky driving conditions in order to get back to Bewdley. A pair of ravens and Eddie Stobart truck Aimee Leigh seen along the way did little to console me.

My next destination was Trimpley Reservoir, where I spotted a large siskin flock, several goldcrests and heard another marsh tit. Six Mandarin ducks were noted on the River Severn behind the reservoir, but not much else.

I had planned to hit a few more sites in the afternoon, but a combination of some dreadful navigational skills worthy of Mark Thatcher and a lack of news flow on Birdguides rendered the remainder of the day a write-off. I had hoped to visit the Lickey Hills in search of the common crossbills that had turned up there at the weekend, but I just didn't have time.

All in all, a frustrating day.

Gulls Just Wanna Have Fun

There was a complete turnaround of birding fortune the following Saturday, however, when my Dad and I paid a visit to Stubber's Green. I have been keen to tick Caspian gull for some time now, and being aware that Iceland and glaucous gulls were in the area, it seemed a good time to have another bite at the cherry.

The first hour or two bore similarities to previous visits - in other words lots of fruitless searching through the assembled gull flock, punctuated by the occasional bit of excitement when a gull with a beady eye or pear-shaped head was spotted. Sadly, every time we thought we had a candidate for Caspian gull there was always some other evidence to rule it out - wrong shaped bill, short legs, streaky head and so on.

We were pleased when we were joined by Paul Jeynes a little before midday. We've met Paul here a few times previously and it's not too much of an exaggeration to say that he is he on first name terms with most of the gulls that frequent the area. He had a quick scan of the birds and declared that he couldn't see anything other than the usual suspects, so he suggested we pop down the road to have a look at the nearby landfill site.

With Paul's help we were soon ticking Iceland gull [lifer!] and yellow-legged gull, and after a while we had a Caspian gull [lifer!] and a glaucous gull too [another lifer!]. Now, I don't claim to be the world's biggest lister, but I have reached a stage where bagging three lifers in a day is something of a champagne moment. Sadly, we had no champagne to hand, so the ubiquitous Islay malt was produced instead.

Setting off for home, we stopped again at Stubber's Green so that I could relieve myself in the bushes. As luck would have it, the Iceland and glacuous gulls had also arrived, giving me a few photo opportunities. A tremendous bit of gulling in my opinion, though probably just a normal day in the life of gull-meister Mr Jeynes!

Thanks to Paul's master class, I think that I would now be able to recognise a second-winter year yellow-legged gull in the field [or at Stubber's Green!], even though Caspian will still probably remain something of an enigma to me!

Second-winter yellow-legged gull

Iceland gull

Glaucous gull

Monday 8 February saw siskins in the garden and a raven in the field opposite the house. The siskins continued to put in regular appearances throughout the month, though numbers never got above five.

On Sunday 14 February I paid a visit to Morton Bagot to see the great grey shrike that had turned up there on the preceding Thursday. I was able to locate the bird quite easily and had good views for ten minutes or so. Unfortunately, it took flight whilst I had my eye off it and I was unable to relocate it.

Whether I'm year-listing or not, I think a great grey shrike is a bird that I will always be happy to put the leg work in to see. A real stunner.

Great grey shrike at Morton Bagot

Time for a big, unashamed twitch on Monday 22 February - a visit to Gigrin Farm with my Mum and Dad, to see if we could connect with the juvenile black kite that has been around for a few weeks. The spectacle of so many red kites promised to me memorable in its own right, but even so, it would have been pretty galling to come away without seeing the black kite. Fingers were duly crossed.

Before we reached Rhayader, we had already seen a good number of kites patrolling the hills and mountains of mid Wales, plus a few common buzzards and a healthy sprinkling of ravens.

We killed half an hour or so at nearby Gilfach, but didn't really have time to do the place justice. Fantastic habitat though, worth a visit in its own right one day perhaps. Could be something of a butterfly haven too later in the year.

Come 2.00pm we were safely ensconced in the hide at Gigrin Farm. The meat was strewn across the grass and the kites descended upon it, along with a good number of corvids, some common buzzards and even a grey heron or two. Silly devils!

Red kites at Gigrin Farm

After ten minutes or so, the black kite showed up and, to my delight, proved easy to pick out from the crowd [lifer!]. It stayed in the vicinity for a while then disappeared, returning later on for a short encore.

It was certainly worth the effort to go and see the bird, and I can heartily recommend the Lamb & Flag Inn in Rhayader for a pint and a spot of lunch if anyone is thinking of going. Roast beef with all the trimmings for less than a fiver, and a black kite for dessert. Not a bad day, all in all!

Looking ahead, let's hope March brings with it some better weather. I'm excited about the imminent arrival of birds such as chiffchaff and wheatear. There is a little spot close to home where I think the latter might be worth hunting for. It would be great to see one on the patch.

I'm also hoping to see a few butterflies on the wing. I've been doing plenty of research in this area and I have high hopes of seeing several new species in 2010. I've even set up a spreadsheet to help me keep tabs on what to see and where to see it.

Spreadsheets and butterflies. Utopia!

The Birding Month - January 2010

2010-01-31T17:03:00.015Z

I think it's fair to say that January 2010 will be remembered mainly for The Big Freeze. As a direct result of the snow and ice, I was unable to get out and do any serious birding until the middle of the month, but despite this I had a number of good ticks from the warmth and comfort of the house.

I've already talked about the unexpected double whammy of sparrowhawks that opened my birding account for the year, but New Year's Day also brought goldfinch, redwing, nuthatch and jay my way, and a house sparrow was a rare visitor to the damson tree in the back garden, albeit for a matter of seconds. As the first day of the year drew to a close, I had 18 birds on the list.

Over the next few days there was a steady trickle of decent sightings, no doubt aided by the cold snap. Mistle thrush, long-tailed tit and goldcrest all fell, and walking to and from work on 6 January added a wren and a kestrel to the list. Feral pigeon was duly noted, but won't be counted this year. Having seen the real McCoy on Islay last year I just don't have the appetite to tick them in 2010.

A picture taken at work with my phone follows. You can now click on my images to open a larger version in a new window.

A white-out at Pearl Group plc

On 9 January I had a rare song thrush in the garden and another sparrowhawk flew over the house. This turned out to be a mega weekend for garden birds. The snow brought a few redwings down and a couple of siskins turned up in the alder later that day. But it was Sunday 10 January that brought the biggest surprise. Whilst sat in the study, I noticed a large bird drifting over the A435. Quickly ruling out common buzzard, I watched as the bird passed across the field opposite the house - red kite! Amazing!

I finally clocked a common buzzard whilst having my lunch at work the following Tuesday. Sparrowhawk the first bird on the year list? Red kite before common buzzard? A chance of honey buzzard and Montagu's harrier in Norfolk in the summer? This is turning out to be a raptor-tastic year, I thought to myself! That evening, my Dad rang and proposed a trip to Upton Warren on the Sunday. As the week wore on the snow finally relented and we made it out into the field as planned.

Before heading for Upton Warren, however, we paid a visit to Bredon's Hardwick to look for the red-crested pochards that had been seen there the previous day. I wasn't exactly sure where to view from. I understand most people scan from the B4080, so I did a bit of research and with the aid of Google maps I identified a spot that looked promising.

On arriving, we set up the scopes and had a look down towards the sailing lake. A few more year ticks were noted, including fieldfare, wigeon and great crested grebe, then before I knew it, several red-crested pochard appeared in the scope [lifer!]. I think we were a bit lucky to see them as we were only able to scan a limited part of the lake. If I pass that way again I shall have to see if there are any better places to view from.

I suspect these ducks are part of the feral population from Cotswold Water Park, which I believe have been pushed northwards into the Midlands due to the freezing conditions. I'm sure Martyn Yapp will have an opinion on their plasticity! Either way, they have been ticked and added to the life list. I hadn't been particularly excited about seeing them, but I actually found it much more enjoyable than I thought I would. In fact, I can honestly say it was duck-mongous!

Upton Warren produced excellent views of a bittern, both on the Moors Pool and the North Moors Pool. A record shot taken by my Dad as the bird ventured out onto the ice follows. An even better picture taken by Pete Walkden now graces the Worcestershire Source blog. Thanks, Pete.

Bittern at Upton Warren

Also seen at Upton Warren were bullfinch, water rail, snipe, shoveler, teal, pochard and reed bunting. On a negative note, we didn't see or hear any Cetti's warblers. I hope these charismatic little birds have survived the inclement weather. We abandoned plans to visit The Flashes, opting instead to pay a quick visit to Shenstone where we thought the birding opportunities might reap better dividends.

Water rail at Upton Warren

Despite our optimism, we had slim pickings at Shenstone, but great spotted woodpecker, stock dove and skylark were added to the year list. Sadly, there were no sign of any corn buntings or grey partridge, Shenstone's jewels in the crown so to speak. I did have a probable yellowhammer, but not good enough views to warrant a tick.

We bumped into a couple of birders who had spotted a single brambling, but despite a quick search we couldn't relocate the bird. Heading home, we passed through Hopwood to have a look for a little owl, which posed obligingly for my Dad whilst he took a photograph. A good morning's birding, with three Eddie Stobart trucks life-ticked too!

Little owl at Hopwood

On 25 January Mrs Reg and I paid a visit to Brandon Marsh and Ryton Woods, the latter being an intended venue for a bit of butterflying later in the year. I was keen to suss it out in advance, which proved to be a good idea as the country park, Ryton Pool and the woodland all cover a sizeable area. I'll definitely have to get some good gen before I think about returning in the summer.

Brandon Marsh added a green-winged teal to the year list and I had good views of a bittern in flight, thanks to Mrs Reg's quick reactions. Perhaps we'll make a birder of her yet! Cetti's warbler was heard, but remained hidden in the reeds. At Ryton Woods I connected with at least one lesser redpoll amongst a large flock of siskins and goldfinch, plus a couple of common gulls on Ryton Pool.

Green-winged teal at Brandon Marsh

The last hurrah of the month was a trip to Pitsford Reservoir in Northamptonshire with my Dad, Dave 'Leapy' Lyons and my burgeoning birding chum Boyley. Before heading east we paid a quick visit to Leapy's local patch to bag red-legged and grey partridges. These birds were lifers for Boyley, as were a lot of the goodies that fell later in the day.

The main quarry was great white egret, which we were able to spot within five minutes of arriving [lifer!], but the reservoir held a wide range of good birds. These included year ticks for me in the shape of [I must stop saying that!] goldeneye, goosander, yellowhammer, tree sparrow [loads of them!], ruddy duck, smew, marsh tit and redshank.

Dreadful record shot of the great white egret

On the way home we took a detour through Grandborough to have a go for a great grey shrike that's been there for a while, but alas, the bird hadn't been seen since 11.00am. A nice flock of linnets provided another year tick, but was scant consolation for dipping out on one of my favourite birds. I had really wanted Boyley to see it too. Oh well, I suppose there'll be others.

A nice soak in the bath was just what the doctor ordered after a long day out in the chilly conditions. Even as I write, I am safely enveloped in my jim-jams and dressing gown, looking forward to a nice Islay malt to celebrate the lifer, and an evening in front of the telly with Mrs Reg and Holly Willoughby. Read into that what you will!

Looking ahead, February should see me return to the Wyre Forest. There's always a good range of birds to see there and it's a beautiful place to walk around. Who knows, I might even run into a naked lady again?

I'm particularly keen to catch up with a lesser spotted woodpecker again after missing this elusive species in 2009, and the Wyre seems a good a place as any other to start looking for them. I don't think I can rely on one turning up on my peanut feeder again!

Until next time, enjoy your birding.

The List Begins ...

2010-01-01T08:45:00.007Z

Well, 2010 has got off to an unbelievable start! The first bird that flew over the garden this morning was a sparrowhawk, closely followed by ... another sparrowhawk!

It's not that often that I see sparrowhawks from the house, so to see two together on the first day of a new birding year is pretty special. Maybe a good omen for the year to come? Hope so.

Second bird on the list? A magpie. Normal service has been resumed!

Hope you like the new look Eye To The Telescope. I'm signing off now, as it's time for breakfast and a bit more list-building from the comfort of the kitchen.

Happy New Year to all my followers.

The Perfect Year

2009-12-20T11:03:00.002Z

So here we are, almost at the end of another birding year. If you've been reading my blog regularly, you'll know that my approach to birding this year has been fairly laid back. Despite this there have been many highlights. Self-found lifers are always remembered fondly, so adding Arctic skua and short-eared owl to the life list in 2009 was particularly rewarding. Finally putting snow bunting to bed in Norfolk in February was also a highlight, so thanks to Steve Jones for finding them for us.

Sticking with self-found birds for a bit, there were many more during the year, including willow tit, marsh tit, tawny owl, brambling, Mediterranean gull, lesser whitethroat, grasshopper warbler and common crossbill, but none of these were lifers. Still great birds though.

Other highlights were two red kites seen in and around Wythall, most of the birds seen in Islay in May, the Slavonian grebe seen in breeding plumage in Devon, the hat-trick of black tern, American black tern and white-winged black tern at Farmoor Reservoir in August, and the Sabine's gull at Upton Warren.

Most of 2009 was dedicated to walking the patch. In doing so, I clocked up 110 miles and saw a grand total of 79 different species. As usual, I was birded-out come November, which meant that I didn't get out as much as I would normally. If I had, I think I could have bagged another few birds for the list. It might be something I try again in a few years though.

Despite all this top-notch birding, I think I will remember 2009 mainly for the butterflies, damselflies and dragonflies. The week I spent in Devon was a real eye-opener in this respect. Watching a female golden-ringed dragonfly ovipositing on Aylesbeare Common was both fortunate and brilliant, as was finding a pair of azure damselflies in a nearby pool just moments later.

Pearl-bordered fritillary, large skipper, marbled white, common blue and grayling were amongst my favourite butterflies, but I couldn't summarise the year without mentioning the influx of painted ladies to the UK, which never became boring no matter how many times I saw them.

What next?

Normally I would now be considering a few goals for the coming 12 months, but I have decided to take something of a sabbatical until 2011. That's not to say that I won't be out and about doing some birding here and there, but I think it will be very low key. I will continue with the blog, which I really enjoy doing, but don't be surprised if you don't hear from me quite so often. The plan is to update the blog on a monthly basis, with the occasional trip report thrown in for good measure, and perhaps an ad-hoc newsflash here and there if I've seen something particularly good.

With this fresh approach to things, I think it's time to give the blog a bit of a facelift. Look out for that in January.

Finally, I would like to wish a Happy Christmas to anyone who has read the blog this year, or those that I have met out in the field in 2009. I hope 2010 brings you everything you wish for.

That's What Friends Are For

2009-12-15T16:51:00.003Z

I ventured out with my newly-fledged birding chum Boyley on Sunday morning. Boyley works at Blythe Valley and was keen to have a poke around to see what we could find there.

Before that, however, we paid visits to a few other sites. Starting with Hopwood, we finally managed to track down the little owl that eluded us a few months ago. Also here were many redwing, with a few fieldfares dotted amongst them. Moving on to Bittell, the best spots included goosander, wigeon, kingfisher and a great black-backed gull, but not the goldcrest or treecreeper that I had hoped for.

Little owl pic courtesy of Boyley's Nokia 5800

On the way to Blythe Valley we stopped off at the Hungry Horse field near Earlswood Lakes, which has held golden plover in recent weeks. Sadly the field was empty on this occasion.

Finally we had an enjoyable stroll around Blythe Valley. The habitat here looks very similar to that at Pearl Group where I work, but on a much bigger scale. In terms of birds we saw green woodpecker, long-tailed tit, kestrel, song thrush and bullfinch amongst others. Definitely some potential here for better birds come the spring, and I would expect an excellent range of butterflies too. I will certainly be back next year.

An enjoyable morning was topped off with a coffee at Sainsbury's. A good bit of birding.

Boyley and I have been out a few times now, and he's already seem some excellent birds. I feel a bit like the ambassador, spoiling his guests with the Ferrero Rocher pyramid at his party.

Crawl

2009-12-06T13:24:00.002Z

On Friday I met up with a few of the Islay crew and my brother for a few pre-Christmas drinks in and around Birmingham. It's something we do most years and is always a good laugh.

A few years ago, I had noticed several references to birds in some of the various pubs we frequented, so I thought it would be fun to incorporate this into the day's proceedings. You know how it is though - after three or four pints I had other things on my mind, so the best I could manage was the following picture, plus a pretty feeble list of actual birds that I saw on the day.

Spot of the day

After lunch in the Black Eagle, Dad produced the quiz and did a passable impression of Jeremy Paxman, whilst the rest of us split into two teams of three. Rounds included cinema, television, nature and sport, after which the scores were neck and neck. Well, truth be told, my brother, Aiden and I calculated that we had just shaded it by a few points.

Dad seemed keen, however, to deploy his tie-breaker. Not wishing to disappoint him, and suspecting it might be bird-related, we agreed. First up, each team had to give the common name for the following birds - otis tarda, lullula arborea and locustella luscinioides.

Initially thrown by the first one, I suddenly had one of those flashes of inspiration that you only get when you've consumed a few ales, and confidently scribbled down great bustard on the answer sheet.

On the opposing team, Leapy had no trouble with the second, but nor did I. It was woodlark. A bit too easy that one, Dad!

The last one again had me scratching my head, but I could see Leapy wasn't doing any better. I knew it was a warbler, but which one? Luckily, I know how my Dad's mind works and realised it's a bird that we have joked about before. Savi's warbler was penciled in, completing a hat-trick for team Telescope.

Oddly, despite the fact that Leapy, Ivor and Steve had only got one of the three right, Dad worked out it was still a tie, so it was sudden death. Up came the final bird - nyctea scandiaca. I initially wrote down snow bunting, but quickly realized it was snowy owl and corrected myself. At that point we decided we'd had enough quizzing for one day, and Dad had seemingly run out of questions, so that was that.

Amongst other highlights was a short recital from Roger's Profanisaurus IV: The Magna Farta. Most references were unfit for inclusion in the blog, but we did enjoy Nana Kournikova - a female that looks hot from behind, but is actually old and wretched.

Dad and Leapy enjoy the Magna Farta

Steve told us one of his legendary jokes, which went down well, there was an interesting discussion as to whether Eric Clapton is actually a good guitarist or not, the World Cup draw kept us entertained for a few minutes, and Leapy, Ivor, Steve and I spent the last hour or so talking birds - a typical boys' day out really.

For his final trick, Dad managed to lose his wallet on the train back to Solihull. To cut a long story short, he was reunited with it an hour or so later. Many thanks to Mrs Reg who dropped him back at the station to collect it from the chap pictured in the background of the next shot.

Drunken fool!

Back In The Village

2009-11-14T08:42:00.002Z

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have a couple of special birding places that are particularly dear to my heart. Confusingly, I refer to both as the magic field, and each has delivered its share of decent birds over the years. In conjuring terms, however, the one close to home is a little bit Paul Daniels when compared to the Siegfried and Roy of the one in North Wales.

Last Friday we headed up to North Wales for a short break. We stayed in the sleepy village of Llangybi, where Mum and Dad have a bungalow. The main goal was to help them with some work in the garden, but it would be foolish not to take advantage of the excellent birding opportunities whilst up there.

Llangybi

The bungalow

Snowdon as seen from the bungalow

On Saturday afternoon we managed to get down to Criccieth, where we undertook a spot of seawatching. Common scoter, shag, and a guillemot were the pick of the birds.

Guillemot at Criccieth

Also of interest was this splendid double rainbow.

Twice as nice!

Sunday morning saw me make my first venture to the magic field.

Things were quiet on the way up, with just a few redwing and fieldfare to liven the spirits, and a dead sheep in one of the fields. Just before I reached the magic field I spotted a single goose flying right to left. I took in as many features as I could, though the light wasn't brilliant. There seemed to be an argument for it being a pink-footed goose, but also sufficient evidence to say that it could have been a greylag instead. One thing was for sure - pink-footed goose is already one of the stringiest birds on my life list, and I wasn't about to try to string another. I hate stringing, me.

Once the goose had disappeared from view, I continued to the magic field. It was uncharacteristically quiet, but I planned to stick around for a bit anyway. This plan was abandoned, however, when a red kite suddenly emerged away to my right. Wow! This is the first one I've ever seen in this area. Another tick for the magic field.

A distant red kite near the magic field

The kite drifted right, roughly in the direction of the dead sheep I had seen earlier. I reasoned that there was a good chance it might come down near the carcass, so I made my way back down the lane. Sadly, I had no further sightings of the kite, but a raven floating over the small conifer plantation nearby was a consolation.

Raven

After working in the garden, we all took a stroll back to the magic field. A raven was seen again, along with a stonechat, but nothing better.

Other forays during our stay took us to Porthmadog and Foryd Bay, plus a visit to a local spot for woodcock. Sightings of note included whooper swan, curlew, redshank, dunlin, brent goose, rock pipit, black-tailed godwit, wigeon, teal and little egret. Another seawatching session at Criccieth produced a turnstone and a red-throated diver.

Foryd Bay

Whooper swans

On the way home on Wednesday afternoon I spotted another red kite near Bala. Great to see these beautiful raptors beginning to expand their range.

It's Impossible

2009-10-31T17:45:00.004Z

What's impossible? Gull ID, that's what! Well, maybe not impossible, but always a challenge.

Here's a few pics from Stubber's Green today, which may or may not illustrate this point.

Yellow-legged gull - note the yellow legs

Yellow-legged gull - note the absence of any legs!

