I love Gulls, Gulls, Gulls, Gulls all over the World

SATURDAY 1st NOVEMBER

Went to Dosthill Pits with Steve Seal, in search of the ringtail Hen Harrier that has been seen floating round the area of Kingsbury and Dosthill.

We had rotton luck with the Harrier though, waiting for it to show for two hours at the top of the hill, only to hear that Warks birder John had flushed it up on his walk around the pit about 10 minutes later. Then another no show at Richards Meadow, where it was seen only when we were tucked up in the cafe with hot drinks and snacks.

Nontheless we enjoyed discovering this unchartered territory (for us) which also encompassess Fishers Mill and Middleton Hall Lakes (the new RSPB reserve, which opens next year). There were tons of larger gulls visable from the hill and we had a search through for a Glaucous, as one had been seen the day before, but it was nowhere to be seen on this occasion.

Notably we had 2 Jack Snipes and several Lesser Redpoll, Fieldfare and Redwing and a Fox around Fishers Mill.

SUNDAY 2nd NOVEMBER

Stubber's Green; it may resemble a village pond and it's in Walsall, but throughout last winter it acheived fame and notorioty as the place to watch gulls in the West Midlands. Its getting to that time again and I must admit I love watching gulls.

I had an idea that Martyn Yapp of Blurred Birder fame would be there this morning and we'd arranged to meet Reg, Ray and their friend Steve. The aim was to get Reg and Ray a Caspian Gull, which would be a lifer for them, or failing that, Ray was also after Yellow Legged Gull.

Plenty of BH Gull and a few Common Gull among them, but of course it was the larger gulls we were paying most attention to. They were mostly LBB Gulls, smaller numbers of Herring, 4 GBB Gulls and eventually Martyn found us a Yellow Legged Gull, which was a lifer for Ray. No Caspos I'm afraid but I enjoyed the morning greatly. I think some birders find gulls boring, or too difficult; there's no denying they're hard but the variation amongst them is fascinating.

When we started discussing Argentatus and Argenteus Herring races, I think this combined with the cold weather breached Max's gull threshold and it was time to call it a morning and move on. It was great to meet Martyn at last and as always a good laugh was had with Reg and Ray. Sorry about your pork pies, Mr Scott senior ;)

Max and I headed north for Blithfield, just about managing to warm back up by the time we arrived, aided by an extorionately priced Burger King burger (mental note: Blithers has a hotdog van) .

We met Richard and walked down to St Stephen's Bay for the Long Tailed Duck, I saw it on the far corner, a bit distant at first, but then it took flight and settled on the shore near where we stood. Cracking views of lifer 245 and a few record shots made us all very happy.

Toying with the idea of twitching Belvide for Purple Sandpiper for WMBC ticks, Richard was very persuasive in his argument for Uttoxeter Pits, so we decided to stick with 'The Producer'; Uttoxeter it was.

This was indeed the right choice. As if it wasn't exciting enough getting a WMBC tick as we flushed 6 Whooper Swans at the main pit, we later came across a very pale pipit and we had good views of it, allowing us to confirm the ID as Water Pipit (lifer 246). Also noted a pair of Stonechat, 1 Goosander, Curlew, Redwing and Fieldfare.