Minsmere Moments...

I am fortunate in that the RSPB's Flagship reserve at Minsmere is only a 30 minute drive from my parents home back in Suffolk, and therefore whenever I am home for a visit, I often make the (short) pilgrimage up the A12 to see what delights are on offer. I have found Minsmere's reputation to be both a blessing and a curse for the reserve. This is because people come expecting to have one of the infamous 'Minsmere Moments' which you hear about and read about in blogs, and if they do not experience this it can almost be a disappointment. For example, when I took Beth there for here first visit at the beginning of this year, we had a relatively quiet day (by Minsmere's standards) during which we only saw more marsh harriers than you can shake a stick at and a few avocets and therefore left feeling strangely let down. However, if you visit often enough, you will occasionally be rewarded with one of those moments.

I can think of three particularly special visits I have made - and dozens of other bloody good ones which of course shouldn't be discounted. The first of which was a couple of years ago when one Autumn afternoon the parents and I decided to head up the road after a spate of interesting sightings. For some inexplicable reason I did not take my camera and therefore missed a number of opportunities to get some fantastic pictures of some truly amazing birds. To summarise, in the short walk starting at the visitors centre and circumnavigating the scrape we had seen a wryneck in the North Bushes, a juvenile red-backed shrike from the North Wall, a Lapland bunting on the beach and a little stint from East Hide. It was truly phenomenal! I understand that all of these birds are regular passage migrants in this country and seeing one on a birding trip would not normally become a treasured memory (except possibly the wryneck, elusive little sods!), but to see all four in such a short time will always stay with me.

After an average Spring day walking around the two circular routes I stumbled wearily into (the old) Island Mere Hide and found a man with a huge amount of video equipment set up in the corner quietly looking slightly glazed over. A short while later I had established that he was on a mission from the BBC to film a bittern in the open and since they had been showing themselves very well of late in front of the hide that it seemed the perfect place to come. I also found out that he had been sitting there since just after dawn (it was now mid afternoon) with nothing but a few flight shots at distance - hence the slightly glazed look. Not long after arriving in the hide, a bittern flew into the reeds just to the right of the hide, but more importantly, just next to the clearing - everyone's collective breath was held hoping it would see fit to take a stroll in front of us. The glazed look was now long gone from the cameraman's face and sure enough, a bittern began to tentatively walk out from the reeds. Motordrives on cameras began to heat up as the bird became increasingly bold seemingly oblivious of the shutters rattling in the hide.

Bittern - RSPB Minsmere - Apr. 2010 - Mike Ixer

The bird then paused as if it had suddenly become aware of the cameras. What it had noticed we shall never know, but it was at this moment that it stooped down, began to inflate as it gulped in air and then gave one of the most distinctive bird calls you will ever hear. Yes, we (including the cameraman) had just witnessed a bittern booming right in front of us - truly incredible! If you want to watch the video (and let's face it, who wouldn't!), it can be found here on the BBC website. He (the bittern, not the cameraman) then pranced around a little more offering yet more opportunities for photographs.

Bittern - RSPB Minsmere - Apr. 2010 - Mike Ixer

Bittern - RSPB Minsmere - Apr. 2010 - Mike Ixer

Finally, having walked almost the entire distance across the clearing, he flew off into another part of the reedbed. It was at this point the excitement of everyone in the hide could finally be released after bottling it up so as to not scare the bird - people were borderline cheering after this display!

The final outstanding memory has to be at the back-end of Summer last year. It was the best time to be watching the terns because they were starting to migrate and this means that all sorts can 'tern' up (couldn't resist, sorry). I was in the hide overlooking the South Scrape where it seemed the terns were gathering. After just a quick scan the three breeding tern species had all made themselves apparent, they were common, sandwich and little. After a slightly more thorough scan a black tern suddenly stuck out like a sore thumb. Things were starting to get really interesting and, intrigued by the possibility of finding five tern species from one hide, I had a really detailed look amongst the assembled common terns in the vague hope of finding an Arctic - and sure enough, eventually one was found. At this point one of the volunteers arrived and after talking to him about the assembled mass of terns, I asked the irresistible question "Any roseate terns been seen?". Apparently they had! So commenced a number of detailed searches - but to no avail. After deciding I was just being greedy in wanting to see six tern species in one sitting someone gave the call that they had found the roseate. There it was, glowing slightly pink in the perfect light, thus completing the entire set of terns that you would hope to see (barring the really unusual ones).