Common gull - not actually all that common!

Great black-backed gull - okay, that one's fairly easy

Caspian gull? No. Had us excited for a bit though!

Here's another picture, taken at the same site last year, of a probable Caspian gull.

Was it? Who knows?

I love gulls, me!

Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn

2009-10-28T16:23:00.007Z

I love Autumn , me.

Already I've seen the first returning fieldfare and redwing of the season, plus a few other species that have been absent for the past few months.

The colours on the trees, that certain, specific Autumny smell that permeates the air, the dark evenings - they all add up to a magical time of year.

I'm particularly looking forward to a few more walks around the patch, in the hope of squeezing out another few birds for the list. On that front, Earlswood Lakes has the potential to fill a few duck-shaped gaps and I fully expect to be back there in November and December.

Seizing the advantage of the decent spell we've had in October, Mrs Reg and I had an enjoyable few hours at Brandon Marsh on Monday. We didn't see anything that would necessarily set the birding world alight, but kingfisher, goosander, common gull, sparrowhawk and redwing were all encountered.

Throw in the unmissable call of Cetti's warbler, and the sight of many teal, lapwing, shoveler and gadwall, plus half a dozen snipe or so, and it would be a very grumpy birder who could have not found something to enjoy.

Oh, and there was also what will probably be the last dragonfly sighting of the year. I'm not absolutely sure what it was, as it was darting around rather a lot, but my best guess would be a migrant hawker.

So, onto today's title. This refers to a feathered thorn moth that Mrs Reg discovered peering through our kitchen window on Monday night.

Another life tick on my paltry moth list. I'm hoping that moths might play a bigger part in my adventures next year. I'm even thinking of purchasing a moth trap.

No trap required for my next potential lifer, however, assuming that somebody out there can identify it. It turned up in the house last night, looking a bit worse for wear. I will hand out a ridiculously generous 500 telescope points for anyone who can have a reasonable stab at what it might be. Nothing rude please.

If no replies are forthcoming, I'll throw it over to the forum and see what happens.

Until next time, keep sweeping up those leaves!

Gone Gone Gone [Done Moved On]

2009-10-18T18:48:00.005+01:00

Goodbye birding, hello twitching. My Dad and I had a go for the glossy ibis at Fisher's Mill Pool this morning, and missed the bird by a whisker apparently. It had been seen shortly before we arrived, but was not relocated.

Still, we had an enjoyable time walking along the canal, picking up some nice birds along the way - fieldfare, siskin, willow tit, kingfisher and linnet to name a few.

On Fisher's Mill Pool and in the surrounding area, the best of the birds were wigeon, gadwall, goldeneye, teal, more siskin and linnet, a pair of stonechats, and a juvenile garganey.

Other spots included meadow pipit, red admiral, painted lady and a small copper.

It certainly looks like a good site for birds and butterflies, and quite possibly dragons and damsels too. I would be keen to make another visit next year.

Obviously a bit of a shame about the ibis, but enough other stuff to make it an enjoyable few hours. Good to meet a few other birders too.

Everything Changed

Worcestershire Source has undergone a bit of a makeover today. Please pay a visit and make sure to e-mail any bird sightings from the county to worcestershiresource@hotmail.co.uk. Thank you to everyone who has helped to make the site what it is over the last year or so.

In addition, Worcestershire Source can now also be followed on Twitter at www.twitter.com/worcs_source. Hope to see you there!

Into The Woods

2009-10-11T21:09:00.004+01:00

A beautiful autumn morning saw me pay a visit to one of my favourite haunts, the Wyre Forest. Accompanying me for his second official birding experience was my mate Boyley.

The main aim was to fill in a few gaps on his fledgling life list. On the whole, we did quite well. As is often the way, however, a few species eluded us. These included goldcrest, long-tailed tit and song thrush.

On the positive side, we had good numbers of redwing over Lodge Hill Farm - the first I've seen since the leaves started falling of the trees, excellent views of dippers on Dowles Brook, and half a dozen Mandarins on the River Severn by Trimpley Reservoir later on.

In total, Boyley added a further 21 species to his list. Our next venture will probably be to Bittell Reservoirs, with the intention of seeing a few different duck species.

It's been really enjoyable to get back in touch with the birds that I have perhaps begun to take a bit for granted.

My List

2009-10-06T09:27:00.002+01:00

The Great Big Birding Spreadsheet Version 5.0 is now up and running. Here's a snippet ...

As I said before, I love spreadsheets, me!

And in case you think I've failed in my quest to use a song title for every blog entry this year, My List is track nine on Sam's Town by The Killers. Get in!

Happy Birthday

2009-10-03T09:27:00.005+01:00

Mrs Reg celebrated her birthday on Thursday. It would be very impolite of me to disclose her age, but if you add up the number of different butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies that I've seen this year, then take away the number of pectoral sandpipers I've seen, you'd have your answer.

We spent Friday with the family, walking around Draycote Water. I must point out that this was Mrs Reg's idea, and a decision that had been taken at the beginning of the week. However, when I spotted that a lesser scaup had turned up there on Thursday, I did afford myself a wry smile!

Lesser scaup at Draycote Water

Nice one, Mrs Reg. Many happy returns!

He Was The King

2009-09-27T12:23:00.004+01:00

First up today is this picture of an excellent sycamore moth caterpillar, which I found in the front garden yesterday.

Onto today, and a patch walk produced a new tick, when a kingfisher was spotted in Tanners Green Lane. Never seen one there before, so a welcome surprise.

That takes the birds seen on foot tally to 79. By the way, it's me that's on foot - not the birds, silly!

The rest of the morning has been spent revamping my birding spreadsheet in readiness for next year. I might even show you a snippet of it next time.

I love spreadsheets, me.

Stay

2009-09-20T18:11:00.003+01:00

If something good sticks locally for over a week, I do sometimes feel duty-bound to go and have a look at it.

As a result, the new Golf had its first birding-related outing this morning when my Dad and I paid homage to the pectoral sandpiper that has been at Draycote Water for over a week.

Pectoral sandpiper with a couple of dunlin

Also present was this juvenile bar-tailed godwit - a welcome addition to the year list.

Bar-tailed godwit

It's Been A While

2009-09-14T09:13:00.010+01:00

Quite a few weeks since my last post, so I thought I'd better provide a quick update on events.

Last Monday Mrs Reg and I headed off to York for a few nights. The cat was duly delivered to the cattery, which is conveniently located not too far from Bittell reservoirs. I had received news of a number of greenshanks at the upper reservoir over the weekend and the lure was too much to resist. A quick scan revealed one greenshank - my first for the year.

During my stay in York I enjoyed several good sightings, despite it being a non-birding break. On Tuesday evening I spotted a pair of peregrines displaying over York Minster and a visit to Castle Howard on Wednesday produced a lifer in the shape of a black darter in a small reservoir located in Ray Wood. I also spotted a marsh tit in the woods.

It was such a nice day on Thursday that we decided to stop off at Fairburn Ings on the way home. Whilst there I added willow tit and tree sparrow to the year list, and there was another lifer - emerald damselfly, which was seen in one of the pools. Also, many common darters on site, and southern and migrant hawkers present too.

Since getting back, I have resisted the urge to do any twitching, though the pectoral sandpiper at Draycote Water remains appealing.

I'll finish on a sad note. After 11 years and 4 months, I am saying goodbye to my trusty Peugeot 306. Rupert, as he's affectionately known, has served me well, and in spite of all his little quirks he will be missed. In about an hour's time I'll be picking up my new car - a VW Golf named Yubbub. I hope I have as many great birding adventures in him as I did in Rupert.

Until next time, I'll leave you with some shots taken over the last week or so.

Red admiral, common darter, speckled wood and common blue damselfly all seen at Castle Howard

Emerald damselfly, brimstone and common darters at Fairburn Ings

Pop Goes The Weasel

2009-08-24T09:37:00.002+01:00

Two of them in fact - seen running across the road near Shenstone yesterday. These are only the third and fourth weasels I have seen, and were the highlight of a morning spent with my friend Boyley, who has expressed an interest in becoming a birder.

I decided that the best way to spark his interest was to go to a few sites where we might see one or two elusive species. First up was Hopwood, where we had a look for a little owl. Sadly, the owl didn't put in an appearance so we headed to Upton Warren.

Here we had juvenile water rail, little ringed plover, dunlin, green sandpiper, common sandpiper and snipe - all decent spots for someone just starting their life list.

Just before we left, we were treated to good views of a peregrine that made a couple of passes over the Flashes.

Aside from the two weasels, Shenstone offered little of birding interest. Still, Boyley is on his way now with a burgeoning list comprising just under 40 species.

I'll leave you with a couple of shots taken in the garden on Saturday. The first is a rather tatty and forlorn-looking peacock. The second is the culprit that I rescued it from. Naughty boy!

Barney aka Faterpillar and the peacock

Darts Of Pleasure

2009-08-21T09:47:00.001+01:00

A couple of new pics taken at work on Wednesday.

Common green grasshopper

Common darter

Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad

2009-08-16T17:14:00.007+01:00

A trip out to Earlswood lakes this morning brought a couple of additions to the patch list - namely common sandpiper and lesser whitethroat. Sadly, no kingfisher, hence today's title.

A willow warbler in Tanners Green Lane, less than a mile from home, was also notable.

I have now surpassed 100 miles on the patch this year and accumulated 78 ticks thus far.

No pictures today as the camera stayed at home, but here a few shots taken at work on Friday.

Green-veined white

Speckled wood

Comma

Finally, it appears that silly season is now with us again, following sightings of Montagu's harrier and spotted crake at Upton Warren this weekend.

Methinks there could be a bit of twitching to be done over the next month or two!

The Boy Does Nothing

2009-08-13T18:09:00.002+01:00

That's probably what everyone at work thinks when I slope off for an hour at lunchtime. However, if it's a choice between me coming back smelling of booze, or the great outdoors, surely the latter is preferable?

Lots of good stuff around on site this week. New faces include a pair of grey wagtails and this small copper.

Shots of the small copper

A couple of snaps of some familiar faces too - a southern hawker and a common darter, both seen at rest in the wildflower meadow today.

Southern hawker and common darter

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

2009-08-10T16:33:00.002+01:00

It's been a week of mixed fortunes here at Eye To The Telescope. I'd been meaning to e-mail a few of my butterfly photos to Central Tonight, in the hope that they might be used at the top of their weather forecast.

Having bagged a decent shot of a painted lady on Thursday, I duly sent it off to the delightful Lucy Kite, who I featured in this blog some months back. On Friday evening I followed this up with shots of a comma and a small tortoiseshell taken a couple of weeks ago.

Lucy with Midlands Today berserker Ashley Blake

I didn't manage to catch the news on Friday evening, but assumed it would probably be a few days until there was any chance of one of my pictures being used. Imagine my surprise when I received word that the painted lady picture had appeared on Friday night.

I'm obviously delighted that it was used, but a bit gutted that I missed it. I'm hopeful that one of the other pictures is used over the next few weeks. I have taken steps to record the programme each night just in case.

Okay, that's Lucy dealt with - now for those diamonds ...

First up is this caterpillar, which I discovered in the garden on Saturday. It was a good couple of inches long and is presumably destined to become a moth of some sort. If anyone has any ideas as to what it might be, I would be keen to know.

A couple of shots of the mystery caterpillar

Next up is the wood sandpiper that turned up at Upton Warren on Saturday. These are great birds in my opinion and one that I will never tire of seeing. As Mrs Reg and I were heading to Webb's garden centre today, I grabbed the opportunity to go and feast my eyes on this elegant wader.

Wood sandpiper

Also present at Upton Warren were good numbers of common and green sandpipers, plus five snipe and a dunlin. I hope to be back at Upton Warren next weekend, where I will hopefully have a bit more time to look around the reserve properly. Today was unfortunately something of a smash and grab job.

Time for one last pic of the day - a large white butterfly, which I snapped at Webb's.

Large white

Together We Are Beautiful

2009-08-07T18:41:00.003+01:00

Hordes of butterflies at work this week .. one of the buddleias on site has been covered with peacocks, painted ladies and small tortoiseshells.

Various shots of the butterflies

Also on site, more southern and brown hawkers, and this common darter, which I managed to snap.

Common darter

I've Been Out Walking

2009-08-01T10:15:00.003+01:00

With much patience and some luck, I finally managed to get some shots of the southern hawkers at work this week ...

Southern hawkers

On Friday, I made my first July foray onto the patch. Birds seen included common buzzard, sparrowhawk and yellowhammer, whilst butterflies on the wing consisted of large white, meadow brown, speckled wood, green-veined white and gatekeeper.

One Eddie Stobart truck was spotted from the motorway bridge - Ysabel Sophie, taking the year's tally to 153.

Here are a few random pics from the patch ...

Deadly nightshade

Wasp thing

Harlequin ladybird

Blackberries

Welfare Mothers

2009-07-28T17:43:00.002+01:00

When Neil Young wrote Welfare Mothers, I suspect he wasn't making reference to the lepidopterists of this world, so I hope you'll forgive the pun in today's title.

However, it has to be said that I have taken my first tentative steps into the vast and imposing waters of all things moth. I'm not quite ready to throw away the water wings and immerse myself fully just yet, but I expect it will happen at some point. At the moment, I'm content to stumble across them whilst on the hunt for birds, butterflies and dragonflies, as opposed to actively pursuing them.

Armed with the Concise Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland, I've already bagged a few species and been able to identify them myself - something that gives me great pleasure. Throw in a few that I've chanced upon over the last few years, such as dark arches, and I've got the beginnings of a life list of sorts.

Today I found a new addition to this list, silver Y, which I observed at work. For once, the sun was shining and there were many butterflies on the wing - commas, painted ladies, gatekeepers and peacocks to name but a few.

Conditions were good for photos and, on the whole, the butterflies were playing ball too.

Silver Y moth

Small white

Peacock

Gatekeepers

Painted ladies

Finally, I think this is a green-veined white, but I still struggle with the white butterflies from time to time.

Green-veined white - or is it?

The wildlife at work has been nothing short of sensational over the past couple of months. Also on the wing today, a couple of southern hawkers, a brown hawker and a common darter. The green woodpeckers were out and about too.

Green woodpecker

I simply must get out on a neglected patch this week. I have Friday morning pencilled in for a stroll up to Weatheroak, where recent sightings include hobby and raven. I spotted a second local red kite just over a week ago near Shirley station, so I think that has to be another possibility, albeit a remote one.

As usual, a full report will follow in due course.

All Apologies

2009-07-23T18:10:00.003+01:00

I don't know how many of you follow my tweets on the side of the blog, but lately they seem to be more concerned with Big Brother, the Ashes and digestive biscuits than they do birding. Sorry about that.

Okay, apologies over - back to the matter in hand ...

Only one picture today, and a bit of a macabre one at that. At work they have a number of lights posted in the ground and I've noticed that they attract the creepy crawlies.

However, once inside, it seems the wee beasties can't escape and the lights become littered with the poor blighters' bleached corpses.

As I say, a little grotesque, but interesting all the same.

Dead stuff

I'm not a fan of large spiders, dead or alive, so it took some courage to get close to that fellow on the left of the picture. Yikes - what a whopper!

It's not all doom and gloom, however - there's still plenty of thriving wildlife on site. Best spots this week include two southern hawkers, a brown hawker, some small tortoiseshells, red admirals, commas and a six-spot burnet.

The green woodpeckers remain very active too and can usually be located with a bit of patience and a good ear.

Bizarre moment of the week so far was a juvenile moorhen that did an excellent impression of a ruff. That caused a moment's panic, I can tell you!

I Love It When You Call

2009-07-19T09:34:00.001+01:00

A quick round up from the past week. Firstly, the lesser whitethroat that I mentioned last time. Having returned from Devon, I went to pick up Barney from the cattery on Sunday morning and was pretty sure I could hear a lesser whitethroat singing near the Redditch Road, not far from Lower Bittell Reservoir.

What with it being a favourite bird of mine and not having seen one this year, I popped back down there on Monday morning. After a bit of searching, I finally tracked down the bird on the Old Birmingham Road.

After that, I paid a brief visit to Lower Bittell Reservoir. There I saw a linnet, yellowhammer and a green woodpecker, along with a ringlet butterfly and some common blue damselflies.

I've also seen the green woodpeckers at work a few times this week. There are also still plenty of butterflies on site, including this comma and small tortoiseshell that I snapped on Thursday.

Comma

Small tortoiseshell

Down By The Seaside

2009-07-12T17:03:00.004+01:00

As promised, here are a selection of the highlights from Devon, plus a few pictures ...

Dawlish Warren

Various sorties down to the reserve during the week produced some good birds, including Arctic skua, sandwich tern, Mediterranean gull, common gull, dunlin, whitethroat, little egret, linnet, reed warbler, reed bunting, gannet, kittiwake, little grebe and stonechat. A tawny owl was seen in the small hours of Friday morning from the lodge in which we were staying.

I noticed some smaller terns amongst a group of sandwich terns on Saturday evening. They may have been roseate terns, but I did not have my scope and couldn't clinch identification with my bins.

Mediterranean gull amongst black-headed gulls

Butterflies seen included common blue, comma, small copper, meadow brown, red admiral, peacock, gatekeeper, large white, small skipper, large skipper, marbled white and speckled wood. A drinker moth was seen in the hide.

Small copper

Drinker moth

Blue-tailed damselflies seemed to be the predominant species on site. Confirmed dragonflies consisted of emperor dragonfly and common darter. Some probable broad-bodied chasers were seen, but never identified with absolute certainty.

Also, large numbers of six-spot burnet and many cinnabar moth caterpillars on site. Badgers were seen on three separate occasions from our lodge, as were some very large, but unidentified bats.

Cinnabar moth caterpillars

Other sites

A summer-plumaged Slavonian grebe was seen at Cockwood. Bowling Green Marsh held black-tailed godwits, redshank and a few dunlin, plus a black-tailed skimmer, many butterflies, including ringlet, large skipper and comma, and a yellow shell moth. The caterpillar of the grey dagger moth was seen in Topsham.

Black-tailed skimmer

Grey dagger moth caterpillar

At Aylesbeare and Woodbury Commons, linnet, meadow pipit, stonechat and Dartford warbler were the best of the birds on offer. Butterflies included small heath and grayling. Several keeled skimmers and a golden-ringed dragonfly were seen, along with azure and large red damselflies. A small tortoiseshell was seen at Exminster Marshes on Thursday.

Keeled skimmer

Large red damselfly

Azure damselfly

Grayling

Small heath

My first assignment having returned home is to have a look for a lesser whitethroat that I heard locally this morning. Not quite within walking distance, but a welcome opportunity to catch up with one of my favourite birds fairly close to home.

Flying In A Blue Dream

2009-07-11T18:26:00.002+01:00

The weather was a bit mixed, but a week's vacation in Devon produced some excellent birds, butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies, with common blue butterflies probably weighing in as my favourite spot of the trip.

Common blue

A selection of the other highlights, plus a few more pictures will follow soon ...

What A Difference A Day Makes

2009-07-01T22:14:00.002+01:00

Not many words today, but a few pictures. Highlights at work were the first marbled whites and small skippers of the year. I think it's amazing that neither of these species were on site yesterday, but twenty-four hours later, here they are!

Hope to get better shots of the marbled whites tomorrow and Friday.

Also on site today, a brown hawker dragonfly, three species of damselfly and, perhaps best of all, a red kite spotted from the window after lunch. I cracked my head whilst rushing to get a proper look. Worth it, I think. Ouch!

Marbled white

Small skipper

Female common blue damselfly, I think

Naked

2009-06-30T17:42:00.002+01:00

If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise ...

To be honest, stumbling across the teddy bears' picnic would have seemed humdrum compared to what I actually saw in the Wyre Forest yesterday. Mrs Reg and I had set off in search of silver-washed fritillaries, but on reaching the spot where I encountered them last year, I was greeted by the sight of a naked lady.

Said lady was accompanied by a fully-clothed gentleman. I have no idea what they were up to and nor do I wish to know. There was no sign of a struggle or anything particularly untoward going on, so we sauntered off in the direction we had come from and left them to it, whatever it was.

Whilst no further sightings could top this unusual spectacle, we did encounter a good variety of wildlife, including a wood warbler, a spotted flycatcher, a dipper, a hornet, a six-spot burnet moth, two golden-ringed dragonflies, a brown hawker dragonfly and a slow worm.

Fortunately, two silver-washed fritillaries were also present in the meadow alongside Dowles Brook, so I left the forest a happy man. And that had absolutely nothing to do with the bird in the raw - honest!

Next up, Upton Warren, where there was a distinct lack of unclothed people. Spots here included reed warbler, sedge warbler, comma and red admiral butterflies, and a few green sandpipers. Also, some blue-tailed and common blue damselflies, and a few banded demoiselles. Another brown hawker was seen and possibly some broad-bodied chasers too, but I wasn't absolutely certain so they have not been ticked.

Some pictures follow, though none of our bare friend I'm afraid ...

Slow worm

Comma

Common blue damselfly

Finally, a picture of a blue-tailed damselfly taken at work this afternoon.

Blue-tailed damselfly

Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough

2009-06-28T13:45:00.001+01:00

I was never a huge fan of Michael Jackson, but love him or hate him, he was undoubtedly an important figure in the world of music, and certainly one of the most iconic. It seemed only right to reference him in today's blog entry, but the above song title also seems fitting in relation to my continuing mission to get some decent butterfly and dragonfly photographs - I've rattled off many pictures over the past week or so, and most have had to be consigned to the recycle bin.

