Midlands Birding Blog

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 ...

Looking back now, it was quite fortuitous that the young birders decided to compete in a patch challenge in 2021. When Joe first suggested the idea in December we were all very keen, having regularly discussed our own patch birding during 2020 it seemed like a fun idea to introduce a bit of competition. We might not have guessed though that local birding would soon become the only form allowed in the third lockdown that hit the country at the start of January. It was lucky that my 2021 birding plans were already prepared for this. The rules are that we must have a specified 5 square mile continuous area that we call our patch. Most people have a smaller area than this which gives them somewhere manageable to cover regularly, but the large limit allows us to discover or test out new areas without feeling restricted. The other key rule is that we must walk or cycle around this area. My birding began on New Years Day when I did a short, but very successful, walk around the fields behind m...

As you would expect in mid-June, the patch year list has slowed down considerably in the last few days. That doesn't mean there haven't been a few nice additions.  Yesterday, a morning visit in nice weather gave lots of singing warblers, the best of which was a reeling Grasshopper Warbler in the Owl Field. There were two birds, possibly a pair. It was actually the first time I've ever seen a Grasshopper Warbler before  hearing it first. The female bird perched up on the fence which bisects the field and then flew off into the long grass, then a few seconds later a male popped up from below the fence and began to reel, giving walkaway views. The best birds on the lake were Shoveler , Common Tern and some really showy Reed Warblers . The patch, while there isn't the variety of migration times, is really nice at the moment with the breeding season in full swing and lots of fledglings around.  A visit in strong wind this afternoon didn't produce the passerines I saw ye...

It was so nice to get back to my patch today after a long absence. The first visit to Willington in the spring is always a year-tick fest, it's just that normally it doesn't have to wait until June! I got no fewer than 14 year ticks this morning, 7 of which were warblers. I arrived at Willington GPs at 06:50, feeling like I was up before everyone else. Apparently, though, I wasn't. Another gentleman was leaving as I arrived! Now that's impressive commitment. I was hoping to get to the platforms early to avoid other people, but I only saw 3 other birders in total on my visit from 06:50 to 09:00 and passed them all easily at 2m along the lane. I had originally been avoiding the patch for fear of it being a difficult place to socially distance, but found it no trouble at all. The view from platform 1 - the exposed mud here looks good for Common Sandpiper this year The hide is closed, of course, but instead I viewed the lake from the small platform past the hide. T...

With the recent lessening of lockdown regulations I've been able to get out a bit more in the last week and explore some local sites. With university exams I haven't been getting out as much as I'd like. But I've only able to walk from home for 8 weeks now so in the few trips recently I've seen many birds I haven't seen in several months! Last Thursday I visited a new site for me - Tucklesholme Quarry - just over the border into Staffordshire. This site was only very recently established and shows great potential. It appears to be reasonably reliable for Temminck's Stint each spring already! The hope is that this site might one day bring Bittern back to Staffordshire where it formerly bred. At the moment, the reeedbeds certainly aren't well enough established but that didn't stop me logging 8 species of warbler on my visit (missing only Reed and Willow Warbler). Record shot - testing out my Nikon P900 on fast-moving targets! There was no ...

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 welco...

Recent rains meant that the patch was still flooded today. The main drive entrance was knee deep with floodwater, despite recent sightings being reported from the platforms (including 2 Ruff!). These must have been from people with waders or perhaps just people braver than I am! I thought perhaps it would be possible to avoid this main flooded section by entering the reserve from the new workings area along Kingfisher Lane in Willington village and walking along the causeway to the fisherman's gate - and from there, picking up the lane to the platforms. This idea worked well at first, but I soon found out that the lane was equally flooded further up and had to give up on this plan. Halfway down the lane, floodwaters were equally bad Instead, birding around the new workings area (an area of the patch I rarely give much time) offered a Mistle Thrush, which was new for the patch year list, along with Raven, Little Grebe, Curlew and a very nice Kingfisher seen from Kingfis...

I was home from uni for the weekend and took the chance to visit Willington in case of a really early Wheatear or Garganey, but mostly just to see how it was getting on and what was about. I knew the River Trent was flooded along most of its course and packed wellies ready for some flooding. What I wasn't expecting however was knee-deep water even before the car parking area. The entire entrance to the lane was connected to the river and too deep to drive through. Without waders, it would be completely impassable and even then it might be a challenge. This certainly explains the dearth of reports online from Willington online lately and is quite concerning. Who knows how the resident birds will have fared, as the main lake might now be connected to the Trent! I'd be really interested to know if anyone has attempted to get down there and assess the situation, hopefully it's not as dire as it seems from the entrance track. Gutted that we couldn't visit Willington, I ma...

Being back from university for the inter-semester break, I took the opportunity to spend a day at Willington. I arrived in the dark hoping to see the ringtail Hen Harrier that has been present in recent weeks leave the roost, half an hour before sunset at around 7:30. The roost is in the trees in the southern corner of the main lake, out of the left window of the hide. At least 24 Little Egrets were in the roost but unfortunately no sign of the Hen Harrier leaving nor did it hunt over the reedbeds on the far side of the lake like it has recently. This means that it hasn’t been seen for around a week now, despite people looking, so I’d be interested to know where else it roosts and hunts - it‘s surely in the area somewhere because it spent around a month in November 2019 at Willington and then presumably the same one reappeared two weeks ago. I did find Shelduck, Curlew, Sparrowhawk and Goosander from the hide though, along with the usual selection of ducks and best of all Willow Tit...

My dad and I were up early at Willington this morning just as the sun was coming up, hoping for a Bittern sighting or perhaps a Great White Egret leaving the roost. Sadly, we weren’t so lucky, though the reports in the sightings book seem to suggest Bittern is being seen regularly at the moment which is great news. The view from the hide at Willington GPs We spent around two hours birding the main reserve, clocking the usual species for the patch year list but nothing too out of the ordinary. A Peregrine overhead was a nice surprise, and Oystercatcher, Goldeneye, Snipe and Jayfeatured in the list of the sometimes-trickier species. Cetti’s Warblers were vocal as always and several Water Rails made their presence known. Unfortunately, we didn’t get Willow Tit or Treecreeper this morning – two big winter targets. After visiting all the platforms and the hide, the morning was getting on so we moved across to Egginton, a new area on my patch for this year, to see what this new habi...

Welcome to Midlands Birding Blog!  This blog is my birding diary as a young birder from the midlands. Here, I'll post content about birds, Midlands birdwatching, trips and more. It will be specifically about birding in Derbyshire and birding in Leicestershire, as I live on the border of these two counties. I am a keen patch birdwatcher at Willington Gravel Pits, but I love travelling further afield in search of birds, particularly day trips in the UK to Norfolk, Spurn, Frampton Marsh and lots more and when I can, birding abroad. I’ve been lucky enough to travel to Costa Rica and Spain on birding trips and to Mauritius, Iceland, Canada, USA, France and more with my family. Costa Rica was my favourite place to go bird watching and is the primary reason why my life list stands at 836.  My UK life list currently stood at 254, almost exclusively without twitching, though that being said the best bird I have seen in Britain has to be the Spurn Siberian Accentor in October 2016....