Shropshire - Happy New Year

I'd almost forgotten how to put a post together after a bit of a break from birding and blogging! But January 1st is always a great motivator with the list slate wiped clean (not that I kept any lists in 2019!!) Therein lies the problem, no list = no motivation so I'm going to revisit the Shropshire 'January list'. Simply how many birds can I see during the month of January within the county border? And ideally beat the '101' tally from Jan 2017!

I didn't exactly  hit the ground running as I missed the dawn exodus of the VP Whooper Swan, Egyptian (x2) and White-fronted Goose! Never mind I managed to catch up with the distant  Whooper Swan - relocated to one of the fields near Cross Houses...

Virtually all of the morning was spent wandering the reserve with Dave Chapman and smarting from the early 'misses' I still managed to get my Shire list up to 50 by late morning. No real surprises but the highlight was probably at least four Water Rail from the Fen hide...

And then, opting for a quick check of the pool before leaving - the Egyptian Geese were back in town!

The afternoon was spent near Shifnal, failing miserably to see the 'Sewage Works' Yellow Browed Warbler :-( A consolation adult Yellow-legged Gull at Priorslee lake helped but I'll have to await a return of a Caspian?

I might even be tempted to get out again tomorrow!

Shooters Pool - Water Rail

Not a lot happening on St. Mary's at the moment and with Lowers Moors pool quiet, I checked the nearby Shooters pool - a quite confiding juv Water Rail made it worthwhile...

 As it criss-crossed the small patch of mud...

A Water Rail moment!

I checked out Chelmarsh  to see if the Common Scoter had stopped over for another day but as expected, it had flown overnight. The six Tundra Bean Geese were still at Cranmere Bog (seen flying out from the pool), plus the Egyptian Goose but no new additions there - any day now though - Pink foots or White-fronts?

The January challenge was kept on course with a couple more Shropshire year-birds. Grey Wagtail on the Severn at Bridgnorth...

Another one was present at Shirlett plus three Crossbills... But Chelmarsh provided the image highlight of the day - a very obliging Water Rail!! At least it was for about 10 seconds! With just one small area of open water, it obligingly 'froze' whilst another one was squealing, right in the middle of the sweet spot :-)

A momentary stand to attention...

Then completely relaxed...

Just 10m away, I could certainly achieve some generous crops!

The Shropshire list moves on to 93, with just over a week to go! And I'm gonna be busy with talks for some of it...