Wednesday 12 December 2012

OUT LOCAL

Sunday 2nd December

Winter is here and things are very quiet, short days means limited hours of light for Birding, I truely dislike the winter but to stop me going insane I decided to go out local this weekend and try and bag a Caspian Gull for my year list.

I arranged to pick up Tom at 09.30. I left the house at eight and it was very cold with a good frost cover. As I was a bit early on my way to Tom's I stopped by at my local patch Essington Quarry Pool, parked my car up at the top end of the pool and set my scope up for a quick scan.


To my suprise there were good numbers of Wildfoul for a change , 79 Wigeon, 29 Tufted Duck, 3 Pochard, 8 Teal, 26 Mute Swan, 49 Coot, 150 + Black Headed Gull. Excellent !, I checked closely through all the Wigeon hoping for a Yanky but no luck , scanned through the Gulls but no Med, maybe next time, best go and pick Tom up.

After picking Tom up we headed over to Stubbers Green near Aldridge to check out the Gulls that gather there during the day , we were hoping a Caspian Gull may turn up. On arrival we scanned through the Gulls , Great Black Backed , Lesser, Herring, Common & Blacked Headed Gulls were here in good numbers but no Caspian! Hey Ho - were next?

Now there have been good numbers Waxwings in the country but Tom hasn't seen one this year yet so I decided to head upto Lichfield where there has been a good flock of Waxwings earlier today.


                                                       They are Waxwings honest!

We arrived at Lichfield 20mins later pulled of the A38 and onto Eastern Avenue , and there they were a group of six Waxwings, pulled over the car a parked up. A nice year tick for Tom, cracking birds.

After viewing these little beauties for about 20 mins we decided to make our way back home, but on the way I thought that we would drop by Chasewater to see if the Great Northern Driver was still there.


                                                        The Swag Pool at Chasewater.

Arrived at the Swag Pool at 12.30 , walked across the road and started to look for the Driver, after a few mins Olly picked it out swiming over by the pillon diving on occasion. Great, nice to see these coastal birds in our cental counties. We viewed the bird for about 20 mins and headed back home.

A nice morning Birding - Clam On !!


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