This bout of nostalgia over my personal Minsmere moments has been brought on after a visit this weekend and an experience which almost qualifies. I arrived early(ish - not early by birding standards) and headed straight to the Whin Hill Watchpoint after reports of a glossy ibis being viewable from there. On my way there I was confronted by this in the middle of the path.

Red Deer - RSPB Minsmere - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

I don't really know anything about deer, but is it not a bit late for young to still be feeding from mothers? Anyway, after arriving at the watchpoint, I scanned across Island Mere and the fields behind with my binoculars and was greeted by the sight of at least three marsh harriers cutting across above the reeds. Then, another birder allowed me to look through his telescope at the (incredibly distant) ibis. Without this scope I would probably have never seen a bird at that distance, let alone been able to identify it! Well it was still a new life bird for me - but there is definitely room for improvement when it comes to seeing my next one. After some further scanning looking for a great white egret which had also been reported, the call came out that there was a bittern flying over the reeds, and sure enough we all picked it up just as it dropped into the reeds. A few false alarms on the egret later (it is difficult to not try to turn little egrets into great ones when your looking for one) and I spotted what looked like a very large white bird come out of the reeds and start to gain height. After pointing it out to the assembled select group, it was confirmed as being the great egret just as it flew out of sight towards the South Levels. Now, there are not many places (in this country) that you could visit and having stood in one place for 30 mins be able to say you had seen 3+ marsh harriers, a glossy ibis, a bittern, a grey heron, plenty of little egrets and a great white egret. The only reason that this might not qualify right up at the top of my Minsmere moments is that the views, although identifiable, were very distant and definitely out of camera range.

So those are my current outstanding Minsmere moments and I look forward to hopefully having many more in the future.

Some Sandwell Pictures...

Last week I made a couple of trips to the Valley because I had an essay which needed completing and nothing says "Mike has an essay to complete" like me doing everything which isn't it. So having tidied the flat, made copious amounts of tea and spent an inordinate amount of time watching a peregrine sat on top of one of the large buildings (I think the old Natwest building) in the city centre, the only procrastination method left at my disposal was birding.

Peregrine Falcon (digi(phone)scoped) - Birmingham City Centre - Feb.2012 - Mike Ixer

So instead of a blow-by-blow account of each Sandwell trip, I feel a brief summary is in order for this entry. On Wednesday (15th) I spent the morning having a look around and was rewarded with views of some birds that don't visit the Valley very often. First (and most obvious) was the group of four greylag geese which were grazing around the marsh with a large number of Canada geese.

Greylag Goose (1 of 4) - RSPB Sandwell Valley - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

I assume they found some good grazing here because it had just thawed and other areas were still fairly well frozen. Although the greylag is not an unusual species in 'urban' settings, it is no longer resident in the Valley - apparently they were "rubbish at breeding" - and now you only see them a couple of times a year. As you can see from the above photo, the Marsh is also now attracting other waterfowl and we all have our fingers crossed that after the improvement works at the end of last year, it will prove to be very productive this Spring.

The next bird of note was the redhead smew which was still present that day.

Smew - RSPB Sandwell Valley - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

The bird unfortunately departed the next day (Thursday 16th) never to be seen again. However it was a really good record for the reserve and the Valley as a whole and since it was good enough to visit during half-term lots of people were able to see it. The final unusual (for the Valley) water bird to put on a show last Wednesday took the form of a very handsome drake pintail.

Pintail - RSPB Sandwell Valley - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Unlike the smew, this chap has been good enough to hang around for a little while and was still there on Sunday (19th) when I visited. Final thing of note was a large mixed flock of redwings and fieldfare feeding in the field at the north end of Forge Mill Farm.

