Brambling

We often pop along to the feeding area at Hanchurch woods to watch the birds when the weather is not that great, plus at this time of year you have the chance of Brambling! On the last few visits we had seen loads of Chaffinch but no Brambling today though our luck was in seeing three males in total in with the large Chaffinch flock.

Hawfinch

With all of the Hawfinch sightings being reported around Staffordshire and so far only achieving a very brief glimpse of a single birds at Kingsley I decided to try my luck at Biddulph Grange, at least if the birds headed for the grounds being a Nat Trust member I could at least follow them in.

Waiting around the car park we soon saw a single bird followed by another 6 and theses headed across towards the hall so we decided to follow, the birds were feeding in Yews in the private residence area of the grounds but we could peer over the fence.

A few minutes latter after a quick walk to the fish pool and back we now noted the flock in the trees at the far side of the private residence area in total we counted 12 birds.

Took a few record shots in the full on gloom and drizzle and then called it a day.

Wirral Waders

On the 20 Jan we decided to pop along to the Wirral to try and find a few waders to help get our year list going, we never dash around that much getting year ticks but we do enjoy watching waders and the Wirral area so any excuse to go is gladly taken.

The weather forecast was for showers in the morning which were to ease by lunch and sunny spells in the afternoon.  Well no one had told the weather that and it just rained most of the day.

Around West Kirby marine lake we picked up Turnstone, Redshank and Dunlin coming into roost.
Heading further along the coast the tide was still quite far out so not much was on offer around Hoylake so we continued down the coast to Meols here we did much better with Knot,Turnstone, Redshank and Oystercatcher all feeding in the pools and streams across the estuary. Also around the area were a couple of Little Egret and Shelducks.

From here we ventured down to New Brighton stopping off at the Life Guard Station firstly here there were a few Redshank and Turnstone feeding around the break water and Oystercatchers just further around the beach. While the grassy area new the hauled out boats held Common Gull, Black Headed Gull, Lesser Black Backed Gull plus a few Lapwing.

Down at the marine lake a couple of Cormorant were feeding and the pontoons held Purple Sandpiper (one of my favourite wader species), Turnstone, Redshank and the odd Dunlin thrown in for good measure. By now the rain was coming down quite hard so we threw the towel in and headed back to Burton Mere to warm up and dry out in the reception hide where we added Snipe to our growing wader list. Plus the bonus of Water Pipit from the Marsh Covert Hide.

Spotted Sandpiper

A Spotted Sandpiper had recently turned up at the National Water Sports Centre at Holme Pierrepont at the end of the White Water section were it meets the River Trent, although we had seen one before at Tittesworth Reservoir back in 2008 (in fact this was the first rare bird Lesley and me ever saw) but I thought it would be nice to see another as it was only in Notts plus a Long Tailed Duck was also on site in the rowing lake.

We made our way to the White Water Course following directions from a few returning chaps and were soon watching this wader which was just quite happy walking along the grassy bank on the lock side of the course.

After this the more tricky job of finding a small duck on a large lake began, we headed to the 250m mark on the lake where it had last been seen but just couldn't locate it so we moved further along towards the start line. Lesley eventually found it on the far shore by the club house so I dashed around to see if I could grab a few shots. As up to now all the Long Tailed Ducks I had ever seen were small dots in the middle of lakes.

Glaucous gull

At the beginning of Jan (07) we headed of to Llanddulas to hopefully see the Glaucous Gull (I am not that great with Gull id's but this one seemed easy enough even for me).

As we headed out near Wrinehill on the Staffs/Cheshire boarder we came across a large group of Partridge which held a couple of Grey Partridge in among the mainly Red Legged Partridge flock.

We thought this meant our luck was in but on our first port of call in North Wales (Kinmel Bay) we just couldn't find the Snow Bunting but there were quite a few Sky Lark feeding along the strand line on the beach.

As we pulled up most of the Gulls had just departed and we were told that a dog walker had flushed the lot off the beach a few were returning so we hung around and just generally explored the beach front to see what we could find.
Just by the car park a small group of Goldfinch were feeding allowing me to grab a few shots.

Along the river we found a nice Grey Wagtail plus even better a King Fisher putting on a great little show for everyone as it charged up and down the river.

We did eventually track down our target bird the Glaucous Gull further along the coast near the caravan park.

Grey Phalarope

Its taken three weekends to finally see the Grey Phalarope that has found Blithfield reservoir to its liking, on each previous visit it has either just done a bunk or we couldn't spend to long looking due to other commitments just for it to reappear moments latter.
But this week our luck was in and there it was feeding happily away along the dam wall, it didn't even mind the choppy conditions but there again it beats the mid Atlantic any day.

Black Necked Grebe

Popped out during my lunch break to see the Vuv Black Necked Grebe that has been seen for some time now at Westport Lake.
I originally tried on the previous Saturday but with the lake been very busy I think the poor fellow had hidden in the middle of the lake that combined with trying to keep up with a six year old on a scooter I failed to see it, but today my luck was on with the bird being quite close in at the top end of the lake.