Middleton Lakes...

Seeing as I seem to be slowly getting back into the whole waking up early thing (it has taken a while since the lapse into teenage'esque lay-ins during the Christmas break) I managed to be up, out and at Middleton for a reasonable time. Unsurprisingly some of the local birders had already beaten me there, but that was of little consequence, I was just glad to beat the inevitable Big Garden Birdwatch crowds. The weather was perfect and birdsong was everywhere; this had disappointment written all over it!

The heronry was fairly active with birds coming and going carrying nesting material and having their little squabbles over the best location so as not to get crapped on by your neighbour (a serious concern I would imagine given the size of the birds in question). The pool in front of the viewpoint was frozen but the feeders were busy with all your regular feeder candidates in good numbers - no lesser spotted woodpecker though despite apparently making the odd appearance!

Middleton Lakes Feeders - Jan. 2012 - Mike Ixer

The Woodland Trail set the tone for the visit in two ways. First off, there were lots of birds being very vocal and quite showy - has nobody informed the bird community that it actually isn't Spring yet; it's not even February! Secondly, it was muddy. I don't just mean "Oh no, there is a few puddles" type muddy, I mean "Oh I wish I had brought a spare pair of trousers for the drive home" type of muddy. It was slippery and messy, but to be honest, I loved it!

Walking through the woods there was no shortage of alto song thrushes tuning up with the sopranos taking the form of the robins already showing off as only sopranos can. Stopping at the viewing platform which overlooks the old silt pool a Cetti's warbler decided to have his say somewhere in the distance and a large group of blue tits were giving the reed mace plenty of attention. Pushing further through the woods and my recent good fortune with treecreepers struck again as one gave a very brief but very close show (needless to say the camera let me down again!) followed by a female great spotted woodpecker drumming with what seemed to be a complete disregard for me - an illusion which was shattered when that one more step down the path sent her shouting into the canopy.

Then, as I crossed the small wooden bridge, I got my highlight of 2012 (one which although early, may retain that claim throughout the next 11 months). After searching fruitlessly for a few years and concluding that there was an ornithological conspiracy a foot, a black and white sparrow sized bird flew up from quite low and stuck to a tree trunk just in front of me. It was so close I didn't even need my binoculars to be able to instantly identify it as a male lesser spotted woodpecker - the size, the extra white markings on the back; he was perfect! Unfortunately, my photo wasn't. As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, my camera set up struggles in less than perfect light and a woodland is exactly that. In the immortal words of my old music teacher, "you can't polish a turd", so here is the rather smudged attempt at doing so...

Lesser spotted woodpecker - Middleton Lakes - Jan. 2012 - Mike Ixer

After catching the eye of another birder and pointing him in the direction of the bird it performed a vanishing act by scuttling around a tree and then not being there when we looked. But what a treat he was for those few minutes when he was happy to be on show. My only frustration is that I don't know if I will ever get a view this good again, yet I didn't manage to get that one really telling photograph.

So onwards, and it didn't matter what the rest of the day held, it had already been memorable. The lakes held the usual assortment of waterfowl - wigeon, tufted duck, gadwall, shoveler, mallard, coot, moorhen and about 10 goldeneye. I was watching a single little egret hunt the edge of one of the lakes when a small bird flew out from the edge in front of me and perched a little further up the path. When I fixed it in my bins I was delighted to find that it wasn't the reed bunting I had originally assumed it to be, rather it was a very handsome looking male stonechat which was soon joined by a female.

Male stonechat - Middleton Lakes - Jan. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Female stonechat - Middleton Lakes - Jan. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Just as I was losing interest in the stonechats which seemed to be stalking me up the path I heard something which I felt like I hadn't heard in ages! Instinctively I looked up and saw three skylarks singing and fighting overhead - they are always bigger than I remember them. Now I really did feel like Spring was in the air (literally), seems ridiculous for January since I didn't hear my first last year until the end of February. After these two rapid-fire highlights the rest of the Wetlands Trail was fairly average. There were hundreds of Lapwings gathered in a field north of the trail as well as half a dozen shellducks around the lakes. Other birds included great crest and little grebes, kestrel, buzzard, mute swans, greylag and Canada geese, teal, pochard and a green woodpecker (that's all three woodpeckers in one day!).