Fieldfare - Sandwell Valley - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

So my next visit was a couple of days later, on Friday (17th) as a way of celebrating having handed in the aforementioned essay. It was an overcast day and having walked down to the hide, I was in two minds whether there was any worth in going any further. Having consumed two whole packs of chocolate digestives while finishing the essay, I decided that even if the birding turned out to be rubbish, I was still in dyer need of some sort of exercise - so I set off to do the 'big' circuit. This involved walking around Forge Mill Lake to the farm, down to Swan Pool, around the west shore of Swan Pool, over the bridge at Salters Lane, through Sandwell Park Farm, back across the M5 and into Priory Woods, around the Paddocks, back around the east shore of Swan Pool, back up to Forge Mill Farm, around the lake and finally back to the temporary RSPB centre - a walk which totals over 5 miles.

Photos are a little few and far between because the very overcast conditions led to the sort of terrible light which my camera struggles to cope with. First acceptable photo is of the boom on Swan Pool (the one which I've previously mentioned as being good for gulls).

Gulls - Sandwell Valley - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

As I have also previously mentioned, my gull ID is not particularly good, especially when you get into the realms of juveniles. The juvenile in this photo struck me as being very light compared to what I am used to seeing around the Valley. I've got it down as a juvenile herring gull, but any further input from any of you would be welcome. Just near this boom a pair of great crested grebes were nest building and started shaping up nicely for a 'weed dancing' display - unfortunately just as they swam apart to get the weed a dog charged into the water and they quickly aborted the attempt.

Great Crested Grebes - Sandwell Valley - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

The final photo of the day was of this immature male goldeneye who was quite close to the banks of Swan Pool until I decided to raise my camera for a photo, at which point he dived three times in quick succession and finished much further away.

Goldeneye - Sandwell Valley - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

So you might assume from the lack of photos that my initial fears about there being a lack of birds showing themselves turned out to be true. Quite the opposite was actually the case, the walk produced a staggering 63 different species of birds. Virtually everything you could hope to see around the Valley at this time of year decided to put in an appearance. The only absentees were buzzard (which is amazing in itself), collared dove, kingfisher, water rail and little owl. This was my most productive Valley session ever and I think it will be a long time until I top it.

A final trip on Sunday to build a nest box didn't provide any amazing sightings. However this chap was causing a bit of chaos amongst the geese between the marsh and the lake.

Fox - RSPB Sandwell Valley - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

And here is one final picture to remind everyone that despite the recent dips in temperature, Spring is still definitely in the air.

Feral Pigeons - Sandwell Valley - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Sunday at Sandwell...

So after the exertions of Saturday's trip to Norfolk, I was in the mood for a relaxed trip down to the Valley for a look around. After arriving I spent about an hour chatting to some other volunteers that I hadn't seen in a while and eventually headed out to see what was about.

The usual suspects were in the usual places - wigeon on the river bend, siskin doing circles over the reedbed area, teal up river a little way - but with the exciting additions of a couple of great spotted woodpeckers and a sparrowhawk hurtling through the bushes next to the Marsh Screen. I ambled up to the feeding station where again all the regular candidates were laying their claims to the food, great tits, blue tits, a willow tit, chaffinches, greenfinches, bullfinches, dunnocks, robins, blackbirds, woodpigeons and squirrels.

Dunnock - RSPB Sandwell Valley - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

While admiring the various scuffles which were breaking out around the table, I got a text asking if I could come down to the hide to help identify a mystery water bird - intriguing!

I raced down and entered the hide to find people gathered around looking at the area of open (non-frozen) water to the right of the hide. "We think it is a smew, but we're not 100%". I looked through the scope and sure enough there was a redhead smew swimming around quite happily amongst a pair of goldeneye and it's cousins, the 18+ goosander.

Smew - RSPB Sandwell Valley - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

After an afternoon of unexpectedly manning the hide - I had talked to enough people and admired the bird enough to come to the conclusion that it was probably an immature male and that it was the first in the Valley for about a decade (or so I'm told).

So after that excitement I wandered back up to the temporary centre again via the feeding station and added reed bunting and coal tit to the days feeder species. It was the first coal tit I had seen around the feeders for a while - cold weather driven them further south maybe?

Anyway, that was a great way to waste a Sunday - couldn't recommend it more!

No folk like Norfolk (Part 2 - Salthouse and Cley)...