However, amidst all the rubbish are one or two nuggets of gold. Attempts to get some shots at work were largely unsuccessful, so yesterday Mrs Reg and I drove to Earlswood Lakes to see what was about. Butterflies included red admiral, ringlet, meadow brown, large skipper and speckled wood. Common blue damselfies were seen, as were blue-tailed damselflies, the latter of which I life-ticked at work last week. Best of all were a few red-eyed damselflies, which are the first I have encountered.

I'm really pleased with some of the pictures I took. Here are a selection:

Grey squirrel taken at work last week

Blue-tailed damselflies taken at work

Meadow brown taken at work

Unidentified moth seen at Earlswood Lakes

Ringlet butterfly - unusually happy to stay put whilst I photographed it!

Large skipper

Speckled wood

Extra Ordinary Thing

2009-06-24T16:35:00.002+01:00

Today's very short blog entry owes its title to a song by Aqualung, who I went to see at the Glee Club in Birmingham last night. What an evening - Matt Hales is a musical genius in my eyes and he's written some beautiful songs. Most of you will probably never have heard of him, but his best known song is probably Strange And Beautiful, which was used on the VW Beetle ads a number of years ago.

Anyway, as promised I have been out and about with the camera this week, trying to get better shots of some of the wildlife at work. More about that in the next entry, but to whet your appetite, I thought I'd just quickly post a picture of this narrow-bordered five spot burnet that I stumbled across on Tuesday.

Narrow-bordered five spot burnet

Getting decent shots of the ringlets, meadow browns and large skippers has proved tricky - these species all seem to be quite skittish, though I did manage to get two ringlets in my hand today!

I'll continue to plug away at them tomorrow and Friday, and hopefully post some shots here at the weekend.

Oh, and there's news of another lifer to come too ...

I Found Heaven

2009-06-21T21:42:00.002+01:00

My little walks around the grounds at work continue to throw up lots of good stuff, particularly in the wildflower meadow, which is brilliant for butterflies. A couple of weeks ago, I saw my first ever ringlet here, and on Friday another lifer came my way. I thought I had spotted a small skipper and rattled off a record shot, but when I got home I realised that it was actually a large skipper.

Shots of a ringlet and the large skipper follow, but I hope to be able to get better pictures in due course.

Ringlet

Large skipper

Asides from these, other recent sightings in this area include a grass snake, a few meadow browns and the first southern hawker dragonfly of the year.

With the temperatures set to rise and with the promise of more sunshine on the way, my camera will definitely be accompanying me to work next week!

Catching The Butterfly

2009-06-18T08:39:00.002+01:00

Asides from the painted ladies captured in Wales, I also picked up a couple of butterfly lifers during the trip - small white and wall brown. Other species seen included large white, speckled wood, green-veined white and a single orange-tip.

I didn't do a lot of birding during the trip, but still saw some great species. On the journey up, I stopped on the Berwyns and had a munch on my prawn baguette. Whilst chewing away, I heard, then spotted a splendid male common crossbill in the trees in front of us. A very unexpected year tick, and a lifer for Mrs Reg. Crippling views too.

On arriving in Llangybi, we all had a walk up the lane to the magic field - a beautiful spot for birding and home to a wide variety of species, including a merlin that my father spotted during the winter months. Methinks I shall have to do some winter birding in Wales next year!

A leisurely walk produced some nice birds, but nothing exceptional. This is where I spotted my wall brown butterflies, which I identified from photographs when I got home.

Wall brown butterfly

Green beetle on sheep's bit scabius

On Sunday we did a few jobs in the garden, though I was a little distracted by the painted ladies that had taken up residence in the front garden. Later on, a large red damselfly turned up in the pond, then what was almost certainly a four-spotted chaser dragonfly appeared momentarily, before shooting off never to be seen again. The damselfly was a lifer, as would have been the dragonfly, but I was reluctant to tick it without being absolutely sure about its identity.

Large red damselfly

After ice-creams in Criccieth, I trawled the rock pools on the beach. I was hoping to find a starfish and it wasn't long before I discovered this little chap.

Starfish found on Criccieth beach

A scan of the sea didn't produce anything. I had hoped to see Manx shearwaters and gannets, but none were present.

Our luck changed that evening though when my Mum, Dad and I took an evening stroll up to the magic field. Several grasshopper warblers were reeling away in the grass, and after about half an hour we were treated to the best ever views I have had of this elusive species. Much better than the fleeting glimpse I had in Islay recently.

On Monday we stumbled upon several pied flycatchers in woodland near Tan-Y-Bwlch, plus common blue damselflies in huge numbers. Two wood warblers were heard, but remained out of sight. Another large red damselfly was seen, plus an unidentified dragonfly, that looked like it might have been a common hawker.

Common blue damselfly

On Tuesday we headed up the coast to Coed Aber. This produced several redstarts, a garden warbler, and lifers in the shape of a golden-ringed dragonfly and the aforementioned small white butterfly. On returning to the bungalow, I sat by the pond for a couple of hours in the hope that a few more damselflies or dragonflies would reappear, but it remained quiet.

Small white butterfly

News of a royal tern in the area resulted in us having another scan of the sea on Tuesday evening, but this only produced a few distant gannets.

I'm off to Devon in a couple of weeks, so I really must get out on the patch before then. The weather doesn't look too bad this weekend, so I hope to be out looking for a few butterflies, damselflies and dragonflies a bit closer to home.

She's A Lady

2009-06-17T18:00:00.003+01:00

The undoubted highlight of the few days I just spent in Wales, was getting some nice shots of these painted lady butterflies.

More details regarding the trip in due course ...

The Boys Are Back In Town [Part 3 of 3]

2009-06-09T13:52:00.003+01:00

Owling Mad - Thursday 28 May 2009

Our destination today was the Mull of Oa. This is a beautiful bit of headland, situated at the southern tip of Islay, so just a short drive from our base camp in Port Ellen.

Birds of note included fulmar, raven, rock dove, black guillemot and hooded crow. On Wednesday evening, however, I had garnered a bit of information regarding nesting golden eagles and it wasn't long before we were enjoying cracking views of one of these majestic birds as it rose into the sky, harrassed by a number of corvids, some of which looked suspiciously like choughs.

After an enjoyable walk and a packed lunch, we drove in the direction of nearby Kintra Bay, spotting a male hen harrier and a whinchat on the way.

Whinchat

Kintra Bay was very pretty, but didn't offer too much in the way of birds, though a decent flock of common gulls was notable. However, on the way to Kintra Bay, Ivor was certain that he had spotted a short-eared owl. Some of the others put in a few minutes looking for this bird on the way back and were fairly sure they had latched onto it near the golf course.

We were heading up that way later on to drop David Chalmers off at the airport, so a few of us convened at the golf course and had a look for the owl. When Dad and I arrived, Brian had already spotted what he thought might be the owl on a post. After some deliberation, I was satisfied that this was indeed the short-eared owl, though the views could not be described as crippling. Still, a splendid trip bird.

Another Slice Of Crake - Friday 29 May 2009

More intense birding followed on Friday. Following up on some of the gen I had received earlier in the week, we headed to Kilchoman, where we understood corncrakes might be a bit easier to see.

On the way there, we saw a barnacle goose on the shores of Loch Indaal, then a pair of common scoter at Loch Gorm. Sadly, a biting, relentless wind put paid to any hopes of finding a corncrake once we arrive at Kilchoman.

Moving swiftly on, we picked up a number of choughs at Machir Bay, then headed down to Portnahaven, adding white-fronted goose to the trip list on the way.

Portnahaven itself was beautiful. A superb Arctic tern was fishing in the bay, where a number of common seals were loafing on the rocks.

Common seals at Portnahaven

Driving around the coast, we saw another male hen harrier. Soon afterwards we decided to stop the cars and have a scan around. Over the next half hour we were treated to exceptional views of a pair of golden eagles as they patrolled the area, occasionally being mobbed by the hooded crows. The hen harrier also reappeared, making it one of the best birding moments of the trip.

As we headed back across The Rhinns to Port Charlotte, we had views of another golden eagle, plus a couple of white wagtails and another whinchat.

With the weather somewhat improved, we had another stab at corncrake back at Kilchoman. We could hear a bird calling, but as we were trying to pinpoint where it was, there was excitement from Ivor and Steve, who believed they had seen one of the birds fly over the wall and into the field.

Panic struck as everyone tried to get directions as to where this bird had come down. We found ourselves staring at a small patch of vegetation. Suddenly, there was movement and yet more panic as we all tried to get our bins on the bird that was bobbing about just out of sight. Imagine our disappointment when a thrush hopped into view!

Ivor and Steve maintain that they did indeed see a corncrake and I have no reason to doubt them, but we failed in our quest to relocate the bird, despite the help of a lady from the RSPB who kindly allowed us onto the land and attempted to sort out access for us the following evening. More about that later.

That evening I had a walk along the road to Kintra Bay on my own. I was hoping for owls, which I didn't see, but a few deer and a reeling grasshopper warbler were nice surprises.

Sunset along the lane

I Seafood And I Eat It - Saturday 30 May 2009

Saturday saw us back on the whisky trail at the Ardbeg distillery. It was something of a scorcher too, and after three days of fairly intensive birding it was great to soak up a few rays and do nothing in particular.

Ardbeg distillery

We planned to have one final go for the corncrakes that evening, so not too much whisky was consumed, though I couldn't resist a few more oysters. This turned out to be a very bad idea indeed!

Having returned to the cottage, we were just preparing to head into Port Ellen for a meal, when I came over all queasy. Thinking I may have just had a bit too much sun, I put on a brave face and travelled down to the restaurant. Once there, however, I quickly realised that I was not very well at all.

Taking the house keys, I started walking back to Cairn Cottage, but only made it to the public toilets in Port Ellen before I was violently ill. Yep - that'll be the oysters then! Must have had a dodgy one.

Which one do you think made me ill?

Stopping only once more on the way back to the cottage to dry-heave at the side of the road, I made it back with my dignity still relatively intact. Within minutes though I was slumped on the toilet. I'll spare you the gory details readers, but let's just say the words ends and both spring to mind. Finally, devoid of my stomach lining and probably a stone lighter, I went to bed.

A bit later, the others returned. Dad came in to see me and asked if I was still up for a bit of corncraking. To be honest, if he'd said a corncrake was downstairs watching Britain's Got Talent, I don't think I would have made it.

Anyway, they set off and I fell asleep, but was delighted to wake up two hours later feeling much improved. Hell, by 11:00pm I was out in the lane looking for cockchafer beetles! I guess my body must have rejected that bad oyster before it really did me any serious harm. With a 13 hour journey ahead of us on Sunday, it came as something of a relief, I can tell you!

Oh, and the others dipped on the corncrake again, so I hadn't missed anything important!

Homeward Bound - Sunday 31 May 2009

The ferry trip back produced a similar list to the one we had accumulated on the way to Islay, with the notable exceptions of a possible kittiwake, a possible Manx shearwater, a great skua and an otter. Sadly, Leapy was not on deck when the skua was spotted. A pity - it would have been a British lifer for him, and he doesn't get many of them nowadays.

Cairn Cottage as seen from the ferry

An unidentified butterfly was flitting around the deck too. Steve said that as we were on a boat, it must be a red admiral. Quick as a flash, I replied, "Or a skipper!"

The roads and motorways brought us another haul of Eddie Stobarts, though nothing like as many as the journey up. Around 100 lorries for the whole trip in total, I think.

Also, a few more trip birds, namely swift, great spotted woodpecker and sparrowhawk.

Finally after a full day's travelling I was reunited with Mrs Reg. It had been an amazing trip, with some great banter, good food, good company and of course, some exceptional birding.

A pity about the corncrakes. Still, it gives me at least one reason to head back there someday, doesn't it?

The Boys Are Back In Town [Part 2 of 3]

2009-06-06T17:47:00.002+01:00

Rock 'n Roll - Monday 25 May 2009

The rain was coming down on Monday morning, but this wasn't a problem as we were off to the Caol Ila distillery. One of the birds I had been really keen to see on Islay was the pure rock dove - none of your feral nonsense that litter our towns and cities, although I must confess I do tick these each year!

As we neared the distillery, we spotted a ploughed field, which contained a good number of rock doves. It was quite odd to see these birds all sporting the same, smart finery. After a hastily snatched record shot, we continued to Caol Ila.

A couple of rock doves

Once at the distillery, we were greeted by a pair of camera-friendly black guillemots - no scope required for these two.

Black guillemots at Caol Ila

After an enjoyable tour of the distillery, led by the charming Hazel, we headed to a room to sample some of the distillery's wares. Although you could effectively drink as much as you wanted, we exercised a bit more caution than we had at Lagavulin. I was so impressed by one of the cask-strength bottlings that I made my first purchase of the holiday.

Caol Ila distillery

On the way back we had more rock doves, then a willow warbler in Bridgend woods. A scan of the northen shore of Loch Indaal produced common gull, dunlin, ringed plover, a pair of wigeon and a few terns, possibly arctic, possibly common - we weren't sure. A pair of grey wagtails were spotted on the river that runs through the village.

We spent the evening at the ceilidh in Port Ellen, where we enjoyed an evening of traditional Scottish song and dance.

Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow - Tuesday 26 May 2009

A pleasant start to the day meant the first opportunity to look for the corncrake near the cottage. We found out later in the week that finding birds on this part of the island is quite unusual. Mind you, hearing them is one thing - seeing one is a different matter. Our bird was calling readily, but it was impossible to tell exactly where it was and we never spotted it.

Not to worry - we enjoyed good views of the local brown hares as they charged around the fields. Also seen that morning were more hooded crows, siskin, wheatear and the spotted flycatcher in nearby Cairnmore Woods.

Hares - bonkers

Continuing our run of distillery visits, we walked to Laphroaig later that morning. Dad and I fell behind the others on the way there, which turned out to be a good thing. As we approached the distillery, I had a scan of the hills to our left and noticed what appeared to be a large raptor in the sky. After careful deliberation we realised this was our first golden eagle of the trip, and it was quickly joined by another. The views were distant, but the size and power of the birds was quite distinct.

More drams at the distillery, where once again the staff were quite happy to pour out as much whisky as you wanted. Again though, we showed an incredible amount of restraint. I'm not even sure if I hit double figures.

Reg outside Laphroaig

As a Friend of Laphroaig, I actually own a square foot of land near the distillery, so was able to collect my rent from them - a miniature bottle of Laphroaig Quarter Cask - one of my very favourite tipples, no less!

Before leaving, I made another purchase - a bottle of cask-strength Laphroaig. A snip at £30.00.

That evening we saw the spotted flycatcher again and spent some time photographing the local siskins as they fed from next door's feeder.

Siskins

A Whin Whin Situation - Wednesday 27 May 2009

Believe it or not, we didn't visit a distillery on Wednesday. Instead, we planned to go hill walking near the Ardbeg distillery - a hot spot for golden eagles. Whilst we didn't encounter any eagles, we did have a single red grouse, which was flushed by Matt as he ploughed a lonely furrow away to our left, a pair of whinchats and a few stonechats. A cuckoo was heard in the valley too.

Hill walking near Ardbeg

An orchid spotted by Ivor during our walk

Weird bog plant

After a full day's walking, most people were happy to kick back once we returned to the cottage. Not me though - I took a stroll around the beach and the lanes. It felt a bit like patch birding, but the prizes on offer far outweighed anything I see in Wythall - black-throated diver, eider, shag, razorbill, guillemot, red-breasted merganser and sand martin were all spotted from the beach.

Up the lanes I had wheatear, meadow pipit, stonechat, curlew, hooded crow, common buzzard and the spotted flycatcher, plus I got some good gen from a fellow birder who had spent the day on the Mull of Oa. We were off there the next day, so this was of particular interest.

Stonechat

More about that in the next instalment, plus news of our big corncrake adventure, sickness in the camp, and an eventful ferry trip back to the mainland ...

The Boys Are Back In Town [Part 1 of 3]

2009-06-04T17:24:00.001+01:00

The Isle of Islay. Situated off the west coast of Scotland, just north of Northern Ireland. Home to some of the finest whisky in the world and the destination for thousands of geese during the winter months. The birding ain't too shabby during the rest of the year either. The jewel in the crown is the elusive corncrake, a summer visitor that spends most of its time skulking in vegetation, teasing hopeful birders with its rasping call.

I visited Islay for the first time in May 2006 and was privileged enough to hear these amazing birds. Some three years on I was hopeful to go one better and catch a glimpse of one. I won't keep you in suspense - I didn't manage it, but I had a heck of a good time trying, and there were many brilliant moments along the way. So this is it - my account of a memorable week spent on the beautiful island of Islay, Queen of the Hebrides.

The Islay crew: Dave 'Leapy' Lyons, Dave 'Ivor' Thomas, Matt Bailey, Ray Scott, Brian York, Steve Jones, David Chalmers

On The Road Again - Friday 22 May 2009

Leaving Birmingham at around 6:45am, the first thing on my mind was spotting as many Eddie Stobarts as possible on the way up to Scotland. They came thick and fast, and by the time we reached the services at Tebay we already had an impressive tally. After a hearty breakfast we continued to Glasgow, notching many more on the way. Passing Loch Lomond, a stoat dashed across the road in front of us - an unexpected bonus, and only the second one I have seen if my memory serves me correctly.

We stopped at Inverary for lunch. It seemed only right for me to choose the Highland Burger from the menu. This consisted of a venison burger topped with haggis, and very nice it was too. There was one final Eddie Stobart on the roads that snake through the Mull of Kintyre - Meisha Reagen. In view of where we spotted it, Dave Lyons felt it could be some kind of mega-crippler of the Stobart world. That made me chuckle.

We reached Kennacraig in good time, allowing us the opportunity to scan the water. By the time we set sail, the year list was ticking over nicely. Gannet, eider and hooded crow had been spotted in and around Loch Fyne, and black guillemot and red-throated diver were present at Kennacraig, along with a fine trip bird in the shape of great northern diver. From the ferry we saw more divers, guillemots and presumed harbour porpoises. As we arrived at Port Askaig, a few shags and great black-backed gulls were noted.

Three shots of the great northern diver

Birding from the ferry

After a nightcap at the local hostelry, plus another back at our B&B in Bowmore, we turned in for the night.

Bowmore distillery

Whisky Galore - Saturday 23 May 2009

Saturday was the Lagavulin open day. After getting our groceries in Bowmore, we drove to our home for the next week, Cairn Cottage near Port Ellen. We walked to the distillery and bagged more good birds on the way, including sedge warbler, house martin and common buzzard. Willow warblers and a single chiffchaff were heard, but remained out of sight.

Setting off for Lagavulin

Lagavulin distillery

We had a brilliant day at Lagavulin. The first oysters of the trip were consumed, much whisky was drunk and a tasting session in the warehouse with the legendary Iain MacArthur was both entertaining and informative.

A somewhat pissed Reg and Iain MacArthur

Staggering back along the lanes, my Dad and I were offered a lift back to Port Ellen from a Frenchman who looked a little like Liam Connor from Coronation Street. We duly accepted, and whizzed past the others, cheering and waving as we did so. Alighting at Port Ellen we began the short walk back to the cottage, and laughed when the others came whizzing past, having blagged a lift of their own from German couple Stefan and Ursula, who we bumped into several times during the week.

We were now joined by the eighth member of our party, David Chalmers, whose plane had finally been allowed to leave the mainland some six hours later than planned. Despite being pretty well tanked-up already we were soon on the gin and tonics, and we polished off a few bottles of red wine with our pizza that evening. I think we also had another few malts later on, though it's difficult to recall. One thing was certain - if we continued at this pace, we would be lucky to return to the mainland with our livers intact!

Fins Are Looking Up! - Sunday 24 May 2009

Brian and I had a walk along the lanes near Cairn Cottage on Sunday morning. This was really productive, with spotted flycatcher, hooded crows, whitethroat, linnet, wheatear, lesser redpoll and stonechat all seen. Also, a huge caterpillar, which I always find enjoyable. From the conservatory that morning we also had razorbill and another great northern diver.

Impressive fellow

After breakfast everybody headed for Loch Gruinart - home to the elusive corncrake. We heard corncrake in approximately the same area as three years ago, but knew that trying to spot it was going to be nigh impossible - even when Matt decided to take a wander through the vegetation. A spell in the hide added several birds to the trip list, including a distant male hen harrier.

Matt seeks the elusive corncrake

Green-veined white at Loch Gruinart

Sedge warbler

After a few hours at the Bruichladdich distillery we went back to the cottage. I was flaked, so I had a nap on my bed, but was woken to be told that there was a pod of bottlenose dolphins in the bay. They hung around for the next hour or two, but I was unable to get any really good pictures, just a few record shots. Amazing stuff! A black-throated diver was also present.

Record shots of the dolphins

The black-throated diver

That evening saw Brian, my Dad and I take an evening stroll up the lane. We were surprised to hear a corncrake calling from one of the fields near the cottage, and resolved to have a stab at it one morning. More about that and other adventures in the second instalment ...

The Winner Takes It All

2009-06-01T18:27:00.002+01:00

After a 13 hour journey over land and sea, you'll hopefully be pleased to hear that I'm back from Islay. The trip report is going to take some time to compile, so just a quick blog entry to announce the winners of the recent quiz, and to lampoon the majority of you for not taking part. Shame on you!

Okay, here are the results ...

In first place, with an impressive 19 correct answers out of 20, it's me old mucker Kay Donaghy. Either she's some kind of genius, or shares the same kind of warped thinking as me. You can be the judge of that.

