Wyre Forest :: 24 April 2022

I'd started to see photographs of pied flycatchers appearing on social media and thought to get in touch with a chap that lives on the edge of the Wyre Forest to see if the population there has started to return - not only did he reply but he also said that he was going to the forest on Sunday morning if I wanted to join him. He was on - I checked if it was OK for Kev Heath to join and make it a party of three - pied fly would be a lifer for him - it was. In fact, I have only once seen a pied flycatcher (a male) and that was bizarrely at Grimsbury Reservoir of all places. John Friendship-Taylor had found the bird along the river and we all dropped in to see it; I went in my lunch hour without a camera and so have had a four year itch to get a photograph of one. Last spring I had a go for a female that Dylan Parry-Davies located amongst spotted flycatchers at Wormleighton.

We met and made our way to the visitor’s car park and were soon on the main track and listening for anything interesting. In trees overhead there were feeding lesser redpoll, a species I've managed to avoid up to this point and so a welcome tick for the year list. We pressed on and as we reached a favourite spot we stopped as a pied flycatcher called to our right. We stood on the edge of the trees and listened soon spotting both male and female pied flycatchers, chasing one another. What tremendous birds - I took a few photos and had that treasured prize. The photos that follow are the same birds but as we stopped at the spot on our return at the end of the visit.

We pressed on and came to a clearing and slope to our right and spotted a chap setting himself up with a camouflage net and getting into position to photograph the pied flycatchers. We stopped, watched and decided to make our way down to the brook to see if we could find any dippers - one on our target list as Kev doesn't see them most years. As we left the area a male pied flycatcher dropped onto a nearby bush but took to the wing as I got my camera on it, then landed on the path behind us! Again, as I got focus it was off again and into the bushes. I took some more photos and was well happy - Kev could have his dipper now.

We reached the brook and saw a dipper fly towards and then away from us - I wasn't quick enough to get a flight shot. We reached a building with benches outside, and a very friendly robin sat right beside us - people likely feed the birds here and so the sight of people started to draw in a few other birds, mostly tits. Suddenly a marsh tit joined - another bird that has eluded us. We followed it along the brook and managed a few photos as well as some of a beautiful grey wagtail. Along this stretch we had at least three pairs of marsh tit.

From the path running along the edge of the brook we continued to see flying dippers and it wasn't long before we also had great views of one feeding. It was turning into a magical visit for us - probably the same for our host but regular as he lives only 5 minutes away.

Above our heads we could see a nuthatch drop in and call, followed by a second - some pairing going on by the looks. Tricky to photograph due to the direction of the light but good to watch.

Coming up from a mill house we passed an area which was apparently good for tree pipits but couldn't see or hear anything. As we climbed, we could hear a common redstart and spotted one deep in a distant tree - no point in trying to photograph it. Rather than walk through the meadow we rounded it hoping we may encounter the bird at the other end - we didn't but could hear one call ahead - stopping we soon found it in the tree canopy. As we scanned around a tree pipit dropped into the tree to our right - a lifer for Kev and I. The redstart then treated us with views at eye level, although mostly against the sun - OK for viewing with bins but not so clever for photography.

We heard tawny owl calling but the call of a wood warbler evaded us. What a magical place. I'm sure it will only be a few weeks until we return and see if we can find our missing target bird and perhaps get a photo of a tree pipit.

Summer Leys :: 23 April 2022

A whimbrel was reported at Summer Leys on Friday and so that is where Kevin Heath and I set out for on Saturday morning, picking up breakfast on the way and checking out Hardwater Lake before parking up at Summer Leys. We had willow warbler singing as we put on our walking boots and made for the Pioneer Hide - common terns (up to fourteen in a single party) fished and a single swallow flew across the far bank. With no sign of the whimbrel, we moved on as it had been seen a further round the reserve finding a rather colourful but distant bar-tailed godwit, a drake pintail, common snipe and handfuls of redshank. We checked out the double decker hide but didn't have anything new other than a great white egret, so kept on the move.

