30th and 31st March 2013

With hardly any migrants around locally I decided over the easter weekend to have a crack at the Jack Snipe at Marsh Lane,West Mids, called into the Fishing lodge to pick up my day pass & reserve key then down to the reserve & into Oak hide where Pete Walkden was already stationed!! No sign but after an hour or so the bird appeared briefly showing well before being spooked by a Teal then a Sparrowhawk  which went in after the Common Snipe!!

Nice to get the bird for the Year but it would have to be another trip over on the Sunday! Arrived at the fishing lodge at 9am picking up a pass & key (I would join but i probably wouldn't use it enough over the Year) Arrived in the hide to no sign so i settled down for the cold wait (Very cold wait!!!) Pete arrived about  1 1/2 hrs later & it had only shown very briefly so we sat & patiently waited when it broke cover about 25ft away from us but always slightly obscured,after what seemed like a lifetime it came out into the open! Cracking views the only thing missing was the sunshine (Still can't have everything!!)

4th March 2013

Dropped the car off for its MOT this morning & took a leisurely walk home not expecting to do anything but after getting onto my road I could see the familiar shape of Waxwings in a silver birch by the Aldi store! Put the news out straight away via the networks (Birdguides,FB & numerous txts) & went & got the camera! I was soon joined by Bobby D,Alvin.Burton & Bri Berry where we had fantastic views of 20 possibly 21 with 1 bird stunning itself on a house window & eventually flying off after about 20 odd minutes!!! A nice start to the week & even better the car passed!!!

3rd March 2013

Spent the best part of 16hrs at Ladywalk trying to get the final numbers on the Sibe Chiffchaffs ring to no avail infact only managed a cpl of shots in all that time as the bird is constantly on the move & more mobile in its wanderings managed another letter which narrows the bird down to 1 of 16 (Better than 266!! but still not  good enough) a cpl of shots below