The Early Bird...

I'm at home now due to the coronavirus emergency, and in less upsetting circumstances I'd be excited to be able to visit the patch during the start of the spring migration (something I rarely get to see). As it stands, I still plan to visit occasionally for exercise though this may well change in the coming days. I chose not to use the hide and scan from 'Platform 5' at the end of the track and avoided using the platforms when any other birders were present, keeping at least 2 metres away from anyone I saw on the way.
Despite the nice weather and an enjoyable visit, we had a frustrating double miss today.
My dad and I arrived at Willington GPs around 8:30 this morning and had an enjoyable day of birding in wonderful weather.
I was pleased to hear huge numbers of singing Chiffchaffs - in excess of 15 were recorded during the walk. For me, this is one of the most exciting sounds of the spring (though not a patch on the first Cuckoo).
A singing Skylark was a very welcome year tick, though not the Sand Martin or Willow Warbler that I was hoping for, and a Kingfisher in the new workings, a vocal Oystercatcher and several Goldeneye were the avian highlights elsewhere on the walk.
I spent a long time walking the various paths around the new workings area looking for Wheatear - a bird which was once somewhat reliable here in spring.
My efforts didn't go entirely unrewarded as I found what I think was a White Wagtail, which would have been a great record if I'd had the time to get a 100% ID before it promptly flew north.
Probably the best sighting of the day came in the form of a mammal - my first ever Fox on the reserve - which gave great views strolling through the riverside field behind Platform 5.
Unfortunately though, it seems like we didn't arrive quite early enough this morning. Fortune favours the brave and a birder this morning had both Garganey and Whooper Swan prior to 7am! Despite intensive searching, I couldn't refind either which left a slightly sour taste on what was an enjoyable day and a pleasant diversion from difficult times.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Birding Trip Report: Mauritius 2019

Image
This is a birding trip report to Mauritius in July. Birding in Mauritius is not very conventional. Firstly, because there aren't many species you can see and secondly because of the strange mix of introduced and native species that inhabit the island. What little birding information there is available online tends to be from typical 'island-hopping' tours which spend a day or two on the island to sweep up all the endemics. My main motivation for writing this report is that there really isn't much information available online, especially for a family-motivated longer trip. In July 2019, I spent two weeks on Mauritius for a family holiday. The focus was not birding, but I was keen to see as many of the endemics as I could and also a broad range of species because all of the introduced species were generally new for me. All of the island endemics can be seen in just 2 days of birding (or even potentially in just 1) and in this time, the introduced species should take car...
Read more

Evening Birding at Cannock Chase

Image
Keen to get out and see some different birds from those of the past few months, my dad and I went for an evening birding on Cannock Chase in Staffordshire on Saturday. We've never made the trip out here before, mostly because the journey along the M42 and A5 can be hellish in normal circumstances. This trip ended up being a great one for socially-distanced birding and we didn't see a single other person the whole time! Our main targets were the trio of night birds available on the chase - Nightjar, Long-Eared Owl and Woodcock, but any other heathland/woodland specialities were very welcome. Being new to the area, I'd done a bit of preliminary research, but pulled up at the Severn Springs car park at 7:30 without much of a plan. We followed a likely looking track out the back of the car park, heading left and soon racked up a long list of singing warblers, including Garden Warbler . As the woods thinned out, we enjoyed watching a Willow Warbler attending a nest hidden und...
Read more

Spurn Residential Volunteering 2021

Image
Sometimes, when you've wanted to do something for a really long time, it can never quite live up to expectations. Thankfully, when it came to my visit to Spurn Bird Observatory that wasn't the case - it matched my wildest expectations. I visited Spurn for two weeks, thanks to the BTO's fantastic Young Bird Observatory Volunteer Fund which funded my stay at the observatory. I'm so grateful to the BTO for providing me with the opportunity through this grant. Having been successful in my application to become a residential volunteer at Spurn in autumn 2020, I was extremely disappointed when the pandemic meant that volunteers were no longer able to visit for anything other than the full 3 month autumn period (which I wouldn't have been able to do due to university). With a similar commitment needed to become a residential volunteer in 2021, I am extremely grateful to Jonnie Fisk for allowing me to come for 2 weeks with the YBOV fund in September before my university yea...
Read more