Chiffchaff and willow warbler called from the treetops, and we added our first garden warbler of the year having managed to pick it out amongst numbers of blackcap. We still couldn't locate a whimbrel and by the time we reached the feeders we were lucky to watch two Egyptian geese drop in.

Through the gate and along the old railway line we added song thrushes, sedge warbler but very few whitethroat. Our species count though was starting to build. A chap was standing watching rocks where a mink had retreated - we joined him briefly but decided to move on but stopped when Kev picked out a kingfisher and noted an egret over towards Great Doddington – through the bins I could see one cattle egret in a field north of River Nene, opposite the sand martin wall, which then flew east along the river.

We were happy with the find and to have been able to watch the bird on the wing - looking back to the main lake we saw a pair of ruff. Unfortunately, we weren't in the best place for a photo but had great views through our bins and scope - a couple of other birders stopped to join us. A few tens of metres on we stopped again to identify some small birds that had landed on a point protruding out into the water: two sanderling and a dunlin. We tried to take photos through the scope and with my camera, hoping we would be able to extract something as they were all distant. As we watched a single little ringed plover joined.

We had further views of great white egret but no additions to our 58 species for the morning. We stopped at the Visitor Centre and bought a coffee and stopped to chat with the staff manning it.

Stanwick & Hardwater Lakes :: 18 April 2022

We had planned to go a walk and I'd convinced Charlotte that a trip to Stanwick Lakes would be something different - there was also a long staying glossy ibis to be seen! We didn't rush and by mid-morning Charlotte started to prepare a packed lunch. Unfortunately as she opened the baguettes she cut her finger, right in the crease - it was bad enough to make a short trip to A&E just to make sure it didn't need stitches and to get it dressed. She didn't feel like going for a walk after that.

As mid-afternoon approached Charlotte said she was feeling tired and was going for a lie down and so I jumped in the car and made a dash for Stanwick, parking in the A45 layby. A quick walk to the Treetop hide and I started to scan the area in front of me - it took about 5 minutes but eventually the glossy ibis gave itself up - a year tick. It fed to the left and then across the front of the nearest water, briefly flying to the right.

I checked out the other birds but there was nothing else of note. I made my way back to the car and set off in the direction of home. I had been efficient in my use of time and there was now the possibility of a small detour to see the bar-tailed godwits showing on Hardwater Lake - just opposite the Summer Leys reserve, and only a couple of miles out of the way. Again, I parked up in a layby and walked along the verge to the gate overlooking the water. Immediately I could see one then two bar-tailed godwits - another year tick. Something spooked the barwits and other birds and they all took to the wing but circled and soon were back in place. A grey wagtail, little ringed plover and oystercatchers all showed as well as they could from this distance.

I was soon back on the road and home before three hours was up. Charlotte felt a bit better and hopefully will get to enjoy her second week of the school holidays.

Borough Hill & Boddington Reservoir : 16 April 2022

When deciding what to do on Saturday morning we considered that there have been a few sightings of early whinchat and resolved to have a go at Borough Hill, Daventry - there were sightings there early in 2021. We met near Grimbsury Reservoir and decided to drop in and see if there was any action before moving on. We made our way up the western side, scanning for any redstart in the hedge by the ditch - no dice. Ahead we could see John Friendship-Taylor doing much the same - the water's edge was devoid of any birds, never mind anything of note. John had reached the corner and started along the northern side while we still scanned the hedge line - just then John gave a "shout" - literally. I must have looked comical as I span around and for him to be pointing up! Above was a great white egret - my photo was very much from behind as I'd got onto it late.

We walked round to talk with John and Gareth Blockley joined from the opposite direction. We had a chat but soon went our separate ways and picked up breakfast on the way. Arriving at Borough Hill we were surprised by just how little scrub remains - the area seems to have been "managed" and there is very little perching structure, other than the concrete blocks and brambles. Finding a whinchat may be a challenge. We walked along the top path and it became obvious that we'd walked into skylark central - just everywhere and occasionally supplemented with linnets and meadow pipits.

