Kicked off the Great British Bank Holiday Weekend with a day's birding with our North Staffs friends Dean and Richard. We'd hoped to pop down to Gloucestershire to twitch the Stilt Sandpiper at Coombe Meadow but negative news of the Sandpiper came through, so we reverted to plan A and had a potter round Upton Warren.
At The Flashes there were 3 Redshank, 7 Green Sandpiper, 3 Snipe, 1 Common Sandpiper, 31 Curlew, a juv Shelduck, 1 Wigeon, a lovely Lesser Whitethroat, 6 Linnet, c20 Goldfinch and the Peregrine. Plenty of BH Gulls and one LBBG, but again no Med Gull this morning (my UW bogey - it later transpired it had been hiding on the Moors Pool!).
We moved on to the Moors......I had a play with my new camera (Panasonic Lumix FZ50) trying it out with this Speckled Wood butterfly.
At The Flashes there were 3 Redshank, 7 Green Sandpiper, 3 Snipe, 1 Common Sandpiper, 31 Curlew, a juv Shelduck, 1 Wigeon, a lovely Lesser Whitethroat, 6 Linnet, c20 Goldfinch and the Peregrine. Plenty of BH Gulls and one LBBG, but again no Med Gull this morning (my UW bogey - it later transpired it had been hiding on the Moors Pool!).
We moved on to the Moors......I had a play with my new camera (Panasonic Lumix FZ50) trying it out with this Speckled Wood butterfly.
A little quiet on the bird front at The Moors; Goldcrest GC Grebes, Kingfisher, Kestrel noted. I was surprised to see a Common Tern perched on a telegraph wire! There were Banded Damoiselles and some big brown Dragonflies, which were probably Brown Hawkers.
After this we went to Upper Bittell; the restricted public access and permit situation reminded me why I don't go often, despite it being right on my doorstep. Not many birds to report and no sign of the Arctic or the Black Tern which were reported most of the week. We saw a Sparrowhawk and I enjoyed taking photos of this Southern Hawker with Dean. Also saw a few damselflies, which I now know were Common Blue Damselfly.
After this we went to Upper Bittell; the restricted public access and permit situation reminded me why I don't go often, despite it being right on my doorstep. Not many birds to report and no sign of the Arctic or the Black Tern which were reported most of the week. We saw a Sparrowhawk and I enjoyed taking photos of this Southern Hawker with Dean. Also saw a few damselflies, which I now know were Common Blue Damselfly.
Finally we had another Sparrowhawk over Cotteridge on the way home.
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