After sharing some of our lunch with the previously mentioned 'tame' birds in the Titchwell car park we hit the North Coast road to head to Salthouse. Paul and I discovered the delights of Salthouse last year when we were both desperate to see snow buntings and a helpful local birder said casually that if we went there, the birds would be feeding in the car park. We didn't believe him and were subsequently amazed when we pulled up and a flock of 20+ snow buntings landed no more than 20ft from the car on a grass covered bank to feed!

After that experience, it was a definite stop on this trip. As we arrived we saw some large camera lenses pointed at the bank on which the buntings were feeding last year, but this time the birds didn't instantly arrive. We took a walk up the shingle bank and looked back to see a good sized flock of at least 40 snow buntings circling around the car park and eventually coming down to feed on the bank. From this position I took this photo.

Snow Buntings - Salthouse - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Not the greatest photo I will ever take, but I quite liked the action of it. More interesting was this next photo.

Snow Buntings - Salthouse - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

It wasn't until after I looked at this on the computer that I realised there was a bird who was already significantly through it's moult and was very white. If I had realised at the time, I would have spent longer trying to get a really good shot of it. Final snow bunting picture I like because it's not often you actually get to see snow buntings on snow, so here you go.

Snow Buntings - Salthouse - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

We then headed over the shingle bank to have a look over the sea which was now incredibly calm and still. A scan over with the binoculars revealed plenty of wigeon, some gulls and an interesting grebe. I could instantly tell it was either a black-necked or slavonian grebe, but it wasn't until plenty of um'ing and ah'ing whilst looking through Paul's telescope that I was 75% sure it was a slavonian. This was quite exciting for me because I'd never seen a slav grebe before - but at the same time this made me vary wary about my identification. Thankfully at that point a more experienced sea watcher than myself arrived and was able to confirm it to be a slavonian - very happy Mike at this point! Shortly after we left, dodging the dunlins and turnstones that had also taken to feeding in the car park, to travel those couple of miles back up the road to Cley.

Unfortunately we arrived the Norfolk Wildlife Trust's famous Cley reserve a little later than planned and the setting sun was always against us. It was a bit of a whistle-stop tour of which the undoubted highlight was a group of ruff. Unfortunately we didn't have time to get around the edge of the reserve to the beach where Paul and I had seen this shorelark the previous year.

Shorelark - Cley NWT - Feb. 2011 - Mike Ixer

That said, none had been reported there on Saturday, so we would have in all likelihood been disappointed. As the sun was disappearing a few skeins of geese flew over which included a few groups of pink-feet - but nothing on the scale of what we witnessed last year when at least a thousand flew low overhead and appeared to go to roost in a field near the Cley visitors centre.

And so ended our trip. Having left the flat a bit before 6am, we got back at 8pm and I was knackered. Well worth it for the 78 species of bird we saw which, as I have explained, included some real crackers.

No folk like Norfolk (Part 1 - RSPB Titchwell)...

So after the indecision of midweek about whether to make the effort to do the day trip over to North Norfolk on Saturday, the snow never really came and I decided that we should make the effort - very happy with that decision!

Having been woken up by someone who very much resembled an excited child on Christmas morning at 5am, Beth and I picked up Paul and Natalie from near to the Valley at just after 6am and we headed off towards Norfolk with high hopes of a good days birding. I have to admit that after passing through our n'th mile of dense mist in sub-freezing conditions in Cambridgeshire and then Norfolk even I was starting to wonder whether this trip would be a complete bust. However, just as we were getting up towards the coast the mist began to clear and there was even some glorious sunshine - things were looking up (still bloody cold, but up none-the-less).

Having previously decided not to do the 4:30am start to make it in time to witness the 'wader spectacular' at Snettisham, we bypassed it and headed straight for the famous RSPB Titchwell reserve. Upon our arrival we were greeted by a number of very tame 'garden' birds in the car park who had clearly been driven to what was essentially begging for food from the arriving birders because of the cold. Seeing as I can't resist a photo of a robin, here is one.