I was still on a bit of high so decided to have a quick stroll around the Meadow Trail for only my second ever look. Bird wise it was fairly quiet, but aurally it was less so with a couple of quad-bikes and a dirt-bike doing the rounds on the other side of the river. Still a male goosander flying up the river was nice to see, as were the squabbling jays. The cows seemed chilled out and after the bikers gave up it was a beautifully peaceful walk around the meadow perimeter.

English longhorn cattle - Middleton Lakes - Jan. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Just as I undid my jacket to enjoy the exceedingly mild weather another skylark took to the air in a full song flight which must have lasted minutes. His glorious tones finally finished as he parachuted back down to Earth and thus completed natures conspiracy to convince me that it was actually Spring and I had somehow slept for a month without realising.

The walk back along the canal and through the woods was punctuated with yet another treecreeper, a couple of goldcrests, some redwings, a lone coal tit and these long-tailed tits taking over from the blue tits who where feeding on the reed mace earlier.

Long-tailed tit - Middleton Lakes - Jan. 2012 - Mike Ixer

So I got back to the car and took home half the reserve in mud stuck to my trousers, but it was a cracking day out and I notched up 57 species. I love my gadgets, so here is my root for the day:

Quick bit of Sandwell...

Quick trip down to the Valley today resulted in me getting hailed on but also picking up a half decent photo!

I walked up to the old visitors centre from the temporary centre and spent some time watching the table feeder, then sheltering from the hail and then watching the table again. The birdlife consisted of mainly great tits - so many great tits - with the odd blue tit and chaffinch thrown in for good measure. There were however lots of bullfinches in the area and I'm coming to the conclusion that they must have had a very good breeding season whilst also be benefiting from what has still been a fairly mild winter. I must have seen about a dozen in my limited travels today whilst another volunteer counted 14 around the table the other day. A marsh tit also put in an appearance for one intrepid birder who decided to watch the table with scant regard for the hail.

I then headed towards the South Bank and had one of those "I'm so glad I had my camera on my shoulder and ready to shoot" moments as a heron flew over the trees and headed straight for me only to veer away and follow the course of the river just next to me.

Grey Heron - RSPB Sandwell Valley - Jan. 2012 - Mike Ixer

After the hail and rain I had high hopes that the snipe would be quite active and I wasn't disappointed. Looking back over the Island I kept counting more and more with each count as my eyes started to get in to snipe-spotting mode. I finished with a definite count of at least 22 but if they had been disturbed I wouldn't have been surprised to have seen at least double that fly out! They were running between clumps of undergrowth and chasing each other which made them almost impossible to keep track of.

Other birds making themselves obvious included gadwall, mallard, goosander, coot, moorhen, 24+ goldfinch, starling, 65 lapwing, black-headed gull, lesser black-backed gull and 23 wigeon.

Wigeon - RSPB Sandwell Valley - Jan. 2012 - Mike Ixer

That was about all to report from this brief visit other than a jay getting annoyed with me on the way back and a mega tame robin which pretty much landed on my foot when I stood still. Oh, and lets not forget about the idiot who's dog decided to go for a run from the old centre down the hill and into the marsh causing everything to scatter. Moron!

Sandwell Valley...

So, an afternoon off Uni and a nice day, what to do?

I guess Sandwell Valley could be described as my 'patch' because I do more birding there than anywhere else. My reticence in labelling it my 'patch' stems from the simple fact that I struggle to get down there very often these days and if I can make one trip a week I'm left feeling pretty satisfied with my efforts. It is also worth noting that my views towards the Valley will be massively biased due to my quite extensive work as a volunteer there with the RSPB.

In the name of laziness I parked in the Swan Pool car park and set off around the pool itself towards Priory Woods. There was very little of note on the water with 3 great crested grebes being of most interest seeing as one pair were hanging around the location where they have tried to nest the last couple of years. I had my fingers crossed that I might stumble upon a very early bit of weed dancing, but this proved a little optimistic (I did forget it was still January and NOT Spring). So seeing as they didn't dance for me, here is a pic of a pair having a quick shimmy in the same spot taken in late February last year.

Great Crested Grebes 'dancing' on Swan Pool - Feb. 2011 - Mike Ixer

There is a long boom which sits in the water at Swan Pool and it is always worth a look through the assembled gulls to see if anything 'unusual' has sneaked in. At the end of January last year a yellow-legged gull put in an appearance, but today there was nothing of note (unless more experienced gull watches than myself (of which there are many) can see anything).