Kay wins 290 Telescope points.

In second place, with a not-bad-at-all 14 correct answers is the blurry one himself, Mr Martyn Yapp. Congratulations sir.

Martyn wins 190 Telescope points.

Normally at this stage I'd be announcing third place, but as there were no other entrants I can't.

For those that are interested [presumably just Kay and Martin then!] the answers were:

Crested Tit
Fieldfare
Desert Wheatear
Garden Warbler
Jackdaw
Nightjar
House Martin
Grey Wagtail
Killdeer
Nuthatch
Parrot Crossbill
Royal Tern
Water Rail
Willow Warbler
Puffin
Solitary Sandpiper
Waxwing
Purple Sandpiper
Turnstone
Whinchat

If you need any of those explaining, please don't hesitate to contact Kay!

My next report should be the first part of the Islay trip. Can't promise when that will be, as I have loads of photos to sort through and much typing to do.

In the meantime, don't forget to apply your suncream.

We Can Work It Out

2009-05-21T22:09:00.001+01:00

Fans of Eye To The Telescope will be pleased to learn that I am not going to abandon them completely whilst I am away in Islay. Firstly, I intend to be sending any birding news to Twitter, which will of course also appear on my blog.

Secondly, as announced last week, I have devised a little quiz to keep you all occupied while I'm away. What follows are 20 pictures, all of which lead to the identity of a species of bird. Some of them are a bit cryptic, but others are hopefully more straightforward.

If you wish to take part, use the link at the bottom to add a comment. I vet all comments before they appear on the blog, so when I return I can mark everybody's answers and announce the winners.

Of course, it wouldn't be a quiz without a few Telescope points on offer, so here's how the scoring system will work:

Each correct answer will be awarded 10 points.

Anyone who gets all 20 birds will be awarded a further 50 points.

First, second and third places will then receive 100, 50 and 25 points respectively.

Therefore, if you get all 20 right and win the quiz, you stand to receive a whopping 350 Telescope points.

To prevent anyone from submitting multiple answers, I think I will have to be strict and say that I will accept your first set of answers only.

Okay, enough from me ... here are the pictures:

Good luck everybody!

I'm back a week on Sunday, so look out for the answers and the scores on the doors soon afterwards.

Au revoir, fellow birders!

The Birds Will Sing For Us

2009-05-12T18:21:00.003+01:00

When I visited Minsmere last spring, I had my first ever glimpse of a nightingale. Despite being bowled over by its song and feeling fortunate to have had fleeting views of the bird, it was always one of those unsatisfactory ticks that you inevitably get from time to time. With that in mind, I resolved to visit Paxton Pits this year - a renowned site for this elusive species.

Mrs Reg and I headed off on Monday morning, and the ticks flowed fast and free right from the word go - I think we saw about a dozen Eddie Stobarts on the way there. After a decent steak and chips in St. Neots, we made our way to Paxton Pits, arriving at about 2:00pm.

We didn't have to wait long to see our first nightingale. Mrs Reg spotted it first, in the scrub to the right of the path. Not crippling views, but already much better than those had at Minsmere. The song was as rich and mellifluous [great word!] as I remembered, but perhaps a bit louder than I recalled.

A few garden warblers were noted before we mistakenly headed off along the River Ouse, instead of sticking to the Heron Trail. It turned out to be a good mistake to make, as we had excellent views of banded demoiselles and common blue damselflies along the path. A brown hawker dragonfly was also seen. Butterflies included green-veined whites, orange-tips and speckled woods. Further down we saw a couple of cuckoos, and then I had my first ever hornet, which truth be told was a little scary!

Having walked a fair way down the river, we realised we were somewhat off track and turned back. Once back on the Heron Trail we had our second nightingale of the day, but little else as we made our way back to the car park. After a bite to eat we ventured down the Meadow Trail, but other than a sedge warbler this didn't produce much either. Our final hoorah was another walk down the first part of the Heron Trail, which resulted in a couple more cuckoos and another nightingale near the Kingfisher Hide.

On the way back home we had another abundance of Eddie Stobarts, with a final tally of 22 for the day. Not bad, though I expect I'll top that when we travel up to Scotland at the end of next week.

Before I hit the hay last night, I had my usual check of the internet to see what had been around. I nearly fell off my chair when I saw that a wryneck had been spotted at the site during the afternoon. I hadn't noticed any great activity during our visit, and the chap from the RSPB that I spoke to at about 5:00pm didn't mention it either. I don't carry a pager or have mobile access to the internet, so this was the first I had heard of it.

I didn't lose any sleep over the wryneck. Having spent six hours in the Wyre on Sunday and five hours at Paxton Pits, I was out like a light, though my dreams did tend to centre around birdsong and walking. Can't think why!

Bird Brain

As promised in yesterday's blog entry [seems like an age ago now!], I have pulled together a little something to keep you amused whilst I am in Islay. I'll be away for over a week and I expect the trip report will take some time to assemble, so I have devised a quiz, which will be posted here in just over a week's time.

Prior to that, there'll probably be a report from the patch, which I intend to visit during the weekend.

Until then, happy birding!

Wild Wood

2009-05-11T08:32:00.003+01:00

What a beautiful place the Wyre Forest is. Always so much to see, not just in terms of birds, but other wildlife and plant life too. I visited the forest with Steve Jones yesterday. Steve is a regular on our various birding trips and will be joining us when we travel to Islay a week on Friday.

My main aim was to latch onto pied flycatchers in Knowles Coppice. Sadly, despite a considerable effort, none were seen. The various birders we encountered reported a similar story, so maybe they were laying low yesterday. Another notable absentee was the pair of mandarins that have been reported regularly during the past week or two. We walked a considerable way down Dowles Brook, but didn't catch sight of them.

Anyway, enough of the negatives - let's focus on what we did see. A displaying tree pipit was our first tick of note, quickly followed by a pair of garden warblers. A red-legged partridge was at Lodge Hill Farm. Once past Lodge Hill Farm, we heard a couple of wood warblers away to our right, but couldn't see them.

A cuckoo was calling ahead of us, so we continued further down the path than I normally would. Despite not finding the cuckoo, I came across a stack of pearl-bordered fritillary butterflies. I've not seen these before and I was surprised to find that they are quite small. I'd imagined them to be larger. At the time, this led me to think they were small pearl-bordered fritillaries, but I positively identified them from pictures when I got home.

They are absolutely stunning, aren't they? Other butterflies seen today were brimstone, peacock, large white, orange-tip, green-veined white and speckled wood. I was seconds away from getting a picture of a brimstone, which was somewhat infuriating.

Back to the birds, and we spotted a redstart in Knowles Coppice, and several dippers and grey wagtails in and around Dowles Brook. Returning to Knowles Coppice, we finally caught up with a more showy wood warbler.

We then bumped into a friend of Martyn Yapp's, who had heard a grasshopper warbler along the old railway line. Steve had to head off at this point, but I put a bit of time in to see if I could hear anything. Unfortunately, I couldn't, so I did one final circuit of Knowles Coppice then headed back to the car. On the way back a cuckoo finally revealed itself, flying high over the Lodge Hill Farm area.

A fantastic six hours!

Snap Happy

The new camera accompanied me to work every day last week. On Thursday, I managed to get some nice pictures of large white and speckled wood butterflies.

The best of the birding was a green woodpecker seen fleetingly, and a bullfinch around the feeders. Blackcaps and chiffchaffs were heard singing, but it was otherwise quiet. Although there are many moorhen chicks now scampering around the place, I have yet to see any mallards with young. I'm not quite sure why - there are normally several ducks with broods by now. I'll have to keep my eye on that one.

Swifts have made it onto the year list and patch list in the last week too, and the nesting coal tits now appear to be taking food into the nest. I hope I'm around when the youngsters finally appear.

Pit Stop

I'm heading off to Paxton Pits later this morning. No prizes for guessing what I'm hoping to see there! Their website also reveals that there could be a few nice butterflies on the wing, so rest assured, I'll be keeping an eye out for them too.

A report from Paxton Pits will follow later this week, plus news of something else that I have been working on recently. Being the tease that I am, I won't say too much just now, but have no fears - I can feel some Telescope points coming on!

Photograph

2009-05-06T18:08:00.002+01:00

Last year my digital camera ran into a spot of bother on Abersoch beach when it became infiltrated with sand. It has been limping along ever since, with a knackered zoom lens and a reluctance to charge properly, which has left me high and dry in the field on occasion. Finally, I decided it was time to replace the poor blighter, though I haven't assigned him to the scrap heap just yet, as he will still be accompanying me on my travels in case of emergencies.

I am keen to capture some stills and video footage of the Islay trip, which is fast approaching and it pains me to say that the old boy just wasn't up to the task. Therefore, I took delivery of my new digital compact on Tuesday, having scraped together a bit of birthday money and some existing savings.

I have been having a bit of a play with it today at work and a few of my better efforts follow:

Incidentally, I know the pictures on my blog are quite small. If you want to see them at their actual size, you can right click on them, then copy and paste them into another application.

A bit of digiscoping in the garden this evening also proved fairly successful, so with a bit more practice and experimentation I should be in fine shape for Islay, which is now just over two weeks away.

The Long Day Is Over

2009-05-03T08:21:00.001+01:00

Well, it was something of a marathon, commencing at 8:00am at Dimmingsdale and finishing at almost 6:00pm in the car park at Tittesworth Reservoir, but the bloggers' day out was a great success. We dipped on a few species, such as ring ouzel and cuckoo, but had more than our fair share of good spots.

Highlights included some very showy pied flycatchers and wood warblers at Dimmingsdale, redstart and tree pipit at Hawksmoor, and peregrine, red grouse, wheatear, golden plover and hobby on the moors.

Along the way we also had common buzzard, kestrel, common sandpiper, blackcap, whitethroat, willow warbler, curlew and little ringed plover, plus a host of the more common species.

Butterflies included orange-tip, large white, green-veined white, and a possible comma or two.

The M6 was typically productive for Eddie Stobart trucks, with five being added to the year and life lists. Thanks to Max for scribbling down the names as we drove along.

A bit knackering, having had to get up at 5:45am, but well worth it.

Delivering The Goods

2009-05-01T16:23:00.004+01:00

The beauty of working a patch that only throws up the odd rarity, is that when it does deliver a gem it feels about ten times better than it probably should.

Seeing a common sandpiper at a local reserve is one thing, but to spot one at work on Tuesday during one of my regular walks around the grounds was immense! I don't think it beats the red kite that was spotted from the window last summer, but it probably ranks equally with the kingfisher that was on site a few years ago.

Sadly, I decided at the beginning of the year that unless I walked to work, birds seen whilst at the office wouldn't make it onto the Birds Seen On Foot list. This species therefore remains absent from my records, although I'm still in with a shout of seeing one at Earlswood Lakes. Attempts to relocate the bird later on Tuesday and throughout the week were sadly unsuccessful.

Aussie Rules

Yesterday evening I went to see the Australian Pink Floyd at the NIA. Of course, this has nothing to do with birds, although we did keep an eye out for the wood duck that is rumoured to frequent the canal that runs through Gas Street Basin.

Fans of Central Tonight might be excited to learn that we spotted fresh-faced presenter Gareth Owen entering the Slug & Lettuce, presumably for a post-work snifter. This encounter left my mate Boyley hopeful of running into weather girl Lucy Kite, but alas she was nowhere to be seen.

As you may have guessed, the band play the music of Pink Floyd, and last night they performed The Wall in its entirety. It was some show, though when they launched into One Of My Turns, I found myself thinking of Willington Gravel Pits for some strange reason ...

Fans of the Floyd may remember that they launched a giant inflatable pig over Battersea Power Station for the artwork on their Animals album.

I think it's fair to say that this was quite probably the first incidence of swine flew!

Gimme Moor

It's the bloggers' day out tomorrow. We're off to the Staffordshire Moorlands again and as you'd expect, we have a target list as long as your arm. It promises to be a great day and there will undoubtedly be several accounts of the trip appearing on our various blogs in due course.

Until next time, don't forget to cover your mouth when you cough!

Crosstown Traffic

2009-04-26T13:44:00.001+01:00

The chance to see whiskered terns at Willington Gravel Pits in Derbyshire was surely too good to resist, wasn't it? Well, not for this birder, although I have to confess to having toyed with the idea on Saturday morning.

I'm not impartial to the odd twitch as regular readers will know, but this year I am trying to avoid anything other than local excursions for rarities. Derbyshire isn't so far away, but I would have had to drive there and back on my own, and the likely throng of twitchers that would greet me as I arrived didn't really appeal either.

Quite aside from all that, I'd planned a new route on the patch, so putting another notch on the birding bedpost would have to wait.

So off I went at 8:00am this morning, sporting a new pair of walking shoes that Mrs Reg had kindly bought me for my birthday, which was on Thursday. In case you're wondering how old I am, let's just say that the entry on my year list that matches my age was a dunnock. Actually, that makes me sound quite young, but I should say that it took me a surprisingly long time to see this relatively common bird this year!

The shoes were great and so was the birding. Two lapwings in the magic field kicked things off nicely, but a common whitethroat that appeared from the hedgerow was even better. I'd felt privileged to see one of these little characters at Earlswood Lakes last week, so to see another was brilliant.

Funnily enough, just a few yards down the road another was spotted across the field. Perhaps not so scarce around these parts then? A singing skylark was noted too, and shortly afterwards a pair of breeding reed buntings were only the second ones I had spotted on the patch this year. So far so good, and I was only about a mile from home.

Weatheroak Hill produced two or three house martins. Swallows were around in good numbers too, and a common buzzard was enjoying the thermals. A detour at this point took me to the bridge that crosses the M42 on Lilley Green Road, where I was pleasantly surprised by my third common whitethroat of the morning!

The birding was put on the back burner for a bit whilst I surveyed the motorway for Eddie Stobarts. Annoyingly, two came past within five minutes, but I didn't catch the names of either of them. You need eyes in the back of your head sometimes. Still, I thought if I'd seen a couple so quickly surely many more would come past if I gave it half an hour or so, but it wasn't to be. A convoy of about 50 to 100 Chryslers was the highlight, which tells its own story.

A bit further down Lilley Green Road I saw orange-tip and green-veined white butterflies, and a blackcap was heard singing, but having walked about three miles I figured it was time to head back. The whitethroat was still in Hill Lane, plus a male yellowhammer, and about five lapwings were now flying around. They seemed very agitated and it didn't take me long to find out why - some of the birds have now successfully reared young. With a bit of effort I managed to spot a chick amongst the vegetation. Great stuff!

Birds Seen On Foot 2009: 75

Distance travelled: 78.3 miles

Hard Habit To Break

2009-04-20T17:35:00.002+01:00

I wrote last time that I fancied a break from the patch. As a result, I started to think about where I might like to go in order to maximise the possibility of a rare spring migrant.

Ring ouzel is a bird that I would love to catch up with again, having only had a fleeting view of one in Scotland last year. A bit of research led me to believe that a walk around Wassell Grove might be in order.

Then Shenstone popped into my head - a lovely spot for a bit of birding, and host to a blue-headed wagtail just a few days ago. However, news of an influx of little gulls and Arctic terns began to filter through as the week progressed and I wondered if I should head to Draycote Water, or another nearby reservoir?

The Wyre Forest also appealed, as did Venus Pool - somewhere I have yet to visit, but by all accounts a great place to see tree sparrows and a few warblers. My head was positively spinning. Finally, just before I nodded off on Saturday night, I came to a decision - another walk around the patch!

Yes, it's true - patch birding is addictive. The destination was the same as last week - Earlswood Lakes. I felt that I didn't give the place the time it deserves last time round - it was very much a case of getting my target species and getting out. I wanted to soak it all up a bit more today and I was rewarded with no less than seven patch ticks, which means that I have already hit my target of 75 species for the year!

Mute swan was the first of the patch ticks. I think I may have overlooked them last week, but I put that right today. Several terns were noted too, but as there had been reports of a few Arctic terns at the lakes recently, I had to be careful before calling any of these birds.

The first two I got a proper look at were definitely common terns. Another patch tick! I spied another bird sitting on a buoy in the middle of Windmill Pool. It had good credentials for being the scarcer species, but I was too far away to be certain. I continued my walk and hoped the bird would stay put, as I would be a bit nearer to it on the other side of the pool.

At the back of Windmill Pool I had a common whitethroat, quite a scarce species around these parts and yes, another entry on the patch list and the year list. As I headed back along the pool, I was pleased to see that the bird on the buoy was still present. I had a good look at it from three or four angles and decided I could see enough distinct features to call it as an Arctic tern. All regulation stuff really - tail length, bill colour, general colouring and leg length.

Shortly afterwards, the bird took to the skies, with two other terns in tow. All seemed to have decent tail streamers, but again, categorical identification was nigh impossible. I lost sight of them before long.

The other patch ticks were house martin, grey wagtail and pochard. Nothing exceptional, but welcome additions to the list nonetheless.

Birds Seen On Foot 2009: 75

Distance travelled: 72.3 miles

Upton Warren

No one ever said that blog entries had to run in chronological order, did they? Good. Because this one doesn't.

On Saturday, Mrs Reg and I spent an enjoyable couple of hours at Upton Warren, where there was an abundance of ticks. The first was fellow birder Pete Walkden, who arrived about the same time as us. We really must stop meeting like this - people will start to talk!

Next up was a lifer for me, when I spotted my first ever orange-tip butterfly, closely followed by many more in the nettles alongside the path. Other butterfly species seen included peacock, speckled wood and a brimstone on the North Moors Pool, which seemed to me like quite a good spot. Feel free to set me right on that one though if you wish.

The stars of the birding show were year ticks in the shape of common tern and sedge warbler, and the supporting cast wasn't bad either. Avocet, little ringed plover, oystercatcher, Cetti's warbler, redshank, common sandpiper, snipe, goosander, linnet, wigeon, curlew and reed bunting were all seen, plus I think I heard a lesser whitethroat to the east of the tower hide. There was also a grass snake swimming in front of the hide on the Moors Pool, which Mrs Reg enjoyed immensely.

On the way home I added a few Eddie Stobart trucks to my ever-growing inventory, namely Beverley Anne and Rebecca Phoebe. I haven't spoken much about this filthy habit in the blog this year, but I'm still noting all the trucks I see. I've got 15 so far this year, and a life list of 76.

Also, since Christmas I am a fully fledged member of the Stobart Spotters club. Thanks, Mrs Reg! That means I now have a list of all the trucks out there, plus access to fleet updates via the interweb. As I said, I have 76 trucks on my list, which means I have a couple of thousand left to see!

Perhaps my patch walks should take in one of the bridges over the M42?

You think I'm joking? Watch this space!

8 Mile

2009-04-13T08:04:00.000+01:00

Another Sunday, another marathon walk through the patch. Earlswood Lakes was the destination, with a number of species targeted.

On the whole, it was very successful. I picked up my first blackcap and willow warbler around the lakes and in the surrounding woodland. There was a bonus too when an oystercatcher flew over the lakes as I scanned unsuccessfully for common terns and grey wagtails.

Other birds that I had hoped to get included kingfisher, common sandpiper and sand martin, but none were spotted.

Following up a bit of gen given to me by Earlswood stalwart Matt Griffiths, I devoted a bit of time to the area around the Hungry Horse, a short distance from the lakes. This was time well spent, with three linnets in the area - not an easy bird to see on the patch. Also noted were three lapwings, a few stock dove and three swallows. A skylark sang in a nearby field.

I chose to come back home via Lea Green Lane, where I think I spotted two house martins. Potentially another tick, but I wasn't entirely confident about identifying them based on the very brief views I had, so they will have to wait for another day.

The fields that border Gorsey Lane failed to deliver anything better than chiffchaff, another blackcap, common buzzard and a male bullfinch. So much for it being a possible migrant trap then!

An impressive 8.4 miles were added to the total mileage today.

Birds Seen On Foot 2009: 68

Distance travelled: 64.3 miles

Barnstorming

A second stab at the local barn owls last night. I had a brief glimpse of one at about 8:45pm, flying low towards the trees on Gorsey Lane, followed by a typical ghostly shriek minutes later.

I'm starting to see one or two bats flying around at dusk now too. As yet, I've not heard any tawny owls in the neighbourhood, but I'm sure they're around and I hope to see one from the garden again this year. It would be a great bird for the patch list.

Next Sunday I'm keen to get out to one or two different sites. I would dearly love to find ring ouzels on passage, plus my devotion to the patch this year has meant that I've not visited some of my favourite places. With some great birds set to appear, I think it's time I ventured further afield and bagged one or two of them.

I See You Baby

2009-04-10T12:25:00.001+01:00

Okay, maybe it wasn't exactly shaking its ass, but the little owl that I see from time to time on the patch did finally pose for a few snaps this morning.

I was in the car this morning as I had a limited window within which to do any birding. Having watched the owl for half an hour or more, I paid a visit to the magic field to check on the resident lapwings. I counted seven birds in the vicinity this morning, but there could have easily been more. When they hunker down in the vegetation they aren't always easy to spot.

I've got some proper patch birding lined up for Sunday morning, when I'll be walking to Earlswood Lakes. I'm hoping this will add a few species to the list. I have, however, been able to increase my count for the year by two without leaving the house - well, not unless you count venturing out of the kitchen door into the back garden!

Yesterday evening something told me it was time to start looking for barn owls, which are a fairly regular sight over my garden during the summer. I was finally rewarded just before 9:00pm when an owl flew over. Patch tick number 63.