Robin - RSPB Titchwell - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Having checked the field at the end of the car park and found lots of reed buntings and dunnocks, we actually headed into the visitors centre. Whilst in there I couldn't resist trying the new RSPB HD Scope and whilst looking at the feeders outside, the cry went out that there was a water rail scuttling around amongst the vegetation below. This caused quite a bit of excitement for one of our small group. Beth had a problem with water rails, or up until Saturday "the one that shall not be named" - it was a proper bogey bird. I got into a position where I could see not only one water rail, but two, and as she raised her binoculars to her eyes next to me they both darted back into cover - unbelievable! However, a few minutes patience was rewarded as she got her first proper views of the little beast. One happy customer; in her eyes the trip was already worthwhile no matter what happened for the rest of the day.

As we set off around the reserve and off towards the beach, it was all to evident that any freshwater pool was going to be completely frozen - and it certainly was.

Frozen - RSPB Titchwell - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer (iPhone)

I waited for a short time to try and see the Coue's Arctic redpoll which has been hanging around with a mixed redpoll flock on the reserve, but I lost patience waiting having seen lesser and a couple of mealy.

Lesser Redpoll - RSPB Titchwell - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

There was no shortage of waders on the Brackish Marsh with redshanks, black-tailed godwits, grey and golden plovers, dunlins, a curlew, avocets and lapwings all showing themselves but the undoubted highlight here was when three redhead smew all came serenely swimming into view for a short time before flying off to a more concealed location. A couple of the waders posed nicely for photos.

Common Redshank - RSPB Titchwell - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Black-Tailed Godwit - RSPB Titchwell - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

We forged our way on towards the beach (via a spotted redshank on the tidal marsh) and right down to near the waters edge to join a number of telescope wielding birders who were spotting all sorts of things on the fairly calm sea. Whilst admiring the waders on the tide line and rough outcrops (oystercatchers, bar-tailed godwits, turnstones, sanderling and numerous gulls) the call went out "there are a couple of long-tailed ducks on the sea just to the right of the two gulls". This would be a lifer for me, so of the hundreds of assembled gulls, which two were they referring to? I scanned across the sea, a couple of gulls with two ducks near them - nope, they are goldeneye ... but then two more ducks popped up next to the goldeneye, and although not a good view, they were definitely the long-tailed ducks I was after. After admiring the distant views of the two ducks, a male scaup also passed by a little way away and we decided to start walking back towards the centre.

As we walked past the marshes on the right, there was some commotion (cause unknown) which sent a snipe on it's way, some skylarks decided to have a disagreement, and, most interestingly, a flock of finches took to the air and then landed at the top of a small bush. Initially the lighting was terrible and then as I changed position for better light, the distance became the issue. I'm stuck between linnet and twite - streaky fronts make me lean towards twite but patterning on the back makes me think more linnet, any help would be great.

Twite/Linnet - RSPB Titchwell - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Further along the path and the telescopes were again lined up - this time it was because the three smew from earlier had reappeared. Unfortunately they only came close enough for this record shot.

Smew (2 of 3) - RSPB Titchwell - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

The contrast in size between these two birds was quite pronounced which leads me to believe that the right hand bird may have been an immature male and the left a female. Our final treat (and what a treat) came as we were coming towards the end of the West Bank Path when again the telescopes were all lined up, but this time it was for that most prized sighting, a bittern. It was at the other end of the pool but clearly a bittern and when viewed through a telescope it was a fantastic sight. Again, unfortunately it was record shot only distance (I particularly like the little black dot which is a water rail skidding around on the ice).

Bittern (and water rail) - RSPB Titchwell - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Then, as we were all admiring this bird, TWO more bitterns flew out from the nearby reeds chasing each other! That's three, yes, three bitterns simultaneously - crazy! We turned to walk away after the exposed bittern finally disappeared into the reeds - after a few yards I turned to have one final look over the reedbed only to see a bittern flying straight towards us! camera reactions allowed just one shot to be fired, and it turned out like this.

Bittern - RSPB Titchwell - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Damn, oh well, there's always next time :-/

To be continued...

There's snow Valley like Sandwell Valley...

So Saturday came around and it was time once again for the monthly guided walk which I lead alongside fellow volunteer Alf. I have to admit to being a tad apprehensive when I read the weather before bed the previous night and saw this.