We went right to the edge of the golf course before dropping down to the lower path and worked our way back. Kev suddenly called for bird perched on a low bush but as we watched it was a wheatear - good enough but not what we were looking for. To the right we spotted a second. I can't recall seeing wheatear here before but I'm sure the area is well suited.

We worked our way back but didn't add anything else of note. We decided to drop into Boddington Reservoir as there was still time before lunch, and it was on the way home. We parked up and made our way up to the sailing club, perching ourselves on a bench to watch six common terns, three fishing and three on the pontoon or on a distant buoy. These are our first terns of the spring and if we'd stayed a bit longer at Grimsbury we might have seen the sandwich tern that dropped in there after we left. That’s birding.

RSPB Otmoor :: 15 April 2022

We arrived at RSPB Otmoor having discussed that it may likely be the quietest day of the Easter weekend - two of the parking bays were already occupied by the time we pulled in at 6.15am. Along the path to the bridleway we could hear two grasshopper warblers calling but, try as we might, we couldn't see them despite one in particular sounding close. On we pushed to the feeder area where we could again hear another two grasshopper warblers, one of them again sounding close to our right - we pressed up against the fence and scanned for a few minutes until I picked out the light chest of a bird buried in a bush. I took a few photos which we largely out of focus as there were so many twigs in the way - at last one caught the bird, and we could confirm this was our first actual sighting of the year. Not a great photo but any of a grasshopper warbler is a bonus.

We reached the bridleway and had several encounters with Cetii's warblers, but I just couldn't get on them or when I did I was on the wrong side for the sun. Great to see so many. We reached the bittern bench and a chap we'd chatted to briefly earlier alerted us to a bittern on the edge of the reeds. We spent the next 15-20 minutes watching the bird - it largely crouched low but occasionally stood tall and proud. Kev set up his scope and views from there we excellent. I took a few photos but from 60m plus (and with the haze) it proved not to be easy. A cuckoo called on the opposite side of Greenaways but we didn't get any views here or at the car park end where they were reported later.

At distance you can get some quite good results by digiscoping with a quality scope and phone camera, even compared with a photos cropped from a camera and lens - a case in point is this excellent capture that Kevin Heath made while we were viewing the bittern. I wasn't jealous ...

Copyright and courtesy of Kevin Heath

Shortly after we'd moved on, we were joined by Adrian Sparrowhawk. We then stopped and chatted with Mark Chivers who was camped out trying to photograph a sedge warbler on a particular perch - made more difficult by the number of passing birders, us included. A Cetti's warbler called again, and I went off in pursuit as it was still in view. I couldn't catch it in the open, but I still like the images in any case.

We passed the path to 1st Screen and pushed on to see if there were any unusual species along the bridleway - we added redshank, oystercatchers, barnacle goose and yet more Cetti's warblers. Female and male marsh harriers cruised over attracting the attention of, and being mobbed by, the lapwings.

We returned to the gate and made our way down to 1st screen and saw a rather attractive speckled wood butterfly enroute - at the screen Adrian and I talked about camera settings as we both have Nikon and he is trying to get to grips with his for wildlife photography - still too inconsistent a hit rate for his liking. We got some quite nice shots of the ducks and wildfowl having made some changes (shoveler, coot chasing one another, pochard, etc). We didn't see anything of note, frustrated when a bittern boomed from the reeds but failed to show, we headed back to the bridleway. On the way out of the hide we stopped to watch the common lizards and a dark-edged bee-fly working around the perimeter of the fenced-off area.

Along the path we stopped to listen to two water rails squealing in the hedge - they couldn't have been much more than 10 feet from us, but we just couldn't see any movement that might give them away – so we failed to add them to our day list.

We'd talked to others and they'd mentioned that they'd seen some grass snakes basking in the reeds alongside the bridleway - we searched and after a few minutes I found one and called Kev to come back - by the time he arrived it had unfortunately slithered off. I felt he was a bit disappointed and so spent another couple of minutes looking for another, which I did. Now with my eye in I spotted some more.

Our final spot of the day was a couple of reed warblers, new to us all for the year. It had been quite a morning but passed time when I should get home. We didn't stop to see if we could locate a cuckoo or a redstart in Long Meadow - another day.