Then today I happened to glance out of the kitchen window to see a swallow fly over the house. Patch tick 64. The target of 75 patch ticks this year looks to be within reach, but I still reckon I've got some work to do to achieve it. There aren't that many birds that I can guarantee seeing on the patch before the year is out, bearing in mind that I will have to be on foot when I see them. That virtually rules out a trip to Bittell reservoirs, which would otherwise be very productive.

Instead, I have to hope Earlswood Lakes delivers the goods during the next few months. Common tern is a certainty, but I will have to be fortunate to see the rarer Arctic tern. Kingfisher is a definite possibility too, but I've not seen one there this year. Willow warbler, grey wagtail, blackcap and sand martin will be the main target birds on Sunday, but there are others that are gettable with a modicum of good fortune.

Whatever I see, a full report will follow in due course, both here and on the excellent Birds of Earlswood blog.

Won't Get Fooled Again

2009-04-05T17:02:00.001+01:00

I was a little surprised to spot a fellow birder on the patch on Saturday afternoon. I was doubly surprised to find that it was Brian 'Uncle Brian' York, one of my birding mentors and a man with a life list as long as your arm. I was intrigued to know what he was looking at - had something special dropped in on my doorstep?

My excitement turned to horror when Brian's first words were, "Where are these cattle egrets then?", referring to my blog entry posted on the first day of April.

Oh cripes! I didn't think anybody would have really believed that three cattle egrets had been resident in Brick Kiln Lane for the last year, and I thought I'd dropped enough clues to indicate that it was a prank. As you can imagine, I felt rotten. Fortunately, Brian hadn't come far to see these non-existent birds. In fact, I think he had simply dropped in on the way back from picking up some new bins for his wife, Pat.

I can only offer my sincerest apologies to them both. Still, it'll give us something to chuckle about when we meet up in the Wyre Forest in early May. I think a bottle of wine might be coming Brian's way that morning!

Lapping It Up

Having bid Brian and Pat farewell, Mrs Reg and I continued around the patch. There were nine lapwings in the magic field, which is the largest number I have ever seen in there. A yellowhammer was heard in the area, and a skylark rose out of the neighbouring fields, climbing to an astonishing height before belting out its unmistakeable song. Another patch tick!

Aside from that, there was little else of note, save for a couple of butterflies. Both remained unidentified, though the first looked like a large white. I do hope I have a bit more success with the butterflies as the year progresses.

A few pictures from the patch follow, all of which were taken through the bins - my new favourite thing!

Birds Seen On Foot 2009: 62

Distance travelled: 55.9 miles

Mrs Reg Cleans Up

No, I haven't made her do the vacuuming again - I'm talking about the Grand National. We mistakenly thought the race was at 4:30pm, so we switched on just in time to see the field jump the last few fences.

As the horses came over the last, Mrs Reg was surprised to hear the name of the nag that she had drawn in the sweepstake at work. You've guessed it - it was Mon Mome. Cue much excitement and shrieking as her horse romped home by a country mile!

Earlier in the day, we had picked a few names out of the runners. Predictably, mine were faintly bird related - Snowy Morning and Golden Flight. The latter fell at the first and the former finished ninth. Just as well I didn't have a flutter then.

Draycote Water / Brandon Marsh

This morning I paid a visit to Draycote Water and Brandon Marsh with my father. The weather was superb and I don't think I've seen Draycote Water so still. The excellent conditions allowed us to scope two great northern divers on the opposite side of the reservoir from Farborough Bank.

A white wagtail and two yellow wagtails were noted on our way to Toft Bay, where we hoped to connect with the long-staying red-necked grebe and the fairly recently arrived green-winged teal. As it happened, we spotted the grebe along Farborough Bank with relative ease, but the teal proved to be a bit more elusive.

We spent not far off an hour in the hide searching for it. My dad wandered off to see if he could get better views along the road. Not long after he had disappeared, another birder entered the hide. Having given him a customary greeting, I realised it was photographer extraordinaire and old chum, Mr Pete Walkden.

Pete was keen to get some shots of the grebe, which had obligingly drifted into Toft Bay just a few minutes earlier. Sadly, the bird wasn't playing ball and had decided that it was time to have a nap. Resisting Pete's requests to chuck a stick at it to wake it up, I left the hide and joined my dad and some more birders on the bank. The green-winged teal emerged from the willows almost immediately, but remained too distant for any decent pictures.

I popped back into the hide to point Pete in the direction of the bird. Hopefully, he may have got some better shots than I managed. Frankly, he should be ashamed of himself if he didn't!

We didn't spend long at Brandon Marsh, but still managed to see our first willow warblers of the year. Cetti's warbler and water rail were both heard, and we also saw a male blackcap, common buzzard, yet another unidentified butterfly and either a mouse or shrew scuttling across one of the paths in front of us.

Brandon Marsh is a great place to see warblers, as well as butterflies and dragonflies, so I fully expect to be back before too long. I've only connected with grasshopper warbler once before and I would like to see another one this year. If last year is anything to go by, Brandon Marsh could well be the place to do it.

I'll close with a few photos of the red-necked grebe and a record shot of the green-winged teal. Keep an eye on Pete's blog for better pictures of these birds.

Thank You

2009-04-04T10:03:00.000+01:00

Just a quick entry to say thanks to those that responded to my plea for help regarding the latest additions to the Telescope household ...

This picture was taken this morning, so you can see that I have decided not to take any drastic action and tamper with the nest.

Quite aside from what might be better for the coal tits in the long run, somebody on the Birdforum has rightly pointed out that it is an offence to intentionally take, damage or destroy the nest of any wild bird whilst it is in use or being built. Any work due to be undertaken on the roof will just have to wait.

As far as I am aware, coal tits have never nested around here before, so I do feel quite privileged to be able to watch them as they attempt to raise a family over the next few months.

Help!

2009-04-02T09:25:00.002+01:00

Last year it was a pair of mistle thrush. This year it's a pair of coal tits. There are no Telescope Points on offer today, but I wonder if you can work out what it might be?

If you don't know what I'm going on about, I'll put you out of your misery. You may recall that a pair of mistle thrush decided to set up home in our sycamore tree last year, with disastrous consequences. They got as far as laying four eggs, and one even hatched. Within days, however, the chick had gone, and I think some of the eggs had been taken too. The birds eventually abandoned the nest leaving two eggs behind. It was all very sad.

Worryingly, a mistle thrush has been present this past week or so, delivering its fluty song both morning and night from trees near the house. If a pair are going to breed in the area again, I hope they pick a better spot for their nest.

However, on Wednesday night I heard a coal tit in the trees behind our garden. I thought this was great, because although we see these birds quite a bit during the winter, they are less frequent as the year wears on. My joy quickly turned to concern, when on Thursday morning I spotted a pair gathering nesting material from the sycamore tree in the front garden, before making a series of short dashes to the roof near the bedroom window.

Alarm bells started ringing. I said to Mrs Reg that I hoped they weren't building a nest in the gutter. For starters, any heavy rain will probably spell curtains for them. Secondly, we have some roofers coming to do some work in the immediate future - work that involves replacing the gutters. Having carefully assessed the situation this morning, it turns out that my worst fears have come true.

I have a bit of a dilemma - should I destroy however much of their nest they have built so far, and hope that they move on to a more suitable and safe location? The alternative is to leave them be, but then they are at risk of being disturbed much further down the line, possibly when they have young, and little time to start all over again.

Either option seems cruel, but the first one appears to be better for the birds in the long run, even if they might not see it that way.

I really would appreciate some help on this one. I know there are a fair few readers of this blog, and I would be very grateful if someone with a bit of experience or knowledge in this area could advise me of the best course of action.

If I am going to take action, I need to take it fast, so if anyone can help, please add a comment at the foot of this entry as soon as possible.

Thanking anyone in advance for any advice they can give.

Swallowed

2009-04-01T08:05:00.001+01:00

On Monday, Mrs Reg and I paid a visit to Upton Warren. Mrs Reg was keen to have a look at the avocets, and news of a mandarin at the Moors Pool on Sunday morning was also of interest. Sadly, the mandarin had moved on, but the Moors Pool did hold a redshank and a goosander. I didn't see the latter bird myself as the East hide was packed to the rafters. Anybody would have been forgiven for thinking that Wilson's phalarope had dropped in again, but it turned out that Arthur Jacobs was showing a large group of birders around the reserve.

As soon as I heard the mandarin had gone, I decided our time would be better spent at the flashes, though there was still time to see my first swallow of the year on the way back to the car. At the flashes we had the eight avocet, at least a couple of little ringed plover, two oystercatchers, a few snipe, a reed bunting, and a few of the usual suspects, such as black-headed gulls, shelduck and the commoner ducks.

Conditions were ideal for a few photos, a selection of which follow:

On the way home, I took the usual detour through Hopwood to see if the little owls were on display. One of my goals this year is to get a reasonable photo of these birds, but so far, they have evaded me. Ironically, when I birded the patch on Sunday, one was in full view, but without the scope I had no chance of snapping it. Sadly, there was no sign of them on Monday, so I'll have to wait for another opportunity to present itself.

Finally, we stopped off in Brick Kiln Lane to see the cattle egrets that frequent the area. As usual, all three birds were showing well.

Can I just say, if anybody is keen to come and see these birds, can they show the residents of Brick Kiln Lane a bit of respect and park sensibly. Last April, some fool blocked the road, bringing Wythall to a veritable standstill.

What Next?

I had planned to visit Earlswood Lakes next Sunday, but having done a bit of research, I think I might be better off waiting until the weekend after, when there is a good chance of picking up a willow warbler there.

Therefore, plans are afoot to venture a bit further afield to look for something that won't be a lifer, but will definitely feel like one. On that cryptic note, I'll sign off.

Until next time, happy migrant hunting!

Love Is In The Air

2009-03-30T14:45:00.001+01:00

On Sunday morning, I had the pleasure of watching a pair of lapwings getting jiggy with it in the magic field that I mentioned last time, thus confirming that they are indeed breeding here. I spotted five birds in the area this week, and it'll be interesting to follow their progress over the next few months.

The patch was extremely productive and I connected with the two species that I had hoped to see, chiffchaff and yellowhammer. I think I have been unfortunate not to have spotted yellowhammer already, as they are regular birds in the fields along Watery Lane, just a bit further on from Weatheroak. I saw several on Sunday in this spot, but the first ones I had were a pair just down from the magic field. I've heard them around here before, but never seen them, so this was very pleasing.

I glimpsed my chiffchaff along Watery Lane too. First I heard the familiar call, then spotted a small bird fly to a group of trees behind me. It was too distant to ID with the bins, but I didn't have to wait long for it to sing again and reveal its identity.

At least three or four more chiffchaffs were heard during my walk, plus many other decent sightings, such as fieldfare, rook, stock dove, bullfinch, cormorant, great spotted woodpecker, jay and little owl. A green woodpecker and a skylark were heard not far from the magic field, the latter being a bird that I have not yet seen on the patch this year. My next target, perhaps?

I took a series of photographs this morning, though without the aid of the scope, most of the subjects were somewhat distant. I have therefore decided to omit them. It's always difficult to take the scope with me on the patch, so I might try my hand at taking photos through the binoculars next time.

Birds Seen On Foot 2009: 61

Distance travelled: 51.9 miles

I need 14 more species in order to hit my target of 75 for the year. By my calculations, this could be a pretty close run thing. I'm planning to visit Earlswood Lakes again next week and I'm hopeful that this will net me a few goodies.

Islay

Last Thursday we had our final Islay meeting, where we planned our itinerary for the week that we will be spending on the island. We will arrive on Friday 22 May and depart on Sunday 31 May. Whilst we are planning to visit at least four or five distilleries, we have also lined up some quality birding during our stay.

As you'd expect, we will be having another try for the elusive corncrake. I really wouldn't like to say whether we'll be fortunate enough to see this bird, but it would be great just to hear it again. Of the others, I really hope that we get to see golden eagle, chough, pure rock doves, black guillemot and a few divers. There is also a good chance of Arctic skua, a species that I have yet to see.

One thing's for sure - it's going to be an amazing trip, and with less than eight weeks to go, I can't wait!

Wood You Believe It?

I'll be back in the Wyre Forest come May, looking for more new arrivals. With this in mind, I was glancing back through my records to see when I saw my first ever wood warbler, at Shenstone in 2007. It turns out it was on 15 April. There's an article in this month's Bird Watching magazine that says you won't get a sniff of a wood warbler until late April, which made me appreciate how lucky I was to uncover that one so early on in the month.

One of my goals this year is to see pied flycatcher in the Wyre. I reckon the window of opportunity for seeing these birds is pretty small, based on the number of times I dipped on it in 2008, both in the Wyre and in Wales.

I don't want to get ahead of myself, though. I'm sure April will bring its own crop of good birds and I'll be keen to see as many as I can. If one or two of them turn up on the patch, then don't be surprised to see me doing cartwheels down the streets of Wythall!

Could It Be Magic?

2009-03-23T18:08:00.001Z

There's a field on my patch at the corner of Chapel Lane and Hill Lane, not far from St Mary's Church. As an inexperienced birder, I remember spotting either skylarks or meadow pipits in it some years ago. I can't recall enough detail to pin down what they were, save for the fact that they delivered their song in flight, before falling back down into the grass. Since then, I've always referred to it as the magic field.

On Saturday, as I walked around the patch, the magic field delivered the goods once more. I always keep an eye out for lapwings here, a bird that seems to be present in variable numbers during the breeding season. Whilst scanning the field, I was certain I had heard the call of a lapwing, but I couldn't pick any out. Suddenly, one popped up and once I had it in the bins, I could see another one behind it. Two quickly became three, then four, then five, then six.

These are actually the first lapwings I have seen on the patch this year. I'd expected to bump into them quite early on, but I just never connected with them. I shall be keeping close tabs on them over the coming months to see if my suspicion that they breed in this area is correct.

The only other bird of note was a lesser redpoll in Brick Kiln Lane, just a few hundred yards from my house. Funnily enough, I was actually looking for siskins, which I am convinced I could hear in the treetops, but despite scanning patiently for a few minutes, the redpoll was the only thing I could see.

I had hoped to hear chiffchaffs on the patch this weekend, but none were present. Maybe next week?

The ticks and the miles are building up nicely now. Here are the scores on the doors ...

Birds Seen On Foot 2009: 59

Distance travelled: 45.4 miles

Dipping In The Wyre

On Sunday, I had another stroll through the Wyre Forest. I failed to connect with one or two target species, but did see some siskin, a great spotted woodpecker, at least one dipper, two grey wagtails and a pair of kingfishers. I got my bins onto my first chiffchaff of the year, which wasn't too difficult as there were several birds present and they were all typically vocal.

My second butterfly of the year was seen along Dowles Brook, but once again I was unable to see enough of it to determine what it was.

Good Willow Hunting

I think I'll have to devote the next couple of weekends to scouring the patch for migrants. I've never seen wheatear or willow warbler around the lanes that I traditionally cover, but if I'm ever going to find them, now is the time. The farmland around Weatheroak and Hopwood looks a likely spot for the former species, and although my chances of success are probably minimal, it's got to be worth a look. This is also a good site for yellowhammer, another notable absentee from my list.

Last year I saw willow warblers at both Bittell Reservoir and Earlswood Lakes, so this is one that I should be able to tick with a bit of luck.

My target of 75 species on the patch this year still looks achievable, but I'm taking nothing for granted and the next few weeks could be crucial. If I can bag one or two scarcer birds during this time then I can probably afford to have a more leisurely summer, and focus a bit more on trying to find and ID a few butterflies. Only time will tell.

Nine To Five

2009-03-19T08:53:00.002Z

I'm loving this Twitter lark! For those who have been following my tweets via the blog, or directly on the Twitter site, you'll know that I've had some reasonable sightings at home and at work during the week. Twitter allows me to post brief details of these spots in real time, which means no one has to hang around waiting for a full blog entry in order to catch up with the news.

Today, I thought I'd provide a bit more detail regarding some of my tweets during the week, focussing mainly on the birding I have managed to squeeze in at work.

However, I'll start off with the presumed lesser redpoll that flew over the house on Tuesday morning. I say presumed because I am not overly familiar with the call. However, on Sunday morning I had the privilege of watching about half a dozen of these birds at Upton Warren. It was the first time I had really listened to their distinctive nasal chatterings. Anyway, that was the sound I believe I heard as this small bird flew over the house a couple of days later. Despite this, I wouldn't rule out the chances of the bird being a siskin, but as both species already feature on my patch list this year, I won't be losing any sleep over it!

The arrival of spring always results in one or two changes to my routine at work. For starters, I have begun parking around the back of the building each morning. Why? Well, this is where the first chiffchaffs turn up. I've heard chiffchaff at a couple of sites already this year, but it will still be a special moment when I get the first one at work.

Secondly, the rising temperatures make me more inclined to take a stroll through the grounds during my breaks. It's debatable whether I will still be in the same job this time next year, so I have to take advantage of the beautiful surroundings whilst I can.

This week my walks have produced siskin, stock dove, song thrush, a few pied wagtails, one grey wagtail and some mistle thrush. Okay, I don't think I need to ask anyone to contain their excitement here, and I don't expect the site to be inundated with twitchers anytime soon, but in the context of the work environment these spots cheer me up no end.

I noticed a few birds amongst the pied wagtails on Wednesday. I'm afraid to say that I couldn't clinch ID with the naked eye, but I'm inclined to think they were meadow pipits. This would be a site first, so I'm keen to find them again and sort them out once and for all. The binnies will be coming to work with me today, so watch this space!

For now though, I'll leave you with a few shots of the grounds that surround the office and one or two comments about the species that I've notched up over the last few years.

The football pitch - home to pied wagtails, the occasional grey wagtail, mistle thrush and redwing in the winter. A kestrel was regularly seen perching on the goal posts this winter.

The pavilion car park - the best area for chiffchaffs, but other good records include bullfinch and green woodpecker.

The feeding station - best spots include siskin, bullfinch, stock dove, goldfinch, nuthatch and great spotted woodpecker. Good for the butterflies too.

The small pond by the feeding station - good for the odd dragonfly or two.

The meadow - jay, green woodpecker and kestrel are all quite regular here. Excellent for butterflies, including comma, speckled wood, small skipper and gatekeeper. I'll be keeping a close eye on it this summer.

A kingfisher took up residence along this area about three years ago. It would be amazing if another one turned up.

The wintering kingfisher was seen in this area too. During the summer, brown hawker and common darter dragonflies aren't uncommon here.

Other sightings of note over the past year include sparrowhawk, common buzzard, raven and red kite. Not a bad place to work, all things considered!

I Missed Again

2009-03-15T18:23:00.002Z

Today's title refers to my attempts to photograph Cetti's warbler at Upton Warren this morning. If you'd asked me to predict whether I'd even clap eyes on this infamously elusive bird today, I would have almost certainly said no. However, I arrived at the East Hide at about 7:15am and didn't have to wait long before one popped up, perched out in the open and delivered its brilliant song.

I quickly realised that if it did that again, I could be in with a chance of a decent snap. Lo and behold, a few minutes later, up it popped again. However, by the time I'd got the scope in the right spot and the camera ready to roll, it had disappeared again. This happened a couple more times.

Finally, I saw something shoot up from the reeds and perch on a prominent branch in a nearby bush. This time I was ready. The scope was in place, the camera was at the ready and the bird delivered its song. Brilliant! It didn't leave its perch this time and I took advantage by reeling off several pictures.

Here's the result ...

Bugger!

For any non-birders reading this, the above bird is not Cetti's warbler, though even the most inexperienced of you will probably have realised this! To anyone who is now doubting my birding credentials, can I point out that when digiscoping I don't always get a clear view of what I'm taking.

I can't complain. Photo or no photo, I feel very privileged to have had such good views of the correct species earlier in the day.

I did, however, manage to get a few decent pics of some other birds, which follow ...

A bit later on I was joined by the Brightside Birders, Kay and Max. After leaving the East Hide, we paid a visit to the North Moors Pool and saw the remaining bittern, a water rail and a kingfisher. Over at the Flashes we spotted a peregrine on the masts and the three avocets that have been around for a bit.

Kay and Max headed off up the M6 in search of non-plastic barnacle geese, and I remained on the Flashes, conducting a lonely vigil for jack snipe, which ultimately proved unsuccessful.

Still, it was a beautiful morning, we saw some cracking birds, and when I got home I spotted my first butterfly of the year. I only caught a brief glimpse of it as it flew past my window, but I think it was a peacock.

I think it's official - spring has sprung!

Get The Message

2009-03-14T11:55:00.003Z

I'm still trying to get to grips with it, but I have added a feed from Twitter to the blog. I'm hoping to use this to provide quick, newsflash style birding updates as and when they happen, if I spot something good in the garden or at work for example.

The garden has produced some good birds lately. Aside from last week's peregrine, a few siskins have shown their faces during the month, and a goldcrest recently took a liking to the suet feeder. Not seen that before. Quite a few common buzzards are now putting in an appearance, happily cruising on the thermals until the local jackdaws see them off!

News of sand martins at Upton Warren has got me pretty excited. I'm planning to visit Earlswood Lakes on foot in a week or so, hopefully to pick up this species and possibly a couple of other early migrants. I'm not certain if I'll head out tomorrow though. I have big plans afoot. I don't want to say too much at this juncture, but it has something to do with Worcestershire Source.

As and when I have more information, I'll be sure to fill everyone in.