Wind chill of -12, that's ridiculous! My spirits were lifted when I arrived at the Valley and saw just how crisp and beautiful it looked in the surprisingly still conditions; and news that up to eight ring-necked parakeets had already been seen just served to buoy my mood further. Seeing as the South Bank is now closed for the planned surfacing works, we had already decided to take the walkers a short way down the colliery road in search of parakeets, so the news that they were there and not being too shy was encouraging.

Seeing as I didn't have my camera with me (because it would be pretty bad form to be photographing while in theory leading and saying 'interesting' things) there are unfortunately no photographs of any of the birds we saw but I can confirm that we did indeed catch up with the parakeets - we saw one and heard a couple more. The other bonus was a very obliging kingfisher who was happy to just perch beside the river for everyone to admire through Alf's telescope - in fact he followed us up the river (the kingfisher, not Alf - though come to think of it, he also did). His tolerant disposition was of course indicative of the freezing conditions rather than his natural temperament and we found a few more 'obliging' birds along the rest of the walk.

It was sufficiently cold that only a small area of water remained free from ice and this was viewable from the hide. These freezing conditions can provide fantastic birdwatching and photographic opportunities, but I would implore people to stay a respectful distance from the birds because they require every ounce of their fat and energy reserves to survive - they do not need to be wasting energy flying away from perceived dangers! In this small area of open water there were numerous water birds vying for position and this gave the walkers a brilliant opportunity to study all the differences between the different species. There were goosander, goldeneye (which kept disappearing for prolonged periods, presumably diving under the ice to feed), shoveler, tufted duck, gadwall, wigeon, mallard, coot and black-headed gulls.

All-in-all it was a very successful walk which resulted in two year ticks for moi and 41 species for the viewing delight of walkers. Here is the full list:

Walk Sightings - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

As we finished the walk the snow was just beginning to fall and by the time we were leaving the reserve, the chances of returning on the Sunday to lead a work party were looking increasingly remote.

Sure enough, as I was thinking about removing myself from the sublime warmth of bed on Sunday morning I received the phone call to say the reserve would not be opening and therefore I would not have to try and motivate people to remove blackthorn scrub in the snow - I would be lying if I said I was disappointed at this news. So after a lazy morning the white blanket outside had receded faster than an ageing man's hairline and it seemed like a waste not to go out and have a walk on what was turning out to be a fine day.

Beth and I wrapped up, packed up and headed off for our chosen destination ...... Sandwell Valley! Why bother you may think, having been there the previous day. Well we decided to explore the other side of the Valley and had a fantastic time doing so.

First we hit the Forge Mill Farm Trail which didn't have too much to offer by way of excitement until a flock of at least 75 fieldfares flew over noisily 'chucking' at each other. Then there seemed to be a lot of disturbance amongst the birds who were previously trying to keep a low profile. Blackbirds, redwings, lapwings (which presumably had moved to the slightly thawed field from the frozen lake), many smaller birds and even the magpies were sent scattering for an apparently unknown reason - unknown up to the moment when a large female sparrowhawk flew straight down the opposite path which we had earlier been walking along. As we finished the trail we (and by we, I mean Beth) spent some time feeding the pony who lives with the goat on the farm which provided surprisingly large amounts of entertainment - I would post the video but I think that would lead to a displeased girlfriend!

Next off to Swan pool for a loop around the lake, down Salters Lane, through Sandwell Park Farm, through Priory Woods, past the Paddocks and back to the car park. The lake was almost completely frozen and so there was very little of interest, but Salters Lane held my highlight of the day. In the field on the right just after you cross the M5 were half a dozen golden plovers with the lapwings. Despite the fact that they are by no means a rare bird, these were the first I had seen in the Valley and it showed that what I had heard about golden plovers being "a cold weather bird" was true.

Golden plover - Sandwell Valley - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Not only a new Valley bird (have to be careful how I use that expression) for me, but also another year tick - doing well with three in a weekend. Sandwell Park Farm provided a brief energy boost in the form of a Mars Bar and into Priory Woods we surged. The herons at Ice House Pool seem to have reconsidered their early nesting urges which I wrote about a few posts ago; their numbers dropping from 25 a couple of weeks ago to just 4 in the heronry on Sunday. The pool itself was virtually completely frozen with the small bit of open water being watched by some gadwall, mallards, coots, a single little grebe and this very attractive male goosander who resembled a naval destroyer when patroling the water.

