Upton Warren and Foxcote Reservoir

An hour and a half's wait in the freezing Flashes hide at Upton Warren on Saturday morning indicated the Shore Lark had shipped out overnight. At least I hope that’s what happened and it didn’t fall foul of the Sparrowhawk that was hunting before dusk on Friday evening. A bit of a blow for our gradually expanding WMBC list.

We were cheered by the arrival of Pete. Whilst catching up we got chatting to another birder, who seemed strangely familiar, but I wasn’t sure why. Pete and I eventually realised it was none other than Fritz, another regular on the West Mids BF thread.

Four Snipe, 1 Green Sandpiper, singing Cetti’s and a Fox were noted. On the walk back out to the car park, we heard squealing Water Rails in the undergrowth by the boardwalk. Max and I had seen a Kingfisher first thing on the Sailing Lake.

At the Moors Pool West Hide Pete got onto the Bittern skulking through the reeds, although I managed to look at the wrong patch of reeds and miss it! Max, Fritz and I waited for a while for it to skulk back into view, but then decided to go to the other hide to check for Jack Snipe. Pete, however laid in wait with his camera. Five minutes after we moved on Pete captured this; top hat, cane and all.....ouch.

Bittern at Upton Warren Moors Pool by Pete Walkden

http://petewalkdensbirdphotography.fotopic.net/

Shortly after, we all had the Bittern fly across the pool twice from East Hide. Any day of birding which includes a Bittern sighting is a good day's birding in my book. We also had a few Water Rails, many Snipe, Cetti’s (heard), Little Grebe, Wigeon and a few Pochard.

On Sunday I awoke to an email from Reg, saying he was off to Bucks to twitch the Ring Necked Duck at Foxcote Reservoir. I texted him, got ready pretty sharpish (for me!) and arrived at his just under an hour later. Max had other plans for the day; watching the American Football at Wembley, so he left me, Reg and Ray to our duck twitch.

We made it to Bucks in good time, but never mind the duck; Foxcote was an absolute bugger to find. Having circled Buckingham many times and asking locals, some who'd worryingly never heard of it, we were all relieved to locate this elusive reservoir. I was also pleased to find an adequate hide (one where the ledge is the right height for the vertically challenged to use a hide clamp) and good light for scoping wildfowl.

We all got searching and although we had one candidate early on, it wasn’t our target bird, just a Tufty with a funny shaped head. Reg eventually found our Ring Necked Duck (lifer 244) emerging from the reeds at the back. It stayed on show for the rest of our visit and could be seen well through our scopes.

A white bird at the side of the lake was assumed to be a Little Egret, but when it lifted its head revealed itself as a game bird; an albino or leucistic Pheasant. Other birds noted were Wigeon, Gadwall, Shoveler, Goldeneye, Pochard, Ruddy Duck, Little Grebes, LBB and BH Gulls, Cormorant and Grey Heron.

Many thanks Mr Telescope for letting me jam in on your twitch, it was much appreciated and enjoyed :)