In with the New!

So here we go with 2009 then...

New Year's Day

Bird one of 2009, spotted at curtains open - a Wood Pigeon, not one of my favourites by any stretch of the imagination, but hopefully we'd be year ticking birds of a higher calibre at Draycote Water.

Arriving about 11.30am (year list now on 13) we got on to the handsome drake Smew which wasn't far off Farnborough Bank, in with a party of Goldeneye. The Red Necked Grebe also showed well from here and I spotted a couple of Great Northern Divers, but they were a lot further out and visibility wasn't great.

The five mile walk round the reservoir was good exercise after xmas excess and a pleasing variety of birds were present. We finished the day on 53 ticks, with some nice birds notched up including a Raven at the top of Toft Shallows, c20 Goosander, a Common Sandpiper, 1 Shag, 3 Linnets and last but not least the fabulous Red Throated Diver, which took some finding but eventually gave great scope views from Farnborough Bank.

Smew

Little Grebe

Friday 2nd January - Cannock Chase

Not much free time to bird on Friday so we made do with a short visit to Cannock Chase. First stop Marquis Drive feeding station. I'm sure they've cut back on the feeding station since last year, but we had 3 Brambling and also added Bullfinch (x7), Nuthatch, Willow Tit and Dunnock to the year tally. We saw a running doe Fallow Deer on the way to our next stop.

Get 'orf my table!

Next, Coppice Hill feeding station; currently being frequented by an unusually bold Hawfinch. We arrived to find c25 birders and photographers assembled. We'd been there five minutes when the Hawfinch appeared at the top of a nearby tree, before making its way down to the ground to feed. Don't get me wrong, a great bird to get UTB so early in the year and the views no less than crippling, but I couldn't help having some mixed feelings about this event. There was also apparently a 'spot of bother' at this twitch on NYD, so be careful if you're going.

A few more year ticks also added here; Treecreeper, Yellowhammer and Jackdaw. Three Willow Tits were visiting the feeding station.

Saturday 3rd January - Chasewater

We met Richard at Chasewater and found it almost entirely frozen over apart from small areas of open water near the centre, bad news for the birds - we saw a poor Mute Swan struggling to stand up on the ice and apparently last time it was this cold foxes got onto the ice, predating birds who found themselves in trouble. We also saw a Smew, c70 Goldeneye and some Goosanders, always winter favourites but little else, nice to see Richard though. We scanned for Med Gulls without success as the Gull Roost came in for standing room only on the ice.

Sunday 4th January - Urban Birding

Five Waxwings were reported at Garretts Green in Birmingham yesterday, so today we decided to look for some ourselves. We foraged at various urban locations such as Stirchely, Bournville, Maypole, Shirley and Solihull which we felt may have the berry power to pull them in.

We had some good urban sightings, namely 2 Siskins at Stirchely Co-Op, a Stock Dove in the wood on Acacia Road, Bournville and 7 Redwings on a berry tree outside old people's flats on Highters Heath Lane, near Maypole. Ok nothing spectacular; maybe it's just me but they seem 10 times more special in the urban environment and being only a few miles from the heart of Brum.

Although we wanted to find Waxies ourselves we were having no joy, so decided to follow up the lead of the previous day's Garrett's Green/Tile Cross reports, although we weren't hopeful; the reports from yesterday had been vague with no news since.

We found the Mc Donalds (junction of Garretts Green Lane and Meadway East) after driving around and getting lost in some not so salubrious locations. We started to look through our bins with a couple of McDs munching chavs laughing loudly at us. A flock of 17 Waxwings soon came flying in and were feeding from a tree across the road, We edged closer in the car and were able to park near the tree where they fed and watch them frequently commuting between the nearby taller tree and the berry tree for feeding frenzies. At one stage they disappeared but we found them again, round the corner on Outmore Road, resting on trees and rooftop aerials, before returning to their feeding place.

I was able to get a few pics, but sadly the light was very poor

It was a great day which whetted the appetite for future further urban explorations. The day also yielded another five year ticks, I'm on 66 now.