Male goosander - Sandwell Valley - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

The Paddocks were still well frozen so the bird life had moved elsewhere to feed and again, frustratingly there was no sign of a little owl anywhere! On the home stretch around the final bit of Swan Pool heading towards the car park this kestrel was kind enough to pose for a couple of pictures. Unfortunately my photo fun was brought to an abrupt end before I could get the shot I wanted because my battery died and I made the school boy error of not bringing a spare.

Male kestrel - Sandwell Valley - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

And so concluded the weekend. Much fun was had by all and many birds were seen. 

Jacks and Rails...

Since my last post I have made a couple of trips down to the Valley to help out with a couple of volunteer related tasks.

On Sunday I arrived to find the marsh and lake edges frozen and the prospect of standing at the top of the hill on the site of the old centre to facilitate peoples Big Garden Birdwatch less and less appealing! However I wasn't down to do this until the afternoon so I set off towards the South Bank to have a search for snipe before they closed the path for a month for resurfacing works (I say resurfacing, it is probably apt to just call them surfacing works seeing as all there was there previously was mud!). Highlights on this short walk came in the form of a flock of 25 wigeon feeding on the river bend, a siskin circling overhead, a goosander on the river and a great spotted woodpecker.

As I approached the 'bandstand' viewpoint I saw one of the regulars to whom I found myself saying the standard question "much about?". He said he had been having a search for water rails because the frozen lake edges sometimes encourage them out of the reeds (something which had been in the back of my mind too) but after as much searching as he could tolerate in the cold his efforts were fruitless. I carried on up to the South Bank to look back at the small reedbed in front of the 'bandstand' behind which I had just been talking only to see a water rail stood happily preening in almost full view. Alas he was too far away for me to get anything more than a record shot, but here it is.

Water rail - RSPB Sandwell Valley - Jan. 2012 - Mike Ixer

So that was a pleasant surprise and a nice year tick. There was very little else of note from the South Bank other than at least 5 snipe on the Island but unlike the other day when they were moving around feeding, this time they were all bedded down and proving very difficult to spot!

I returned to the top to commence my Big Garden Birdwatch responsibilities and we got some good birds and some good counts around the table. These included at least 15 great tits at one time, 33 greenfinches, chaffinches, 2 willow tits, blackbirds, blue tits, 2 reed bunting, bullfinches, goldfinches, a flock of 12 siskin, sparrowhawk, green and great spotted woodpeckers, dunnocks, robins, 2 jays and a buzzard over. The highlight for me though was when the 20+ woodpigeons which were feeding around the base of the table were sent scattering by a fox which burst through the bushes behind the feeder to try and grab one. At the end of the day a quick trip to the hide was rewarded with good views of an immature male goldeneye and a common gull plus some more snipe. Other additions were shovelers, pochards, tufted ducks, coots, moorhens, gadwall, lapwings and a pied wagtail. The coots are starting to get very aggressive and I was quite happy with this shot of them trying to kill eachother.

Fighting coots - RSPB Sandwell Valley - Jan. 2012 - Mike Ixer

So moving forward a few days today and seeing as I had an afternoon off uni, I offered to lead a snipe count in the marsh. This is done because the snipe is such a difficult species to monitor due to it's amazing camouflage and the only way to discover population trends is to carry out this survey work at important wintering sites. We weren't sure what the numbers would be like because of the work that was carried out in the marsh before Christmas and the freezing conditions which can make it difficult for the birds to feed so they move elsewhere.

On went the wellies and down the hill we went and very quickly some snipe flew up from the front edge of the marsh and we were optimistic of good numbers. By the time we finished flushing and counting we had counted 26 common snipe and 4 jack snipe which, despite being down on previous years (a trend across the country at the moment), was a move in the right direction after the improvement works.

I popped into the hide for a short time after completing the count and one of the flushed jack snipe was located and we all queued up at the telescope to get a good look which was a really nice way to round off the day. Far too far away for a photo though.

Next up a weekend at the Valley leading a guided walk on Saturday and then a reserve work party on Sunday so lets see what we can find then.