By the way, the Twitter feed seems to work best with Internet Explorer. If you use a different browser, you may experience difficulties with it.

When Will I See You Again?

2009-03-12T08:03:00.002Z

I was going through some photographs the other day. Amongst them were some snaps taken in Devon in April 2007. Mrs Reg and I had booked a long weekend in Dawlish Warren - one of our favourite destinations. I was still fairly new to what I would call hardcore birding - in fact, 2007 saw me make a proper year list for the first time, and the word lifer had only been in my vocabulary for about 12 months.

Armed with some excellent gen gathered from the internet, I was able to see my first Dartford warbler on Aylesbeare Common, and a cattle egret along the Otter Estuary was located without too much difficulty. I'm sure that cattle egrets will become easier to see over the next few years, but almost two years on I'm still waiting for my second one. I have a feeling, however, that I could be ticking this bird when I return to Devon in July this year.

You're Having A Laugh!

Another bird that I saw on that trip was a laughing gull that had been around the area for a week or two before we arrived. I was aware of its presence, but never thought that we would catch up with it. It just so happened that the gull decided to put in an appearance at Bowling Green Marsh on the Sunday morning. I would never have spotted it, but two chaps in the hide pointed it out when it dropped in.

I rattled off a few pictures at the time, but none seem to contain the gull in question. I recently put a request on the internet for a picture of this bird and was delighted when a gentleman by the name of Brian Heasman was able to oblige. Thanks for the use of the pic, Brian.

All of this reminiscing got me thinking about the rarer birds I have seen - particularly the ones that I might have to wait some time to see again, assuming I ever do of course!

The first that springs to mind is Wilson's phalarope. This bird turned up at Upton Warren on 23 September 2007, and in case you're wondering, I didn't need to look that date up - it will be etched on my mind for eternity! You can read a full write up of that memorable day at my old Surfbirds blog here. It could definitely be some time before I see another Wilson's phalarope, but as my old man still needs it I dare say we would twitch one if it wasn't too far away.

Next up is the American golden plover at Slimbridge in December 2007. This was another bird that I wouldn't have had a hope of seeing without the assistance of a few helpful birders in the Holden Tower. As you'd expect, the bird was with a sizeable flock of golden plover. Just as we got into position, something spooked the birds and they took off. When they settled again, one of the birders was somehow able to locate the American golden plover again, and I grabbed a quick look through his scope.

I saw the lesser scaup at Draycote Water twice - once in December 2007 and then again in January 2008. Therefore, the bird appears on two different year lists, but I think it still warrants inclusion here. It's another bird that seems to be turning up more regularly, however, so although it may involve a twitch, I'm sure I will see this one again at some point.

Bowled Over

Another Devon bird was the long-billed dowitcher, again at Bowling Green Marsh, in February 2008. I never saw the one that turned up at nearby Bittell Reservoir in 2006, but I think it was dipping on that one that triggered my interest in twitching for the odd rarity here and there. It was a great bird to get, and a bit of a milestone as it was my 200th lifer. On the same trip we also saw the surf scoter at Dawlish Warren. Although another bird has been present there this winter, I wouldn't like to say when I'll connect with one again.

Looking through my 2008 year list, one or two more stick out like sore thumbs. It could be a long wait before I see green-winged teal, great skua, red-necked phalarope, Temminck's stint, black-winged stilt, ferruginous duck and ring-necked duck again. Going back to 2007, the spoonbill at Foryd Bay won't be an easy tick to repeat. On the other hand, I've got quite a few one-timers that I'm sure I will see again before too long. These include curlew sandpiper and pied flycatcher. I was going to include black grouse and ptarmigan, but then I remembered I saw both on two separate occasions in Scotland last year.

If The Bill Fits ...

The most controversial one on the list is Scottish crossbill. I had to bend the rules a bit when I ticked this last May. Whilst the birds showed enough features to suggest they weren't common crossbills, one can never be absolutely sure. It always makes me chuckle that people say you can't tell these species apart without analysing calls, but throw a picture of one on the internet and plenty will be immediately happy to say it is a common crossbill without a moment's hesitation! There seem to be a number of people who make it their personal mission to shoot down possible rarities on the forums, but I'll save that rant for another day.

I'll close by assuring you that I'm not trying to boast about the rarer birds I have seen, or to sound like some kind of expert on these matters. That's not how I get my kicks. In fact, whilst I take an interest in other people's birding, I dislike the competitive element that surfaces every so often. In my opinion, birding should be a pleasurable hobby, not a sport. I feel very privileged to have seen the birds I have and I'm sure most of you have seen many, many more. I actually envy those people that haven't got huge life lists, as they've got so much to look forward to.

As ever, enjoy your birding - whether you're looking at yet another blue tit, or getting up close and personal with Syke's warbler.

It's Fate, Baby, It's Fate

2009-03-09T17:19:00.002Z

Just before Christmas, our hot tap broke in the kitchen. A plumber came round, had a quick look at it and advised us that we'd probably be better off buying new taps. Not wishing to spend in excess of £100 unless absolutely necessary, I sought a second opinion from the chaps who came to fit our shower in January. They found that it was the cartridge that was faulty and thought we should be able to pick a new one up without too much difficulty and at minimal cost. Things are never that easy though, are they?

Over the next few weeks we called in at all the usual DIY stores, a couple of plumbers merchants and one or two other places - all to no avail. We decided to pay a visit to the people that originally supplied our kitchen, but the shop was closed and devoid of signs of life. It looks as though the credit crunch has claimed another victim.

Our final throw of the dice was the internet, and last Monday I managed to track down a supplier in Hampshire, who was prepared to send me the relevant part at a cost of £23.35 including post and packing. Not a snip by any means, but a better financial option than forking out for new taps. Buying stuff on the internet can be a bit of a punt at the best of times, but lo and behold, on Saturday morning the postman dropped a parcel through the letterbox containing the new part.

Just in case you think you have wandered onto the wrong blog, please be assured that this is Eye To The Telescope and, as such, there is a point to all this seemingly irrelevant water-themed waffle.

You see, with a few jobs lined up that day, I thought one more won't hurt and immediately set about fixing the tap. I was about 10 minutes into the job when I spotted a bird flying towards the house from the approximate direction of Wythall Station.

I instinctively knew it was a raptor and my head said sparrowhawk. But it wasn't - it was too big for starters, and the wings were all wrong. It was quite low, perhaps only 20 feet or so above the house. I could see blue markings on the face. It all happened in seconds, but I knew it was a peregrine.

I ran upstairs, hoping to see it from the bedroom window, tripping over the wire of Mrs Reg's curling tongs in the process. It took a few seconds to find the bird, as it was much further right than I had thought. As it disappeared, I saw enough of it to definitely rule out sparrowhawk, and it certainly wasn't a common buzzard. Then it wheeled left and I made a grab for the bins, but by the time I had got them and returned to the window, it was gone.

I played the situation out in my head afterwards and did my usual trick of trying to convince myself that it wasn't what I thought it was. No doubts remained though. Unsurprisingly, it's the first peregrine I've ever seen from the house and it has gained me not only a valuable patch tick, but a year tick too. I doubt if I will see it again.

Now I'm thinking if the tap hadn't broken and it hadn't taken so long to get the part, and if the part hadn't turned up on Saturday, and if I hadn't decided to fix it there and then, I probably would never have seen the bird! I suppose all birding hinges to some extent on fate and circumstance.

Sometimes you're just in the right place at the right time, and sometimes you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Once I was even in the wrong time at the right place - or am I thinking of that film with Michael J Fox in it?

Patch Work

Sunday morning saw me take a short walk through a fairly urban part of the patch. To be honest, it was pretty quiet and sprung few surprises. Aside from a few redwings, common buzzards and a sparrowhawk there was little to get excited about. Another attempt to see snipe in the pond near Wythall Park ended in failure.

I am eagerly anticipating the first appearance of a chiffchaff on the patch, surely only weeks away now. Spring is definitely in the air, but it hasn't yet touched down and collected its suitcase from the conveyor, if you know what I mean.

Telescope Points

Just when I had given up all hope, I received a correct entry for last week's quiz. Please be assured that no bias was shown when good friend and fellow Worcestershire Source collaborator Kay Donaghy took all 20 Telescope Points by correctly identifying cargoose as the answer to the following clue:

Vehicle goes over large bird – a crested grebe (8)

_ A _ G _ _ _ E

It turns out that cargoose is another word for a great crested grebe. You see, you don't just get silly tales about plumbing problems here on Eye To The Telescope - if you pay attention, you can learn something too!

Until next time, happy birding.

Set The Fire To The Third Bar

2009-03-03T16:34:00.001Z

It makes a pleasant change to be spoilt for choice with today's song title. In recent weeks it has taken as long to find a suitable title as it has to write the blog entries themselves! It's almost tempting to go looking for species whose names lend themselves to well known tunes, just to make my life easier. If there was ever a good example of the tail wagging the dog, then I suppose this would be it.

But away with such nonsensical talk. Yesterday morning I headed in the direction of Coleshill to see the black redstart, followed by Hams Hall for the firecrest, both of which had been hanging around for a few weeks. The birds were located without too much difficulty, providing solid year ticks. In addition, we had a common sandpiper and a green sandpiper on the river near Hams Hall. Other birds of note included bullfinch, grey wagtail and several goldcrest.

A few chiffchaffs were heard singing in the bushes and trees near Hams Hall, but I wasn't overly worried about seeing one. In fact, it would have felt a bit like cheating if I had. I'm hoping to see this bird on the patch this month and I'm more than happy to wait for my tick.

My final sighting of note was Mr Max Silverman, photographer extraordinaire. Max's blog and pictures can be viewed here and is well worth a visit. I had intended to attach a few record shots of the black redstart to this report, but having taken another look at Max's excellent snaps of this bird, as well as the firecrest, I think you are probably much better off just visiting his site instead! For more superb pictures of the firecrest and other birds, I can highly recommend Dave Hutton's site too. I was truly blown away by the detail in some of Dave's images.

My Dad and I also paid visits to Shustoke Reservoir and Marsh Lane, but there were no exceptional sightings at either location. I'd hoped for tree sparrows at Shustoke, but none were seen. A few red-legged partridges were spotted in the fields neighbouring the reservoir, plus a pied wagtail that looked to me to have good credentials for a white wagtail. I'm far from experienced with this subspecies, however, and it does seem a bit early in the year to be thinking about seeing them, so a question mark remains over its identity. I've since done some swotting up, so the next time I see one I'll be armed and ready.

At Marsh Lane, the best sight was seven or more common buzzards and a single raven circling high up in the sky. We thought we spotted a peregrine up there too, but we weren't absolutely sure. Otherwise, the lane bordering the reserve was very quiet, although I remain convinced I heard a yellowhammer call a couple of times as we headed back to the car.

The Patch

On Sunday afternoon I had a pleasant, binocular-free walk around the lanes with Mrs Reg. Best of the birds were three ravens, seen in the fields near St Mary's Church, which nudged the patch count up by one. It's been a couple of weeks since I did any intensive patch birding, so I am looking forward to a wander through the lanes and fields of Wythall next weekend.

I've notched up a few species now and still hope to get the total up to 75 by the end of the year.

Birds Seen On Foot 2009: 57

Distance travelled: 38.9 miles

Telescope Points

This week's quiz comes from the Sunday Times crossword again. At the time of writing, I haven't cracked this clue, so I think it merits an award of 20 Telescope Points for the first correct answer.

Vehicle goes over large bird – a crested grebe (8)

_ A _ G _ _ _ E

Get your thinking caps on, fellow birders!

Time To Get Away

2009-02-24T17:36:00.003Z

It was 4:20am, Sunday 22 February. The dawn chorus was already in full flow, but I certainly wasn't. The alarm clock on my phone had just gone off, signalling the start of a two-day excursion to Norfolk with my Dad, Dave 'Leapy' Lyons and Steve Jones. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed I wasn't, but things seemed much better after a nice warm shower. Once dressed, I hastily packed my stuff together, knocked up a flask of coffee, grabbed the scope and bade Mrs Reg farewell.

I arrived at my Dad's house at about 5:10am, where I was greeted by Steve. Dad seemed to be running a bit late, but it wasn't long before he appeared. After loading up his car with our gear we zipped up the M42 to pick up Leapy, and we were well on our way to May Day Farm by the time the sun finally put in an appearance in the sky.

It saddens me to say that our first true birding experience of the trip was not a pleasant one. A bird shot out of the hedgerows alongside the A14 and straight in front of the car, hitting the windscreen with some force, despite the fact that we weren't travelling particularly quickly. It appeared to me that it was a woodcock, but to even contemplate ticking a bird under such circumstances seemed wholly inappropriate.

We arrived at May Day Farm at about 7:45am. It didn't take long to track down our target bird of woodlark and we were back on the road within 20 or 30 minutes. That was Steve's first lifer of the day, and a solid year tick for everyone else.

We travelled the short distance to Lynford Arboretum with the intention of bagging hawfinch. After a patient hour's birding we had to admit defeat, although we had been reliably informed that the birds had been seen only minutes before we arrived. Other species of note in the arboretum were redwing, siskin, green woodpecker and mistle thrush. We heard a few common crossbills around the car park, but despite Leapy eyeballing three likely suspects in flight, we couldn't definitively say we had seen any.

As we were making good time, we decided it was worth popping into nearby Lakenheath, where a great grey shrike had been reported. We didn't have to spend too long there before we met another group of birders, who kindly pointed out a distant bush that held the shrike. It was a long way away, but we all managed to get onto the bird. Another sound year tick and a British lifer for Steve.

Next up was a potential mega at Strumpshaw Fen - a penduline tit that had turned up there a few weeks ago and had continued to be seen ever since, albeit sporadically. Despite the odds being against us, we simply had to put in some time to try to see this bird. The news from the visitor centre was that it had been seen at 10:20am, associating with bearded tits. Walking through the woodland to the hide I latched onto a marsh tit, quickly followed by a female brambling.

On reaching the hide it was clear that it was not going to be an easy task to spot the penduline tit. The wind had got up a bit and in my experience this suggested any bearded tits would be less likely to show. During our vigil we were entertained by a few marsh harriers and a bittern flying over the reeds, but otherwise we had to amuse ourselves with a few teal, coots and gadwall. We heard Cetti's warbler and a water rail, which lifted our spirits a bit, but after much patient scanning we had to move on. As far as I know the bird wasn't seen again that day, so we didn't feel too disappointed.

Stubb Mill was our last port of call. We had an entertaining couple of hours here, watching about a dozen marsh harriers, two barn owls, a male hen harrier and a sparrowhawk, before enjoying the spectacle of about 28 common cranes coming in to roost as the light slipped away. Aside from the birds, I spotted my first Chinese water deer, which was extremely pleasing. Shots of one of the owls with some of the harriers in the background follow, although they are far from brilliant.

We didn't have a high species count at the end of day one, but there was no doubt that we had seen some quality birds. After taking a couple of wrong turns we eventually arrived in Sheringham and enjoyed a bit of pub grub and a few pints of the local ale before hitting the sack. After 18 hours on my feet it was no surprise that I was out like a light.

Sheringham was a pleasant and convenient place to stop. Not only that, it is also home to the largest duvet machine in North Norfolk, as evidenced by the following photograph.

We had drawn up our battle plans for day two during our meal the night before. First up was the cattle egret at Matlaske, just 15 minutes drive from Sheringham. We had some good gen regarding this bird, but after half an hour scanning the fields we drew a blank. However, we did spot another barn owl, an Egyptian goose and a common gull during our search.

Not wishing to waste too much time, we travelled to Salthouse, where we hoped to connect with snow bunting. This site threw up plenty of decent birds and year ticks, including turnstone, skylark, little egret, redshank and ringed plover, and I also noted four seals in the sea.

We agreed to invest an hour of our time looking for the buntings. News that they had been seen earlier on gave us hope, but the hour passed surprisingly quickly and we begrudgingly headed back to the car. However, as I walked along the shingle I heard excited voices behind me. I wheeled around to see a very animated Steve and Leapy, and about a dozen or more snow buntings on the deck. Dad was further ahead, but I signalled to him and he was able to get his bins on the birds. We watched them for about ten minutes or so, then got back on the road, though not before the hip flask had been produced.

A brief stop at Holkham added a few more birds to the list, including black-tailed godwit and snipe, but we had bigger fish to fry and we were mobile again before too long. We had heard that the black-necked grebe remained at Gypsy Lane, so we felt this had to be worth a look. The bird behaved impeccably, showing well just as we arrived and allowing close views and some reasonable photos. The bird's ability to dive just as Steve was about to take a shot provided some light relief.

We paid a brief visit to Choseley Barns, getting yellowhammer, corn bunting and stock dove for our troubles, then it was onto Titchwell. The best of the birds here included avocet, spotted redshank and sanderling. With the light beginning to fail we paid a brief visit to the Island Hide and were reliably informed that a few Mediterranean gulls had been around for most of the day. Leapy managed to land straight on one and I too got it in my scope just before it flew off. Luckily, my Dad located another bird and we were all able to see this one before it also took flight.

Hunstanton got everyone a year tick in the shape of fulmar, but the visibility was appalling and we hit the road. Our final adventure was a circuit of the Wolferton Triangle. We spotted several deer and one common pheasant, but no golden pheasant as hoped.

This is the bit where I normally summarise the trip, and not wishing to disappoint I'd like to say thanks to the old boy for notching up approximately 500 miles behind the wheel. Thanks also to Steve and Leapy for the company, the banter and the jokes, none of which I can possibly repeat here. It was another memorable trip, something of an appetiser for the main course that will be the trip to Islay in May. Until then, I guess I'll just have to feed on the scraps of my local patch again.

Dirty Epic

2009-02-16T16:55:00.001Z

My loyalty was put to the test again on Saturday when England played Wales in the Six Nations. I'm about one-quarter Welsh, which means that I really should have been cheering on the men in white, but I have such admiration for the way Wales are playing their rugby at the moment, that I couldn't help but celebrate their deserved victory.

Yesterday, I headed to Earlswood Lakes, though when I arrived home you might have been forgiven for thinking that I had returned from the Millennium Stadium, judging by the amount of mud that I was covered in. If you're a fan of the mucky stuff, I suggest you get down there pronto. I think it's safe to say that I might be giving it a miss now until the spring!

Earlswood Lakes is key to me hitting my target of 75 species seen on foot this year. Fellow birder Matthew Griffiths dedicates much of his time to birding the lakes and the surrounding area and has recently had a number of sightings that would make useful additions to my list, notably raven, kingfisher, common gull, water rail, shoveler and pochard. Matthew's blog can be found here.

Sadly, none of these birds were seen yesterday morning, but the lakes and surrounding woods and fields did produce two song thrush, long-tailed tit, grey heron, many mallard, one male goosander, a handful of tufted ducks, two greenfinch, one cormorant, a small flock of presumed siskins, a few pied wagtail, around 20 great crested grebe, a few redwing, about a dozen meadow pipits and at least four nuthatch.

I managed a solitary patch tick when a greylag goose flew in from the fields behind Windmill Pool with a single Canada goose. Throw in a lone stock dove that I spotted in the flooded field along Station Road as I set off and that was it in terms of ticks for the day.

On a more positive note, there are real signs that spring is on its way, even though we're only halfway through February. The dunnocks, chaffinches and greenfinches were all particularly vocal yesterday, and some of the black-headed gulls are already acquiring their brown heads. If any non-birders are reading this, then yes, I appreciate that you will find that last statement somewhat odd! Black-headed gulls are quite possibly the worst-named bird in the world, though there could be some Telescope Points on offer for anyone who can suggest any others.

The best bit of the outing was probably the sight of many redwings and fieldfares in the field adjacent to Earlswood Station on the way home. I really struggled to put numbers on the flock, but I reckoned there were at least 80 redwing and 20 fieldfare.

So, in summary, another two ticks for the list and a leg-busting 7.6 miles onto the total distance covered. My crude estimations also tell me that I've lost an inch or two off my waist. Keeping fit is one of the fringe benefits of birding, although I've still got some way to go before people start mistaking me for one of the legs off my tripod!

Birds Seen On Foot 2009: 56

Distance travelled: 35.8 miles

Down To The Wyre

This morning, Mrs Reg and I took a wander down the old railway line in the Wyre Forest, followed by a stroll along Dowles Brook. Following up a bit of first-class gen from Martyn Yapp, we were fortunate enough to see a roosting tawny owl - only my second one and great views too. Lesser redpolls were also seen, as were a pair of marsh tits and a dipper, along with several displaying sparrowhawks, a great spotted woodpecker, three bullfinch, a year tick in the shape of kingfisher, and a deer of some description. Possibly fallow?

Welcome Break

In all honesty, the patch birding has been a bit tough going recently. The trip to Norfolk next Sunday couldn't come at a better time and I'm really looking forward to it.

Once I return I will be back on the patch. I don't expect the month of March to throw too much my way and I will most likely restrict my birding to the more traditional haunts near to home. I don't think my legs can take another trek to Earlswood, although once the chiffchaffs and willow warblers show up I may find it difficult to stay away!

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

2009-02-09T10:14:00.002Z

As expected, the wintry weather curtailed any plans to get out in the field this weekend. To be absolutely honest, I probably could have ventured out on Sunday morning, but it was a bit chilly and I simply couldn't be bothered. However, the heavy snow at the end of the week meant that I walked into work on Thursday and Friday.

