13th October - 3rd December 2017

The past cpl of months have been spent reworking the garden at home trying to create suitable habitat for both insects & birds,what started out as just cleaning the pond ended up with me ripping the whole garden out & starting afresh......... Inbetween Donna & myself had a cracking week in Norfolk from the 13th Oct not really birding but did manage Taiga Bean Goose at Burnham on 14/10 & a possible Grey Bellied Brant on the 15/10 nr Choseley & Osprey on 16/10 at Holkam apart from that very little as we only really walked Thornham harbour & Burnham Overy Dunes each day........ a few photos from norfolk below.

A little Purple patch in Warks birding with a few County ticks my 1st being 3 Hawfinch low over Hartshill Hayes CP calling  on 28/10 part of an impressive 100+ birds recorded there over about 2 weeks with a national irruption involving 1000's of birds on the 2nd November i had a call about a Lesser Yellowlegs nearby at Maxstoke on a private farm 1st County record found by Steve Haynes which was only available to a small group of 10 on the first afternoon  with more than a hundred seeing it the following day.........

On the 4th November a trip over to Bubbenhall Meadows produced my 3rd County tick in a week with a 1st Winter Dartford Warbler only heard once & briefly sat up before being chased by 1 of 6 Stonechat present.....

A spur of the moment Moth trap on the 15th Nov produced only my 2nd garden record of December Moth.

26th November a call came thru to say a Richard's Pipit had been seen briefly at nearby Oldbury/Mancetter quarry but no further sign over the nxt cpl of hours but with it only 15 mins away I decided to help with the search within a cpl of hours several of us managed to find it & had some cracking flight views with it constantly calling,with probably in excess of a hundred people seeing it by the end of the day!! Only 3rd County record but 1st multi-observed bird..........Still present on the 3rd December allowing a few Warks birders to connect after being away the weekend before.

8th October 2017

The past few months has seen me hardly doing any birding at all apart from a cpl of visits to Seeswood Pool where I did manage to find a Cetti's Warbler on the 24th Sept which was a 1st for the pool.....during the 1st week of October a few tweets came thru saying poss 2 Cattle Egret nr Alvecote Pools,Warks then being confirmed I decided to head over for an hr on Sun morning, the birds were in their usual field but distant but after an hr or so started walking towards the few of us gathered by the gate!! Never came particularly close but with the 300-800f5.6 & 2x conv managed some pleasing photos.........

1st June - 18th June 2017

With the breeding season in full swing the birding has taken a bit of a slow down with most trips out for  Dragonflies,Butterflies & moths however I did get my most wanted bird a fine male Corncrake which took up residence at Alvecote Pools for over a week heard it on the 28th May as it was getting dark & had brief but fantastic flight views on the 29th May also a fine ad female Red-necked Phalarope was at Middleton Lakes RSPB on the 10th June a nice lifer for Donna!! On the 11th had a sneaky trip down to Pagham Harbour,W.Sussex for the ad male Elegant Tern with Steve 'snapper' Richards & Ian Burgess but probably my favourite find was the 3+ Red-veined Darter at Marsh Lane NR on the 1st June which allowed some pleasing images on the 2nd attempt late afternoon..........

Other highlights of the last cpl of weeks below........

 Bee Orchid

Four-spotted Chaser

Red-eyed Damsefly

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Imm Black-tailed Skimmer + Excuvia

Bordered White

 Varied Coronet

Small Ranunculus

Shark

Elephant Hawkmoth

Six-belted Clearwing

Moths

A few of the highlights from the moth trapping sessions in the back garden over the past cpl of months with some good local records inc Tissue (1st Warks record this year & only 2nd for a number of years)

Lime-speck Pug

 Red Green Carpet

Seraphim

Green Pug

Mottled Beauty

 Common Swift

Rustic Shoulder-knot

Small Yellow Wave

Broken-barred Carpet

Small Ranunculus

 Brimstone

Foxglove Pug

Yellow Shell

 Alder Kitten

 Figure of Eighty

Tissue

Also the Gardens 1st ever Cockchafer which pleased Donna but must say it's a pretty impressive Beetle......