Gulls at Swan Pool - Jan. 2012 - Mike Ixer

As I pushed on into Priory Woods I was initially surprised by how quiet it seemed - then I noticed the smouldering remains of a couple of bonfires and the rangers packing up and the apparent quiet was no longer a mystery. A shrill squawking call then resounded through the woods followed by another, then another, and so on. The Heronry is active again! Emerging out of the trees and through to Ice House Pool I counted at least 25 grey herons standing watchfully over the nest sites which have been used for years - my second early sign of Spring; the first being watching two mistle thrushes forage together outside my flat near to a regular nesting spot whilst seeing off any rivals.

A record shot of a few of the herons - Ice House Pool - Jan. 2012 - Mike Ixer

The accompaniment to the herons came in the form of 10 goosander, pochards, turfted ducks, gadwall, mallards, coots, moorhens, canada geese and mute swans with the later few vying for the best spot not to get fed in front of me.

Moving through the woods everything again seemed quiet until a very quiet and high pitch noise caught my attention. I turned my gaze upwards to see a treecreeper shimmying up the tree ... followed by a nuthatch ... heading towards a goldcrest. Amazing! Nothing particularly rare but to see these three highly charismatic species, which can all be a pain to see on occasions, all in the same field of view was a real treat. Further inspection revealing a second nuthatch and a second treecreeper on an adjacent tree with a pair of bullfinches also in attendance.

Now the only disappointment which arose from this thoroughly enjoyable situation was that all the photos which I took are rubbish! It is the one problem with the camera and lens combo I carry around. The lens has a very good magnification (150mm-300mm Olympus fit which is apparently a 300mm-600mm in normal cameras) and is also very compact. However, in anything other than good lighting it struggles massively; a fact which is a problem while trying to photograph things in woodland.

Nuthatch in Priory Woods - Jan. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Frustrating!

Treecreeper in Priory Woods - Jan. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Even more frustrating!

Anyway, I left Priory Woods and had a good look around the Paddocks with the hope that I would find a little owl after it was seen last week. Of course I had no luck finding the little blighter - it seems unlike other little owls, the Valley residents do not have a regular resting place, just a tree that you 'might' see them in. The paddocks were well populated with Turdus (and not because of the horses), the vast majority of which being redwings but fieldfare, blackbirds and mistle thrushes also featured. There was also the addition of a great spotted woodpecker, some stock doves and a collared dove to keep things interesting. I have attached a photo below to prove the little owl does exist and it is not just a myth conjured up by RSPB volunteers wanting to keep people looking. It was taken in the Paddocks 12th February last year.

Little Owl with Great Spotted Woodpecker - Paddocks - Feb. 2011 - Mike Ixer

I walked back through the skylark (but not yet) field and around the other side of Swan Pool. A cormorant and 5 herring gulls had now joined the previously assembled gulls on the boom but nothing else had appeared.

Next stop, Forge Mill Farm and a very welcome cup of tea. I went for a very quick walk through the farm and around the mile-long Farm Trail which can sometimes prove to be very productive (I've previously had woodcock, lesser redpoll, siskin, goldcrest, and more) because it is quiet due to very few people ever walking around it. It was beautiful when we had the heavy snow at the end of 2010 and the only tracks were that of foxes - no human had been down there for what felt like weeks!

Fox on the Forge Mill Farm Trail - Dec. 2010 - Mike Ixer

Today was quiet with long-tailed tits, redwings and wrens being the only company.

All the regulars were on Forge Mill Lake with goldeneye being the only notable absence. Goosander, wigeon, gadwall, shovelers, teal, mallards, tufted ducks, pochard, canada geese, mute swans, a little grebe, coots and moorhens were all flying the flag for the waterfowl. 105 lapwings was a pleasing count and I could find at least 9 common snipe without the use of a telescope. Also of interest around the lake was another treecreeper with some siskin in the trees which line the banks and a song thrush in the scrub.

A final trip up to the feeders outside the old centre was disappointing because they had run out of food (something which I'm sure will be rectified tomorrow when the RSPB facilities are open again). Despite the lack of food there were dunnocks, blue tits, great tits, bullfinches, chaffinches and goldfinches all hanging around.

The walk back to the car offered me my final photo opportunity of the day, and here it is...