At the beginning of the year I took the view that if I did leave the car at home and make the journey on foot, then I would count this as patch birding. As a result, I added just over three miles to my total distance walked this year. In terms of birds it wasn't too bad either, as redwing, greenfinch and green woodpecker were all seen, the latter being a patch tick.

I was also keeping a close eye on the garden this weekend. February is a good month to get siskins on the feeders and the prospect of a lesser redpoll amongst them. I haven't seen either of these species so far, but I'm still optimistic of a visit as winter wears on. However, three great spotted woodpeckers on Sunday morning was an excellent record. First a male and female visited the suet feeders, closely followed by a second female moments later, when the original pair decamped to the large tree in the garden behind ours.

Birds Seen On Foot 2009: 54

Distance travelled: 28.2 miles

Telescope Points

Congratulations to Andy, who correctly answered the crossword clue featured in my previous entry. The correct answer was flinch, which apparently is an alternative meaning of the word quail. You learn something new everyday, don't you?

Being the winner of the first set of Telescope Points to be awarded this year, Andy currently heads the Telescope League Table, closely followed by, well, no one.

More Telescope Points will be on offer over the coming weeks, so keep 'em peeled and who knows, you could be walking away with the Telescope Trophy come the end of the year.

Norfolk

On Sunday 22 February I head to Norfolk with my Dad, Dave Lyons and Steve Jones. We're spending one night in Sheringham and hope to visit Lynford Arboretum, May Day Farm, Strumpshaw Fen, Stubb Mill, Salthouse, Holkham, Titchwell and Choseley Barns. It's going to be a hectic couple of days, but so long as the weather is on our side I'm sure there's going to be some cracking birding, and with Dave and Steve present there's bound to be plenty of laughs too.

Next Sunday I hope to get back on the patch, possibly with a view to looking for snipe again, and I'll report my findings in due course.

The Riddle

2009-02-05T18:41:00.001Z

There was so much to report from Sunday's big outing that inevitably one or two things had to be omitted. I'll leave Kay to tell the lightbulb story, which I'm sure you'll find illuminating, but I thought I'd better write a piece about the woman known only as ... Crossword Lady.

Some say she eats brake pads for breakfast and that she's allergic to the Dutch ... oh no, sorry, that's The Stig. However, Crossword Lady is remarkable in her own right and I feel I must share my thoughts regarding our meeting on Sunday afternoon. I think this is the bit where the screen goes all wibbly-wobbly and someone strums a harp in a random fashion ...

We had not long arrived at Park Hall Country Park, and several of our party needed to pay a visit to the public conveniences. On this note, I must say I'm glad I only needed a number one - the metal can didn't look like a good place to perch one's posterior on such a cold day. Anyway, as we came out we were approached by a lady who had obviously spotted our binoculars and generally nerdy appearance. Yes, this was Crossword Lady.

"Are you twitchers?" Crossword Lady asked us. Without wishing to have to explain the difference between twitching and birding, I replied, "We're birdwatchers."

Crossword Lady's eyes lit up. "What's a cuckoo's nest called?" she asked. Aha! Obviously a trick question!

"Cuckoos don't build nests!" I said, feeling very clever for not falling into her trap, "They lay their eggs in other birds' nests."

"No!" exclaimed Crossword Lady, "What do you call the birds whose nests they lay their eggs in?"

Tree pipits? Reed warblers? I wasn't sure what she expected me to say, then the word host popped into my mind and I blurted it out.

"That's it!" she cried.

It turns out it was a crossword clue that she'd been having trouble with, although I suspect you might have guessed that already based upon her uncomplicated and not-at-all-cryptic moniker. Anyway, she left satisfied and I felt like I had done my good deed for the day. If you're reading this Crossword Lady, I hope you managed to finish your puzzle.

By coincidence, I was having a go at the crossword in the Sunday Times this week, and I too floundered on a bird related clue. Here it is:

Bird flying across lake. It's quail? (6)

If it helps, the second letter is L, the fourth letter is N, and the sixth letter is H. Answers on a postcard to Reg Telescope, Wythall Bird Observatory. First person to get it right wins 10 Telescope points, which are worth nothing in monetary terms, but which bestow upon their holder instant kudos.

Garden Birds

All this bad weather brought a few unusual visitors to the garden and surrounding area last night. A flock of around 80 fieldfare was seen in the trees just a few doors away from the house, and a treecreeper was in our alder tree. That's not a common record, in fact I think I have only seen one ever before and that was before I really got into birding big time, so it's possible I was mistaken.

Tonight, a fieldfare perched in our sycamore tree for a minute or so, making it an official entry on the garden bird list.

The weather may put the kibosh on my birding plans this weekend. I'm keen to get back into the Wyre, but I have the patch to think about too. If I can't do either then there may be a few more cross words on Sunday morning.

To close, here are a few photos taken during the current cold snap.

Frozen

2009-02-02T11:31:00.002Z

Sunday saw temperatures plummet across the country, but the cold snap failed to put a damper on our big day out in Staffordshire. Present were Kay and Max, Pete Walkden aka Duck Pond, Richard 'The Producer' Powell and Stuart from Alrewas Birder. Undoubtedly, everyone will have their own unique take on events, so here are a few links to my fellow birders' blogs where alternative versions of the day's proceedings will no doubt appear:

Kay and Max - Brightside Birding
Pete - Pete's Birding Blog
Richard - Local Birding For Local People
Stuart - Alrewas Birder

But for now, here's my blow by blow account of the trip.

We left Stirchley at about 8:40am. I travelled with Kay and Max, and Pete followed behind. An easy run up the M6 saw us arrive at Doxey Marshes well ahead of schedule, despite an unintended detour in the direction of Eccleshall once we left the motorway.

We had a cursory scan of the marshes whilst we waited for Richard and Stuart to arrive. In this time we saw nothing truly out of the ordinary, although shoveler and, believe it or not, mute swan were somewhat embarrassing additions to my year list. A water rail was seen for a few fleeting seconds near the viewing hide, then Kay spotted a few barnacle geese amongst the Canada geese in front of us. After a bit of debate as to whether these were tickable or not, we voted in favour of them being legitimate.

Richard arrived shortly afterwards, just in time to see a common snipe rise out of the marshes and pass over our heads. On the way back to the car we caught up with the white-fronted geese that we had hoped to see, although the views we had were anything but crippling. There were no more exceptional sightings, but other birds of note included fieldfare, bullfinch, goosander, wigeon and teal, plus a further water rail, which was heard, but not seen.

Onto Cold Meece, where Richard had seen an Iceland gull only the day before. Viewing conditions were tricky to say the least, with the sun directly behind the flotilla of gulls that were present. When the sun did disappear behind a cloud, I checked carefully for any birds lacking black wing tips, but I didn't see any. Mistle thrush, song thrush, common buzzard and redwing were noted, but we didn't consider it worth hanging around any longer and made our way to Park Hall Country Park.

Our first targets were the long-eared owls that roost in the woodland here. Richard knew exactly which tree to look in, but sadly we couldn't spot anything in it. As Richard pointed out, the owls were probably not too far away, but if they're not in their favourite perch, you could spend hours staring up at the canopy trying to find them. A chap turned up with his border collie and he had a good search too. Yes, it was official - everyone and his dog was looking for them! A very vocal raven passed over during our vigil, another addition to the year list.

With time slipping away, we made our way down the into the quarry to look for little owl. Unfortunately, the only sighting of note was a rather crude image of a phallus etched into the rock, drawn in the classic schoolboy style. At least that's what I thought it was, until Max pointed out that it was in fact a picture of a lighthouse with some waves crashing around its base. Silly me!

A scan of the fields added a flock of around 30 golden plover to the day list, but it was time to move on. There had been some debate as to whether it was worth a visit to Swallow Moss in view of the cold wind and occasional snow flurries. In the end, we couldn't resist it. Worryingly, several cars travelling in the opposite direction already had a considerable dusting of snow, but we ploughed on and arrived on the moors at about 3:30pm.

The biting wind forced us to stay in the cars whilst we scanned the moorland for anything and everything that revealed itself. A common snipe was first to show, followed by a distant, unidentified bird that only I spotted. Probably a red grouse, but not good enough views to warrant a tick. Richard and Max had seen three red grouse whilst driving up to Swallow Moss, and I didn't have to wait too long before a carrion crow flushed two more grouse from the heather. They took flight and wheeled around in an arc before settling back down in the vegetation.

Finally, just before 5:00pm, we heard Richard pip his horn and we knew something good was on offer. Richard pointed frantically behind us and to our left, where a fine male hen harrier was coming in to roost. It gave good views before dropping into the heather. A minute or so later it came up again, then disappeared once more never to be seen again.

Stuart and Richard then headed off. We waited for a few more minutes, but didn't see anything else. As we set off, Kay received a text from Stuart - he'd just seen a merlin from the car. Although we were losing the light we kept an eye out for anything perched on the fence posts as we drove back towards Leek. Suddenly, I spotted something. A short-eared owl was quartering the moors to our left. Kay and I had reasonable views, but Max had struggled to see it properly from the driver's seat. We turned around and got out of the car to have another look, but we couldn't see it. I have to say, the wind at this point was probably the coldest I have ever experienced! Owl or no owl, I was back in the car pretty smartish!

So, despite the freezing cold weather and the occasional blizzard it was all worthwhile. I got my first lifer of 2009 in the shape of the owl and we had some other good birds, despite dipping on a few. It was good to catch up with everyone again, and to meet Stuart for the first time. As discussed, we shall have to return the favour and have a day out in Worcestershire sometime soon.

Perhaps we'll wait until the weather improves a bit though, eh?

An Innocent Man

2009-01-29T18:47:00.002Z

Oh crumbs! I was setting up a shortcut to my blog on Mrs Reg's desktop, when I stumbled across something rather odd. I had typed the phrase blogspot regthebirder into Google and was surprised to find a reference to Welsh songstress Duffy half way down the page.

I remembered writing about the big-lipped crooner early in the New Year and followed the link to see what it was all about. Imagine my horror on finding that I had been mistakenly identified as the photographer responsible for providing the picture in the article!

Here's the evidence:

I'm worried now. Worried that some disgruntled paparazzo is going to turn up on my door and stick his zoom lens somewhere it doesn't belong.

Anyone familiar with my blog will know that my pictures are never up to this sort of standard, so hopefully this will all blow over without any trouble. However, if Ms Duffy herself gets hold of this and finds out I was rude about her performance on Jools Holland's Hootenanny, she might come round and give me a thick lip. Maybe both of them if I'm lucky.

Long Walk Home

2009-01-26T18:16:00.002Z

On Sunday morning I headed out onto the patch with the intention of adding little owl to the list. That meant a three mile walk to an oak tree somewhere round the back of the Peacock pub. This area has plenty of good species on offer. Aside from the owl, I was fairly confident I could bag two or three more patch ticks during my visit.

Things got off to a good start when a cormorant flew over the A435 - the first patch tick of the morning. A flock of long-tailed tits and a pair of jays were seen in Hill Lane, then a male chaffinch delivered its song from the top of a tree - the first that I have heard singing this year. Sadly it was a slightly half-hearted, garbled effort, as though the poor fellow was practicing for the main event in a month or two's time.

There were plenty of collared doves around too, including two on my feeders before I set off. It's tempting to make a lazy comparison between them and buses, but I shall stifle the urge.

A small flock of siskins were spotted and checked carefully for lesser redpoll, but without success. However, not long after, I spotted the latter species where Watery Lane meets Weatheroak Hill. A patch tick and a year tick, no less.

Minutes later and just a few hundred yards from the owl tree, I was passed by a group of joggers. Not a welcome sight as the little owl is a bit skittish when approached on foot, though generally unfazed when viewed from the car. I feared that the joggers may have flushed the bird and sure enough, when I reached the tree there was no sign of it. I didn't want to give up on it so I hung around the area for a bit to see if I could find any yellowhammer. No joy, which meant I had a difficult decision - turn round and go home, or continue on and return to the tree a bit later. I chose the latter and walked to Wast Hill Bridge on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal.

I've seen yellowhammer here before, but had no luck today. I noticed a group of ducks flying overhead and guessed they were probably mallards. Not that long ago I probably wouldn't have even bothered to check them out. Nowadays I usually do, especially when I'm on my patch. Good job too - they were goosanders! Another patch tick.

I thought I had a stock dove shortly afterwards, but I wasn't certain enough to count it, so I headed back to the owl tree. I couldn't see the owl with the naked eye, but checked carefully with the binoculars anyway. I was surprised to find myself looking straight at it. I fired off a picture, but I wasn't close enough and the light was all wrong. I've circled the owl, but you'll just have to take my word for it that that's what it is!

Whilst attempting to find a better angle from which to take more pictures, the owl took flight and landed in the trees on the other side of the field, flushing a sparrowhawk in the process. It was all going on! That was about the last bit of decent action for the day, however.

I discovered I had walked eight and a half miles when I got home. No wonder my legs felt like lead! Other good spots during my walk included fieldfare, redwing and rook, which was another patch tick. There were also a few counts of great spotted woodpecker and about five of common buzzard. Exhausting stuff, but very rewarding.

Birds Seen On Foot 2009: 53

Distance travelled: 25.0 miles

Wyre In The Blood

This morning I visited the Wyre Forest, which was as brilliant as ever. I took a stroll along the old railway track, spent about an hour at Lodge Hill Farm scanning the trees and bushes, then walked along Dowles Brook before heading back to the car park.

There were some excellent birds on offer, the best of which were yellowhammer, bullfinch, lesser redpoll, great spotted woodpecker, green woodpecker, marsh tit, dipper and grey wagtail. I was particularly pleased to find the marsh tit. I heard it calling initially, then located it with relative ease as it was quite active along the path leading down to Dowles Brook. The first one I have seen in the forest as it happens.

No patch birding next weekend - I'm off to Park Hall Country Park with fellow birders Richard, Kay, Max and Pete to look for long-eared owls, then Swallow Moss to see, well, whatever there is to see up there. This is a trip that has been in the planning for a while. Should be a humdinger of a day and I'll let you know how we got on in due course.

Picture This

2009-01-24T17:59:00.002Z

Over-exposed, a bit coarse and a little embarrassing. No silly, not Kerry Katona - my pictures of the drake smew taken at Draycote Water last Monday. However, despite all their flaws, they are a significant improvement over my previous efforts, so I am proud to say that I have accomplished one of my first goals for the year.

I didn't spend that long at Draycote as it was a touch chilly, in the same way that Carol Vorderman is a touch annoying. However, I was there long enough to add a few year ticks to the list. Most notable were shag, goldeneye, goosander and ruddy duck.

Garden Birdwatch

This weekend saw me spend an hour watching the birds in the garden as part of the RSPB's annual survey. It was a pretty uneventful hour, but I did see nuthatch, blue tit, coal tit, great tit, blackbird, robin and dunnock. Much like last year, I didn't feel this really represented what I get in the garden on a regular basis.

Goldfinch are regular visitors to the garden, but there was no sign of them today. Chaffinches too are usually spotted at this time of year, but they haven't been around in the same sort of numbers as last year. From February onwards I often get siskins in the garden, and the flocks can sometimes carry a lesser redpoll or two. Last year I was lucky enough to get a female brambling and in July 2007 a lesser spotted woodpecker visited the peanut feeder. I'll never forget that one!

Believe it or not, I actually managed a year tick during the hour when a pair of collared doves landed in the tree behind our garden. I couldn't count them for the purposes of the survey, but it was nice to see them nonetheless.

The weather forecast isn't great for tomorrow, but I'm hoping to walk to Weatheroak to add little owl to my patch list, plus one or two other goodies if I'm lucky. Then on Monday morning, I aim to make my first trip of 2009 to the Wyre Forest, where I hope to see brambling and lesser redpoll - two species that were there in relative abundance this time last year. Other possibles include all three woodpeckers, hawfinch, marsh tit, mandarin, dipper, grey wagtail and kingfisher.

Whether I see all, some or none of these birds, a full report will follow on my return.

Out In The Fields

2009-01-18T14:04:00.001Z

Can you believe that I have still not seen a collared dove this year? It's bizarre, isn't it? I normally see these birds from the kitchen window without any fuss, but here we are, eighteen days into 2009 and still no tick in the box. Don't get me wrong, I'm not losing any sleep over it and I know one will cross my path before too long, but it just seems odd. Such is birding I suppose.

I hadn't intended to go out today. I had expected it to be pretty blustery, but it turned out to be a reasonably pleasant morning and at 10:00am I decided to venture out for a quick stroll around the patch. Not a lengthy excursion today as I decided to cover my default three mile route. I felt confident, however, that I would finally get my binoculars onto streptopelia decaocto. More fool me!

Sightings of note included a pair of bullfinch in the woods that connect Tanners Green Lane and Barkers Lane, a further pair along Hill Lane and five meadow pipits in the paddocks along Wilmore Lane. The latter is a particularly good spot so close to home. I was almost disappointed that I had seen some near Earlswood Lakes a couple of weeks ago, else it would have been another patch tick. Still, musn't grumble.

So, the search for the elusive collared dove continues. At this rate, I might be ticking turtle dove before I see its more prevalent cousin!

I did have a patch tick yesterday morning when three common buzzards were over the field opposite the house. A few year ticks fell last week too. Heading over to Solihull last Monday, I decided to go down Shakespeare Drive, where a flock of waxwings has recently been putting in regular appearances. My luck was in when 11 birds were spotted opposite the dental practice.

Later that day I saw a pair of blackcaps that are regular visitors to my Dad's bird table, and I finally spotted a coal tit, another common bird that had eluded me so far this year. Both ticks coming from the comfort of a sofa and with a cup of coffee in my hand. Good work.

Birds Seen On Foot 2009: 46

Distance travelled: 16.5 miles

Draycote Water

I need to think about getting over to Draycote Water before the smew disappears. One of my goals this year is to get a decent photograph of this bird. Knowing that some of the best photographers in the Midlands have struggled to achieve this feat doesn't fill me with confidence, but it would be silly to judge my own work by their lofty standards. Anything better than last year's effort will suffice.

Weather permitting, I shall be over there tomorrow. If it looks rotten, however, I may find myself at the cinema instead, so there is a contingency plan to go next Sunday with my Dad and Dave Thomas if necessary.

I wouldn't mind trying to find the red-necked grebe too. It wouldn't be a lifer, but I'm keen to see it. Trouble is, how will I tell it from the great crested grebes? Well, if it really is a redneck, I suppose it will be wearing dungarees. I wonder if it will answer to the name Cletus?

Patch It Up

2009-01-11T13:55:00.002Z

In the early 1990s, it was customary to celebrate my birthday in a delightful watering hole that went by the name of Bar Nevada. There are many words I could use to describe the place, but quaint wouldn't be one of them. It was situated in Solihull town centre, but don't go looking for it, because it's not there anymore. This is probably a good thing.

Bar Nevada had a bit of a reputation for underage drinking, and it was not uncommon for the odd scuffle to break out now and then. I seem to remember there being a strange smell in the air too. Probably something to do with the funny cigarettes that the clientele tended to smoke, although I hasten to add that I did not partake in any of these shenanigans. No, I was there to drink beer and lots of it. As far as I can remember, I think I managed to do that quite well.

I think the year was 1993. The details are a little hazy, but I distinctly remember that the Castlemaine XXXX had been slipping down a treat that evening. My friend and erstwhile drinking partner, Steve, had gone absent without leave, unable for once to keep up with the surprisingly relentless pace that I had set. Occasionally I would see him appear from the assembled horde, with a jug of beer in one hand and a fag in the other, but I was otherwise alone.

All of a sudden, the dulcet tones of Elvis Presley singing I Just Can't Help Believin' cut through the air - one of my all time favourites. It's hard to explain, but somehow it felt like they were playing it just for me and I sat back and enjoyed it whilst I drained what was probably the last pint of the evening.

More by luck than judgement, Steve and I managed to hook up again at the house where he rented a room, just a stone's throw from where I lived at the time. Steve rang the local Indian takeaway and ordered us two chicken and chips, then promptly fell asleep. When the food arrived I tried to wake him, but it was like trying to platt piss - impossible!

I ate both portions of food, left a note for Steve explaining what had happened and walked home. The only thing I hadn't been able to manage was half a naan bread, which I tossed into somebody's garden. If you lived in Solihull in April 1993 and you woke up one morning to find half a naan bread on your front lawn, then I wholeheartedly apologise. It was a very foolish thing to do, but hey, it was my birthday and I was drunk.

Later that year, my then girlfriend Sharon [now Mrs Reg] bought me That's The Way It Is on cassette. As well as featuring I Just Can't Help Believin', there was another track called Patch It Up. Of course, this all happened way before I knew a redwing from a lapwing, but when I go birding in and around Wythall, Patch It Up always seems to be banging away inside my head.

I have been out on the patch today, but as you might have already guessed from the ridiculous amount of waffling that I have just done, I didn't see an awful lot.

I managed to add sparrowhawk to the year and patch lists. I actually saw two birds this morning, or possibly the same bird twice as both sightings were within half a mile of each other. There were plenty of redwings about, but there was no sign of last week's reed buntings. Shows how quickly things can change, doesn't it?

Another addition to the patch list this weekend was fieldfare. A flock were seen on a number of occasions from the kitchen window yesterday afternoon. A few more were spotted today on my rounds. Definitely my favourite bird at the moment.

I said in my last blog entry that I was hoping to track something down that you might not expect to see on your doorstep. That bird was snipe, but the pond where I spotted some previously didn't deliver the goods today. Not to worry. I will try again when I'm next passing by.

