Today we spent the day at Upton Warren in Worcestershire. We met a friend from Bird Forum and arrived to find the place frosted over but with a lovely clear blue sky. We saw the Mealy Redpoll a couple of times on the East path at The Moors Pool, along with lots of Lesser Redpoll and a smaller number of Siskin. Officially ticked Mealy today but as an ‘insurance tick’ following our Redpoll sighting in Donegal (more about this another time….).
Other highlights today a Sparrowhawk, 2 Stonechat, 2 Cetti’s Warblers (feet away from us on the east path), Reed Bunting, Bullfinch, Jay, Redwing, Water Rails on the ice, Oystercatcher, Snipe, Lapwing, Curlew and the common wildfowl including Shoveler, Pochard and Teal.
As for The Flashes I’ve never seen it so quiet, almost entirely frozen over. We did see one Buzzard there and a GS Woody at the feeding station but little else around. The Lapwing flock had all taken to the fields.
Other highlights today a Sparrowhawk, 2 Stonechat, 2 Cetti’s Warblers (feet away from us on the east path), Reed Bunting, Bullfinch, Jay, Redwing, Water Rails on the ice, Oystercatcher, Snipe, Lapwing, Curlew and the common wildfowl including Shoveler, Pochard and Teal.
As for The Flashes I’ve never seen it so quiet, almost entirely frozen over. We did see one Buzzard there and a GS Woody at the feeding station but little else around. The Lapwing flock had all taken to the fields.
We spent some more time back at The Moors Pool then Max and I had a quick trip to Grimley New Workings in the hope of seeing the Water Pipit and Black Redstart that were seen there yesterday…turned out to be a waste of time as neither of them were showing and the light was going by the time we got there. We only watched from the North Side…only a few Gadwall, loads of Pied Wagtails and a few Meadow Pipit to report.
3 comments:
Cherish your Common (Mealy) Redpoll tick for a while, because there is talk of them lumping back with Lesser.
"Clements" (RIP) in "The Checklist of the Birds of the World" 6th edition (which most world birders follow) list only Common and Hoary (Arctic).
He did initially spilt the two between the 5th and the 6th editions but soon lumped them back together. Lesser only being a sub-species of Common.
I would not be suprised if the BOU do not follow suite and we will lose a tick.
Good bird to see though, mother of all Redpolls.
Thanks for that Martyn. Good learning curb for me anyway to learn how to seperate Lesser and Mealy.
What did you think about the Redpoll that turned up at Marsh Lane? I didn't see it myself. There was a lot of debate about it being either Arctic or Mealy, so I guess there can be confusion between those two even and then there are subspecies of Arctic I think?
I am lucky enough to have found two Arctic Redpoll in the last true invasion year (Can't remember the date). Both were in a flock of Mealy's that fed on fallen birch seed on the south-shore of Chasewater (where the car park is now).
They were very pale snowball birds with a clean and un-streaked rump (larger unstreaked patch than the Marsh Lane bird) and distinctive clean undertail coverts with a single dark central shaft. Their bills looked tiny and were "pushed into" their face.
I will never forget the feathered trousers on these birds has they feed on the floor.
There seems to have been some confusion with images of the Marsh Lane bird. One shot I was convinced it was Arctic and another looked like bog standard Mealy. I did find a picture of an Arctic on a feeder in the USA which looked exactly the same??
I think some birds are best not dwelt on your too long or it starts to get confusing.
Shrike part six looms!!!!!
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