Robin - RSPB Sandwell Valley - Jan. 2012 - Mike Ixer

As I was leaving, this was the sight that bid me farewell (along with some hail!), pretty impressive I felt...

Clouds - RSPB Sandwell Valley - Jan. 2012 - Mike Ixer

New Year Birding So Far...

On January 1st I had one of my Midlands friends, Beth, join me for a few days for what she described as some "sick-ass" bird watching in Suffolk to get the year off to a good start. We went straight off to the RSPB reserve at North Warren just in time for some disgusting weather to blow in off the sea. Parking in a lay-by just off the road between Aldeburgh and Thorpeness, we opened the window and watched the spectacle of a Starling murmuration consisting a few thousand Starlings (albeit quite distantly) wheeling in the sky before settling down for the night.

First major port of call was the was the legendary RSPB reserve at Minsmere on January 2nd. It was a slightly windy but generally mild day so we were optimistic of a good day. We rolled up listening to some Dizzy Rascal wondering if anyone had ever arrived at this most heralded of nature reserves accompanied by such a soundtrack before? So to birdwatching. Unfortunately, by the reserves ridiculously productive standards, it was a little quiet. This said, we still notched up 51 species to set the year lists in motion, some of which some were great early 'ticks' and others were just great to see.

My personal highlight was probably the hundreds of Red-Throated Divers which were hanging around offshore with good numbers of Great Crested Grebes. I've never seen this species in such large numbers before and although they were not close to the shore, it was still an impressive sight when you scanned the sea. Other than this there was also the pleasure of being able to see all three species of native Swan on one reserve - again not a rare experience, but a joy when you are not expecting it!

The other two species of note (though not so much considering the reserve) were at least four Avocets around the Scrape and an unknown number of Marsh Harriers over the reedbeds. It was hard to count them but there was at least four distinct individuals and possibly more. When you throw in some great views of Treecreepers, Goldcrests, Marsh Tits and five species of Gull it results in what was a very enjoyable to days birding to start the year.

A stop at Upper Hollesley Common on the way home from Minsmere was just a little late (no thanks to a brief detour) and there was unfortunately no sign any Crossbills, Dartford Warblers, Stonechats, Waxwings, Hen Harrier or Great Grey Shrike - all of which had been reported there within the last couple of days. We were sceptical when we saw a number of birders packing up as we arrived; damn these earlier sunsets in winter!

I had to drive back to Birmingham on the 3rd and the weather was truly awful; some of the strongest winds I've experienced in a long time which caused this damage in our back garden.

Damage caused by high winds. Jan 2012

Before I left I headed out to get some lunch from the local shops and was greeted by a ray of sunshine (in the metaphorical sense, the weather was still appalling). Circling around above the shops was a group of 30+ birds which very much resembled Starlings ... but they weren't. The Waxwings circled around and took cover from the weather in a large Oak Tree in the main car park. What luck! Further luck was to follow when later in the afternoon the weather broke for a couple of hours and I was able to go back with Beth (who was seeing her first Waxwings) and Dad to get some much better views.

Waxwings. The Square, Martlesham Heath - Jan. 2012

Waxwings. The Square, Martlesham Heath - Jan. 2012

I particularly like that in the second photo you can see how windy it still is because the three birds which are facing the camera have wonky tufts :-) So this proved to be a fantastic au revoir to Suffolk for the Christmas Holidays and I headed back to the equally windy second city - bonjour Birmingham.

Uni began again on Wednesday, but they eased us in and all we had was a three hour practical gymnastics P.E. session (yea, it's amazing what you do on a Primary PGCE course) so after this I headed over the RSPB reserve at Sandwell Valley (my patch I guess, as much as I actually have a patch) for a first look around for the year.

It was a little quiet but I wasn't looking too hard because again the weather was closing in fast! However the specialities of the reserve didn't let me down and I was able to add Siskin, Snipe and Goosander to the year list along with the resident Willow Tits which were very obligingly coming to the feeding table regularly as well as buzzing around my head at one point - such a cracking little bird! The light was sufficiently poor that this is about the only photo I managed which isn't a blurred mess - still not good though.

Siskin. Sandwell Valley - Jan 2012

So, I've started the year with 63 species - a solid if not spectacular start. I have resigned myself to having a quieter year because of increasing work commitments at Uni so I think there will be a lot of appreciating what is on One's doorstep.