Wood Warbler

Wood Warbler
Seeswood Pool 2008

Tuesday 31 January 2017

28th January 2017

The last few weeks have again been spent up the Tame Valley in particular the outflow at Edison Rd,Hams Hall boring poor Donna to death!!! Not a great deal to show for it Common Chiffchaff in double figures 2 Siberian Chiffchaff,Green & Common Sandpiper so this weekend I decided we'd have a change & went up Seeswood after a long walk around the old train lines & Whittleford park! I could see Donna was waning & just said that if we don't check local patches someone else will find the good birds........... Anyway to cut a long story short apart from a big geese flock it was quiet so I decided to count the Greylags as there was an unusually large flock present just got upto 199 when the nxt 4 birds appeared in the bins.....Pink-footed Geese I said quick get a record shot before they go which Donna was just attempting to do when the flock flew off towards Tower Farm. I quickly put the news out then we headed up the fields to try & obtain some better record shots,on looking over the hedgerow & scanning soon picking out the birds  Tundra Bean Geese oh bugger!! A 1st for the pool & only the 7th County record & only my 2nd County birds...News was corrected & off I headed to get my camera from home! Arrived back at the pool & was soon joined by some of the Counties fastest moving birders..............



Monday 9 January 2017

1st January 2017 - 8th January 2017

With the weather awful on the 1st Donna & myself only had an hr out at Edison rd, Hams Hall picking just a few common species along with the expected wintering Chiffchaff, a msg on twitter had us making the short journey over to Hinckley, Leics for a reported Waxwing but no sign on arrival. On the 2nd again the msg came thru on Birdguides that the Waxwing was again present on the A47 Hinckley by the Triumph factory!! With the weather crisp & sunny we set out & sure enough the bird was sat up high waiting to come down,after a short wait it duly obliged giving Donna only her 3rd sighting & best ever views................





On the 3rd I was finally broke by the constant whining about going back for the Blue Rock Thrush at Stow,Gloucs unfortunately the weather was cold & overcast but the bird showed well for a few minutes & the smile on Donna's face made the trip worthwhile....Checking Bird New whilst there I noticed a report that there was now 23 Waxwings at Hinckley so made a detour on the way home allowing Donna to actually hear the magnificent trilling calls for the 1st time.
The weekend of the 7th & 8th was spent locally picking up local year ticks with the best being Water Rail,Common Sandpiper & Siberian Chiffchaff & also a 1st wintering record of Chiffchaff in my back garden...........