Midlands Birding Blog

With an end to restricted travel getting closer every day, I'm sure everyone reading this is keen to get out and spread their birding wings. I know I certainly I am. But to avoid you wishing away these next few weeks or months, my post this week is going to be a series of 'Low Carbon Birding Challenges', to make the most of our local birding scene before we can all travel further afield, and before some of us forget about the spots that we've grown to love over the last year. A Lockdown Birding Bucket List Top 10 if you will.  Hopefully, it might help us to rekindle our love for our local area, a love which might have worn quite thin over the last few months of being forced to visit it exclusively every day! I hope this highlights a few positives that we can take away from this past year of enforced local lockdown birding, and maybe some that we can continue to enjoy after lockdown and beyond. If there are any you haven't done already, there's still time to give...

Something that’s always been difficult for me has been finding the line between listing and watching, between enjoying a rare bird and appreciating what I see every day. It’s something you might call the Birder's Paradox - how can I truly enjoy a rare bird if I forget to enjoy those that are more common? I started to think about what birds symbolise 'home' to me. What birds do I see every day and often forget to give a second glance.  Back home in Leicestershire, this might be the birds on the garden feeder - the Goldfinches, for example - along with House Sparrows and Blackbirds. In my uni house in Bath, larger birds are the main cast - Herring, Lesser-black Backed and Black-headed Gulls are everywhere. Cormorants are common and there's always a Pied Wagtail on the road outside. It struck me how different these were. A Goldfinch in the single tree that I can see from my Bath apartment would be a breath of fresh air, and I find myself celebrating a garden Pied Wagtail b...

I finished last week on 66 species, far surpassing my expectations. At the end of the last post , I wondered what other surprises were in store for the patch this year, but I didn't expect the first one to come so soon. After a walk with my family on the 9th we drove over the Staunton Harold Reservoir road bridge on our way home. From the fleeting view I got from the moving car, I thought I saw the Ring-Necked Duck with the Tufties. The bird had been present from late December through to the 2nd of January, at which point it had moved to nearby Foremark and not been seen again. Obviously, from this fleeting view I didn't really trust my instinct and assumed it must have been a Tufted Duck seen at speed. I presumed the bird must be long gone, with no sightings at Staunton Harold for at least a week. I had been back a few times in the days in between and had no sign, and many others had done the same. The following day, I walked back to the area, which has been so productive for ...

I've added a couple of new birds to the lockdown bird list in the last two days, namely Sparrowhawk, Coal Tit and Lesser Black-backed Gull. These are all birds I've seen in the garden before but they are by no means regular and more observation has shown them to be far more regular than I'd thought - I've seen the Sparrowhawk 3 times in the last two days. This brings the list up to 24. It's slow progress but I'm hoping the effort will be rewarded with some fantastic new sightings like the Peregrine two days ago. Taken with the Apexel Zoom Lens As well as listing I've been trying out a new zoom lens that I've bought for my phone. I've never been a photographer and have never felt the urge to spend a large amount of money on a camera that I don't feel I'd get enough use out of. So I'm always looking for new ways to photograph birds I see without one. Photos are so vital if you find a rare bird that I feel I need a way to get a ...

With the country now in full lockdown and leaving the house allowed only for exercise once a day, the patch (which is a 15 minute drive away) is now well and truly off limits. To fill the bird watching shaped hole it's left, I have discovered the Birdwatching at 0km (#BWKM0) initiative led by Steve Gale to encourage people to make garden lists while in quarantine in their homes. I have been amazed at the fantastic birds others have found in their gardens already just by watching them slightly more closely. I was skeptical at first; I have a suburban garden but am extremely lucky to have an area of scrubby trees directly behind the house which has meant my garden list currently stands at 54. Previous highlights have included such fantastic birds as Waxwing, Brambling (for several winters this was the most regular bird at the feeders!), Golden Plover (over) and Nuthatch. Bullfinch is also our most abundant garden visitor - we are lucky enough to have a resident group of at least 9...