April 30th 2011

Decided to head upto Staffordshire today,having seen some of the Common Whitethroat photos from Brown Edge on Birdguides & not much being seen of note nationally! You might think a 160mile round trip is a tad far for a Common migrant but it also gave me chance to meet up with ex Warks birder & photographer Steve Seal,1st stop was to Steve's locl patch of Knypersley Res where i soon had a good year tick in the form of Pied Flycatcher (a superb male in full song) we then carried onto nearby Marsh's Hill NR where we had good views of the Common Whitethroat,Willow Warbler,Grey Partridge (2) Green Hairstreak butterfly & Latticed Heath moth

April 28th 2011

Back up the pool this morning with the 2 Common Tern still present,2 Reed Warbler,2 Common Whitethroat,1 Lesser Whitethroat & plenty of Swallows & Martins,whilst photographing the Common Terns they took to the air & chased 6 Arctic Terns off which dropped in briefly (my 1st on the pool for a few years) If Arctic Terns are on Seeswood then there was bound to be some at Shustoke so off i set & sure enough i was soon watching 3 birds which were busy feeding over the west end also at least 10 Swift

                                  Common Tern 

                                  Arctic Tern

April 27th 2011

A walk around the pool today produced 2 Common Tern,3 Reed Warbler,3 Common Whitethroat,30+ Swallow & good numbers of House Martin with the odd Sand Martin thru,I then popped into Draycote which was pretty quite with 7 Common Tern &  a 1st summer Little Gull & my 1st Swifts of the year.

April 25th 2011

A tip off from Kay D last night had me searching closer to home today for probably my favourite warbler (Grasshopper Warbler) I'd decided that if i couldnt find them locally it would mean a trip upto Attenborough Pits, Notts where a cpl have been performing well for the last few days,but no probs the local birds showed very well although only briefly but long enough to bag a few shots!

April 24th 2011

With work commitments over the last few wks iv'e not really been able to get out with the camera so any spare time has been used to catch up with local summer migrants,but with news of a potential British tick (A bogey bird of mine) in the form of Purple Heron in Lincs i decided to have ago (Having dipped so many i was less than optimistic) Having picked Andy Jones up at just gone 7 we headed upto Huttoft Pits,Lincs on arrival we were met with the dreaded words no sign,with the hide being full i stepped out only for the call to go up i dashed back in but to late the bird had dropped back into the reeds! Bugger or words to that effect i stepped back outside only for the bird to fly past giving superb flight views as it flew across the water towards the back of the pit where it gave distant but cracking views for at least 1/2hr after getting a few record shots we headed upto Tetney Lock for the 5 Dotterel which were present with 1 a stunning female in full breeding plumage but sadly to distant for any kind of shots.

April 10th & 11th 2011

A couple of days patch working for summer migrants & enjoying the weather,I started off doing Seeswood with the pooch early Sun morning & was rewarded with a singing Sedge Warbler at the back of the pool with Swallow over Blackcap,Chiffchaff & Willow Warbler all in residence,a quick stop at Brandon produced very little apart from the resident Cetti's Warblers I then carried on to Draycote where i was rewarded with 3 Year ticks in the form of  1 Black Tern 8+ Common Terns & a single House Martin.
Mon morning on the pool produced a nice female Northern Wheatear & Yellow Wagtail but little else

Common Tern

April 8th 2011

A trip up to Water's Edge CP,Lincolnshire for the near SP Slavonian Grebe where i met up with Dean Eades & his dad & spent an enjoyable few hours (many thanks must go to Dean for all the info before & during my drive north) more photos on my other blog

http://dave-hutton.blogspot.com/

April 3rd 2011

Early start this morning with my destination World's |End,Clewd,N.Wales but 1st stop was to pick me old wing man & good friend Steve Seal up from Stoke,by 5-30am we were on our way picking up both Barn & Tawny Owl on route on arrival at World's End we parked up in the rain just hoping for the best! nothing then about 8ish we got out of the car for a stretch where we were then rewarded by a stunning flypast bt a male Black Grouse quickly followed by a female (smiles all round!!) even better views later of birds still lekking at 9am,whilst waiting up on the footpath for the target bird of Dartford Warbler which showed down to feet at times we were then rewarded with a male Blk Grouse sat in a tree which i'd ignored for the best part of a few mins thinking it was just a corvid (gave me & Steve a good laugh when i suddenly realised!) Photos below....

Black Grouse (top 2 female bottom 2 male)

Dartford Warbler

April 2nd 2011

A walk out with the pooch this morning produced Chiffchaff,5 Sand Martin & a Redshank on Seeswood this morning (The Redshank my 1st on the pool for several years) Next stop Draycote Water where i was soon onto Yellow Wagtail (2) along Farborough bank with 2 Little Gull also seen, the rest of the day spent mooching around  when the phone lit up with Sandwich Tern at  Shustoke Res,20 mins later i was at the carpark & was soon enjoying only my 2nd record in Warks (Many thanks to Tom Perrins yet again for the heads up)