Monday, 1 May 2017

***Scarce Bird Alert***

To see this bird you need the right conditions 

After this morning success at Blithfield which you can read about in the post below we thought we should try for the Grasshopper Warbler at Tucklesholme. When we arrived a large rain cloud blocked out the sun so it went very cold a windy, which is annoying because it had bee lovely weather all afternoon so it was set up perfect for a Grasshopper Warbler to start singing this evening.

Despite not seeing the Grasshopper Warbler we were able to see a Great White Egret flying over the main pit also two Commn Terns were seen flying along the Trent.

Have a Good week all - Joe and Martyn

A wet morning at Blithfield

After yesterdays fall of migrants especially in the tern department where there was a influx's of Black Terns in to the Midlands and the country along with good numbers of Arctic Terns, Common Terns and a few Grey Plovers knocking about. So we decided to set off to the nearest large volume of water which was Blithfield.

Copyright: Cornell Lab
On arrival we parked up on the car park next to the causeway, the rain was quite heavy so we spent most of the first hour and a half birding from the car (which is one of the best ways to birdwatch). We immediately dropped on a group of four Black Terns with some Common Terns which weren't in short supply. After twenty minutes or so the rain was still tipping down  we had a second group of three Black Terns coming in but we still haven't been able to find a Arctic Tern yet.

Terns weren't the only migrants we saw. We had a female Wheatear on the causeway which was joined by two Common Sandpipers also a Grey Plover on the shore next two the gate, probably one of the two birds from yesterday. Next we moved to the car park that over looked the area of water between the dam and the causeway. We saw many Common Terns sitting on boys also on one of the boys (number six to be specific the large one with a load of bird crap on it) we had good views of a Arctic Tern and occasionally we had the burst of excitement when a group of Black Terns flew through, in that hour we had a count of nine birds so that brought the total of Black Terns today up to fifteen.

Hope you all had a good Bank Holiday - Joe and Martyn