There are still a few glaring omissions from my patch list, namely coal tit, collared dove and lapwing. I will be trying to track down these birds and more when I next venture out. Until then, here are the scores on the doors.

Birds Seen On Foot 2009: 45

Distance travelled: 11.5 miles

Vegetable Man

2009-01-04T18:21:00.003Z

As you may have guessed judging by my previous blog entry, I may well be going a bit off topic this year. Today is no exception, as I wish to talk about something that no New Year would be complete without - my infamous sprout and stilton soup. Never mind your chest, this concoction will put hairs on the palms of your hands, and is guaranteed to blow away [quite literally] even the most stubborn of cobwebs!

I knocked up a batch of this heady, green mixture on Friday, making sure that there was not only enough for my supper, but also a couple of portions for the freezer. This turned out to be a wise move when I returned from a walk of mammoth proportions around my local patch between the hours of 8:30am and 12:30pm today. Balmy it wasn't, and my brussel-based broth was just the thing to warm me up when I got in.

If anybody would like to get their hands on the clandestine formula for this seasonal pick-me-up, please drop me a line. Wait, what's that I hear? Ah, the sound of deafening silence!

Patching It Up / Episode 1

As you know, I am aiming to get 75 species on my Birds Seen On Foot List this year. With this in mind, my first foray of the month was a trip to Earlswood Lakes. Okay, not what I would traditionally call my local patch, but I did get there on foot, and how else am I going to get great crested grebe on my list?

Anyway, I set off bright and early, with my mobile phone acting as a dictaphone for my highly unprofessional field notes. To give you a flavour of these, they began something like this:

'This is Reg The Birder reporting for duty on Sunday, 4 January 2009. Weather - brass monkeys. Wind - a steady and stiff breeze, although it's to be expected after all that sprout and stilton soup, isn't it?'

I'll spare you the rest, although my audible excitement at spotting a dunnock during my outing speaks volumes about the modest start I have had to my year list. Other than a few species spotted from the house on New Year's Day and a handful more during a walk through the Lickey Hills on Friday, the birding cupboard is as bare as Old Mother Hubbard's.

A Golden Moment

Walking to the lakes produced year ticks in the shape of jay, mistle thrush, wren, song thrush and bullfinch. Best of all though was a group of four golden plover amongst a flock of about 1,000 woodpigeon opposite Earlswood station. Mega!

The lakes themselves were relatively quiet, but a mixture of patch and year ticks were on offer. Amongst them were treecreeper, great spotted woodpecker, siskin, greenfinch, goldcrest and great crested grebe. As I left the lakes, I had another monumental patch and year tick when I spotted about a dozen meadow pipits in a field on Norton Lane. Never seen those so close to home before.

Reed All About It

There was one final surprise before I got home. I decided to take a detour along a public footpath that runs through some fields near my house. I've seen this footpath before, but never ventured down it. Not twenty paces in and I spotted a pair of reed bunting in the hedgerow. Good work! It turns out that this footpath makes its way through some absolutely first class habitat.

If ever there was a local patch within my local patch, then this is it. I must make a point of working this area during the year to see what it produces. It looks to me as though it might be a good place to go owling later in the year. I'm fit to burst with the excitement of it all!

Measuring my route on Google maps when I got back revealed that I had covered a staggering 8.2 miles. This has prompted me to keep a running total of the distance I travel on foot in 2009. Is 100 miles out of the question? Well, I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Birds Seen On Foot 2009: 43

Distance travelled: 8.2 miles

My next venture will probably see me aiming for another species that you might not expect to find on your doorstep. Stay tuned to find out more ...

Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)

2009-01-01T08:05:00.002Z

A funny thing happened on the way back from Mrs Reg's mother's house having seen the New Year in. There we were, driving down Broad Lane when I spotted two police cars approaching in the rear view mirror, with sirens wailing and lights flashing.

I should explain at this point that it is a bit of a tradition of ours to pull crackers on New Year's Eve, and another one to wear our paper hats as we make our way home. In my mind I put two and two together and wondered if the coppers had spotted me in my natty headgear, decided that they had found a nailed-on cert drunk driver and set off in pursuit of yours truly.

Slowing down and pulling over, I was relieved to see them overtake me and speed off into the distance. As it happens, the only thing that had passed my lips all night was Vimto. I don't think it's a criminal offence to operate a motor vehicle having schlurpled the purple, though having had a glance at all the E numbers, additives and preservatives that are injected into the aforementioned beverage, perhaps it should be?

A Rude Awakening

I think it may have been the Vimto that caused me to have a nightmare about birding. I have loads of these. Usually, I've travelled the length of the country to indulge in a solid week's birding, then realise I've forgotten my optics. Last night's dream was different, however.

I was at Draycote Water with my Dad and a few of his friends. We were sitting in the cafe, and I was explaining to one of the guys how to connect a printer to his PC. Suddenly, I spotted a barn owl out of the window. I tried to get my Dad onto it, in recognition of the fact that he failed to see this bird in 2008, but he didn't seem bothered. Instead of peering through the glass to get an easy tick, he continued to nonchalantly pour tea for those that were present.

Then the penny dropped - it was the first day of the first month and I had forgotten to start my new year list! I dashed outside and started trying to identify everything I could see. An eider was quickly sorted out, although it was about twice the size of any other eider I've ever seen.

Then a few more ducks passed by. One looked a bit like a wigeon, but it wasn't. The others were white, with little black streaks down their backs. My Dad thought they were smew, but they weren't. Then I spotted a real smew a bit further along the shoreline, near a bench. Archie from Eastenders was sat on the bench. Great! Why couldn't it have been Duffy? After all, it was only a few short hours since I'd been watching her and her huge, beautiful, bee-stung lips performing on Jools Holland's Hootenanny.

Talking of which, I recently learned that the Hootenanny is recorded a week or so before Christmas! So the next time you catch this show and are watching Rowland Rivron being irreverent and generally unfunny, just remember that the whole thing is one big charade. In terms of gigantic fibs, this one is right up there with Father Christmas. What? You didn't know? Oops!

Anyway, back to Duffy. I think she was singing in Welsh last night. At least I think she was - I couldn't understand a damned word she was saying! Sorry to rain on your parade, Duffy, but I have a couple of words for you - diction and enunciation. Mercy!

Birds On The Telly

Which leads me on to the subject of birds on the telly. No, silly, not Christine Bleakley or Jasmine off Emmerdale - I'm talking about aves. What are you like?

As is customary, I spent a large part of the festive period slumped in front of the box. Amongst the programmes that I had carefully highlighted in the TV guide like some small, excited child was the festive edition of The Good Life.

Being a child of the seventies, I have fond memories of this show, but I guess this must have been the first time I have seen it since taking an interest in our feathered friends. I say that, because I have never noticed the splendid portrait of a red-backed shrike that adorns Margo's living room wall before.

Drawing A Blank

As I write this nonsense, it is 7:52am. My year list currently stands at an impressive zero birds. I did hear a carrion crow outside a short while ago, but I don't count heards. Shame really, or I could have added grasshopper warbler and golden pheasant to my 2008 list.

Whilst I have been tapping away at my keyboard, I've managed to come up with another goal for 2009 - to use a song title for each blog entry. Could be tricky, but I'll see how it goes.

Right, better go and make a start on that year list ...

Birding Review Of The Year 2008

2008-12-28T13:16:00.007Z

One thing's for sure - when I spotted my first bird of 2008, a Robin in my garden at 7:54am, I couldn't have imagined that I would end up with so many birds on the year list and so many new species under my belt.

I set out this year with the aim of focusing on quality, not quantity, but once I came back from Scotland in May with 199 birds, it seemed reasonable to try to keep the momentum going and post a good total for the year. I definitely aim to try to beat this total at some point in the future, but not next year, as I'll explain later.

Anyway, here's how the year panned out:

January, February & March

The first month of the year saw me add 76 species to the year list, but no lifers were to be had. My Dad and I had a full and enjoyable day at Upton Warren on 5 January, where we lucky enough to see Jack Snipe, Bittern and Little Egret. A visit to Draycote Water a couple of weeks later meant we were able to add Lesser Scaup to the year list, along with Smew and Great Northern Diver. The remainder of the month's ticks were pretty standard fair.

The Firecrests at Alvecote Pools ensured the first life tick of the year in February, and what beauties they were. The Mealy Redpoll at Upton Warren a little over a week later was also another nice one to clap eyes on.

Later in the month, I went to Devon with my Dad, Dave Lyons and Dave Thomas. We had an unbelievable amount of good fortune here and I bagged seven more lifers in the process, most notable being the Long-Billed Dowitcher that brought both mine and my Dad's life lists up to the 200 mark. Managing to see five species of grebe during our stay was also a highlight, as was what might well be my earliest Swallow for many years to come. Many thanks to Dave Thomas for putting us up for a couple of nights.

In March I unpicked my first bogey bird of the year, when I spotted Mandarins in the Wyre Forest. Later that morning, I had a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker there too. I paid several visits to the Wyre during the year and it has firmly established itself as a favourite place of mine. I will definitely be back in 2009, although I suspect I might be paying as much attention to the butterflies as the birds this time!

The Black Redstart at Grimley almost eluded us on 23 March, but we heaved a sigh of relief when we bagged it at the eleventh hour. The Scandinavian Rock Pipit was also there that morning. I don't tick subspecies, but even so, what a great little bird to see.

On 30 March we spent a day in the Forest of Dean and added Goshawk to the life list, though I hope to get better views at some point in the future. Later that day we visited Frampton On Severn and had an unexpected double in the shape of Garganey and Green-Winged Teal, the latter being another lifer.

The tally had reached 140 as the month drew to a close.

April, May & June

On 4 April I had a day to myself and set out on what was to be one of the greatest birding days of the year. After returning to the Forest of Dean to see Hawfinch, I had a go for my second Great Grey Shrike of the year and was treated to crippling views. My favourite bird of the year? Quite possibly. Two more Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers were seen later that day when I popped into Bittell Reservoirs on the way home. Magic!

Another bogey was unpicked when some fine gen from Pete Walkden got me my first ever Little Owl. Two days later, I was on holiday in East Anglia where another four lifers fell, including Bearded Tit and Nightingale, although my glimpse of the latter was brief in the extreme! Solid year ticks in the shape of Woodcock, Woodlark, Tree Pipit and Twite were also on offer, leaving the total for the year at an impressive 177 at the end of the month.

On a negative note, Grasshopper Warbler was heard at Holkham, but not seen - the first of several elusive birds this year. Also, we dipped on Golden Pheasant at Wolferton, despite hearing them call.

My first ever Yellow Wagtail at Draycote Water was another memorable and beautiful bird. Also at the end of the month I had a great morning's birding, life-ticking Little Gull at Upton Warren and adding Lesser Whitethroat to the year list, before a quick visit to Shenstone resulted in the first of many Cuckoos that I saw this year.

May saw me visit the Wyre Forest again with Max, Kay, Dave Lyons and my Dad. We had a good morning despite a couple of soakings. Kay life-ticked Wood Warbler and we also saw Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Redstart and Tree Pipit.

After a couple of failed attempts, I finally bagged Black Tern for the year at Upton Warren. Another elusive Grasshopper Warbler was heard that morning too.

Next up was the great big Scotland trip and a week's worth of intensive birding. We knew there would be lifers, we knew there would be year ticks, but I still get emotional when I think about the quality of some of the birding we did up there. Seeing Velvet Scoters at Gullane Bay sticks in the mind, as does the Long-Tailed Duck at Gosford later the same day. Just when we thought things couldn't get any better, we stumbled upon Temminck's Stint at Musselburgh.

One of the funniest moments of the year was when a Spotted Flycatcher popped up whilst we were enjoying drinks on the balcony at our hotel one evening. Birding at its best!

Other memorable spots during our stay were Hen Harrier, Hooded Crow, Black Grouse and Black-Throated Diver. Seeing Ptarmigan up on Lochnagar was also a special moment, probably my second favourite spot of the year, all things considered.

I ticked Scottish Crossbill too, but there is always that sense of lingering doubt as to whether it was or it wasn't. I am happy to keep it on the list based upon what I saw, although I appreciate that identification is difficult without analysing calls.

Either way, the year list took in 199 species once we had returned.

Apart from the birds, it was great to see Red Squirrels and Arctic Hares during our visit.

Onto June, where a Turtle Dove at Throckmorton became the 200th tick of the year. A great milestone and a super bird to see relatively close to home.

Whinchat, Chough, Puffin and Black Guillemot were all nice ticks in Wales, but the highlight of the month was seeing the Nightjars on Cannock Chase. Thanks to Richard and his friends, Pete, Kay and Max for a memorable evening. We had another Woodcock that evening too, plus a few Cuckoos and a Hobby. A great night.

Halfway through the year and the list stood at an impressive 206 birds.

June also saw the birth of Worcestershire Source. Many thanks to everyone who contributed news to the site in 2008. Please continue to support us and help the site to grow. Thanks also to Kay who has done a fantastic job keeping the news flowing over the last six months.

July, August & September

A Great Skua on Criccieth beach was an unexpected bonus. It took some sorting out mind! My first experience of skuas of any kind. Hopefully I might get more in 2009.

A Tawny Owl spotted from my garden at the end of the month was equally surprising and equally as welcome. Another bogey bit the dust.

Two lifers in the shape of Red-Necked Phalarope and Yellow-Legged Gull ensured that the year list kept ticking over, although doubts were cast over the identity of the latter.

The highlight was perhaps seeing the Silver-Washed Fritillaries in the Wyre Forest in July. This kick-started my interest in butterflies and dragonflies, so in many ways may have been one of the most important moments of the year.

At the end of September, I was fortunate enough to see my very first Badger, during our holiday in Devon.

October, November & December

A few enjoyable twitches to Buckinghamshire resulted in two life ticks, Ferruginous Duck on 12 October, and Ring-Necked Duck on 26 October. Both were great little birds. The Shore Lark at Upton Warren was an unexpected year tick and a smashing bird for the Midlands, taking the total to 216.

A bona fide Yellow-Legged Gull at Stubber's Green in November was nice to see, meaning no more sleepless nights regarding the potentially dodgy tick earlier in the year!

There were still a few birds to be spotted as proven by the Whooper Swan, Purple Sandpiper and Merlin in Wales, but there was also disappointment when we failed to find Snow Buntings at Pensarn.

A fine Smew on 1 December at Bittell Reservoir was a good tick on a local patch. Five days later, we had a second stab at Caspian Gull at Stubber's Green. The debate continues to rage as to whether we saw a second-winter Caspian Gull or not. I have elected not to tick the species for the time being.

Then, just as it seemed the birding year had drawn to a close, there was the small matter of seeing my first Waxwing near Upton Warren. A fitting way to finish.

Final tally, 220 birds on the year list, including 38 lifers.

2009

So, onto my plans for the coming year. As I stated in an earlier entry, the focus is very much going to be on patch birding. At least once a month, I intend to walk the lanes of Wythall and the surrounding area compiling a list of all the species I can see. I've set myself a target of 75 species, but bear in mind this will take in at least a couple of excursions to Earlswood Lakes. Basically, if I'm birding on foot and I see something, it will make the list.

Aside from this change of direction, I have some other personal goals that I would like to achieve. They are:

To find a Pied Flycatcher in the Wyre Forest.
To photograph Silver-Washed Fritillaries in the Wyre Forest.
To see a Corn Crake in Islay.
To see pure Rock Doves on Islay.
To photograph a Kingfisher to a reasonable standard.
To see Golden Oriole and Montagu's Harrier in Norfolk.
To add at least 5 butterfly species to my life list.
To photograph the Little Owl in Hopwood properly.
To photograph an adult drake Smew.
To walk my patch at least once a month.
To see Tree Sparrows at Shustoke Reservoir.
To see Nightingales at Paxton Pits.

No doubt at some point I will feel inspired to have a pop at my own record of 220 species in a year. I'm sure this could be easily beaten if I put my mind to it, but I will probably wait until I can get back to the highlands of Scotland before I do so. The birding up there is just in a different league.

Until then, the emphasis is firmly on quality, not quantity, and I am really keen to devote more time to butterflies and dragonflies next year.

Whatever your goals are, or even if you don't have any, have a great New Year and enjoy your birding. Because when all's said and done, that's what it's all about.

This is Reg The Birder logging off until 2009.

Waxing Lyrical

2008-12-27T18:42:00.001Z

Just when I thought the binoculars had been hung up until the New Year, what should happen? A sizeable flock of Waxwings take up residence at Webb's garden centre, just a short hop down the M5 for yours truly.

I'd been optimistic about my chances of seeing this bird during the winter and was happy to wait until they paid a visit to one of my local patches before dashing off to see them.

As it happens, I didn't have the fortune to see the flock of 20 birds or so that has been present for a couple of days, but whether you see one bird or one thousand, you still only get one tick for your list, so I was happy to have the pleasure of watching a single Waxwing feeding on the berries at the entrance to Webb's for half an hour or so this morning [lifer 231!] [year tick 220!].

Waxwings are such beautiful birds that even Mrs Reg was happy to tag along. Also present were my Mum and Dad, and birding friends Cat and Chippy. Fellow Bird Forum regulars Pam, Emma and Matt were also there and it was nice to meet them for the first time. Special thanks to Pam for allowing me to take the above picture through her scope. It was your scope, wasn't it Pam?

I took the scenic route back home, mainly to avoid the heavy traffic in and around Bromsgrove. This meant passing the home of the Little Owl that I like to see when I can. My luck was in today. See if you can spot him in the following picture:

So, the binoculars have been hung up once more. I really can't see myself doing any more birding now until 1 January 2009, so I've got a whole four days off before another year list begins!

Before that, however, there's the small matter of my review of the birding year, which will be published in the next few days.

To Be Or Not To Be ...

2008-12-15T09:40:00.001Z

That is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the Lapwings and Sparrows of outrageous fortune, or to stand in the freezing cold on a Saturday afternoon at Stubber's Green trying to sort out a Caspian Gull, with only a flask of coffee and a scotch egg to keep you going.

If Shakespeare had been a birder, perhaps this is how Hamlet's soliloquy would have turned out?

Anyway, as promised, I made the return journey to Stubber's Green this weekend with my father, and Kay and Max to see if we could strike gull gold and locate the Caspian Gull that had eluded us at the beginning of November.

For Kay's take on events, please pay a visit to her blog.

Despite the rain and the freezing cold, we managed to stick it out from about 10:45am until about 1:15pm, but failed to spot anything other than the normal Black-Headed Gulls, Common Gulls, Herring Gulls, Lesser Black-Backed Gulls and Great Black-Backed Gulls. Although Common Gulls are not always easy to spot in the Midlands, these are essentially your classic five gulls that you expect to see without having to put too much effort in.

Other birds present were Lapwing, Pied Wagtail, Little Grebe, Canada Goose, Mallard, Tufted Duck and Starling. Again, all par for the course. A Red-Breasted Merganser was around early on, but had flown by the time Kay and Max joined us. Also, four Goosander flew overhead during the morning.

That was about as good as it got, until just as we were turning our thoughts to leaving, Kay spotted a dark-eyed, clean-headed gull on the water's edge. On closer inspection we agreed that it showed enough features of a Caspian Gull to be worth photographing and I reeled off a few record shots before the bird took off and headed north, possibly to nearby Chasewater.

We were optimistic that we might have found our target bird, although we felt this was a second-winter individual and we were aware that the Caspian Gulls seen at Stubber's Green recently were older birds. For those that are interested, there has been some lively debate around the bird's identification here.

The general consensus seems to suggest that it is not a Caspian Gull, but a Herring Gull. Definitely worth a shout, however, and credit to Kay for spotting the bird.

After Stubber's Green, Kay and Max were off to look for Waxwings in Codsall, but with feet like blocks of ice, I decided to head home instead.

And so my birding for 2008 is at an end. I had planned to include my review of the year in this blog entry, but I think I will hold that back now for a couple of weeks.

Therefore, can I take this opportunity to wish everyone a very merry Christmas. Have a good one, and don't eat too many mince pies!

Have I Got Smews For You?

2008-12-07T12:45:00.001Z

Just a quick blog entry to bring you up to date with events. On Monday I paid a visit to Bittell Reservoirs. I'd decided upon this location a few days earlier, but news of a Smew at Lower Bittell Reservoir on Sunday added a little spice to proceedings.

There is a good collection of wildfowl at the site now that winter is here. The first-winter drake Smew showed on Shrub Mill Pool after a short while, and there were good numbers of Goosander present, mainly drakes. I also noted a drake Pintail on the other side of the causeway, but I couldn't locate the Common Scoter that has been around for a week or so.

I managed to get a picture of the Smew. At best, it was disappointing. At worst, it was frickin' awful!

I took a walk up to the upper reservoir, but was disappointed by the fact that the path through the woods was extremely quiet. Things improved once I reached the end of the path, as there were good numbers of Redwing about, then I spotted a further five Pintails on the reservoir.

What I'd really been hoping for was to find my own Waxwing. A pair of these elusive winter visitors turned up in Stourbridge last week. Surely it's only a matter of time before more come our way? I don't really want to twitch them unless I have to. I'd much rather see them on a local patch if I can. Here's hoping.

Next Saturday, I'm off to Stubber's Green again to see if I can spot the Caspian Gull that evaded me a few weeks back. That, I think, is probably going to be my last birding excursion of 2008.

I'll report back on that in due course, at which time I think I will also be reviewing the birding year and declaring my goals and objectives for 2009.

Until then, happy birding!