Venus Pool - Brent Goose!!!

A weekend spent within the confines of Shropshire with Geese on my mind and a couple of hours were lost on Saturday 'waiting' for a White-front to make an appearance - it didn't!

The only bird gliding low over the pool on a few occasions was the infamous pale morph Buzzard, having morphed itself into Hen Harrier already , it will no doubt be masquerading as an Osprey in a few months time!






Sunday started off with 'no show' Dippers at Longnor (the brook was running high though). The field between the A49 and Lyth Hill held 22 Golden Plover plus a couple of Curlew with a flock of approx 500 Lapwing.....







It was at this moment (10.15am) that fates took a cruel turn.....


I didn't feel my mobile vibrate as I drove off to Whixall to check out Pink feet on the floods? 30 odd minutes later I was there and apart from a Greylag amongst the Canadas it was nothing doing.....

I checked my mobile...... OMG!! BRENT GOOSE at Venus Pool (an hour ago!!). Hastily I rang Helen who had texted me earlier, was it still there? "It's flown Jim but kept low, might be on the fishing pool"?

I drove ever so carefully over to VP and not exactly brimming with confidence trudged across the top field, got to the Oak tree and scanned the fishing pool to find.... YOU DUSKY BEAUTY, sat in the middle of the pool, one County lifer Brent Goose....

I even managed one or two record shots (and that's all they are!)











The only other unanswered question, pale or dark bellied? Come on, show us your belly!! It was brief, I was lucky to be concentrating on the bird whan it came but one wing flap revealed... one Dark bellied Brent Goose






I was soaking by now, (forgot to mention it was chucking it down with rain) so I opted for the warm, dry, comfy duty of Dads Loughborough Uni taxi service....

Fairhaven lake - Red-necked Grebe

This year is going to be a about birding on three fronts with no particular aims apart from seeing good birds!

1. Shropshire birding (as ever) with hopefully one or two more County lifers?

2. UK birding wherever I am on the ‘talk’ scene plus a twitch or two and hopefully a few more lifers along the way!

3. Photo-opportunities anywhere, especially those species missing from the photo gallery on the main website.

With a Short-eared Owl having an early ‘rise’ on Whixall Moss recently, I planned to end the day there but first..... a photo call and a minor detour.....to Lytham and hopefully a confiding Red-necked Grebe.....

The Grebe was there on arrival, certainly confiding – resting in the now redundant boat launch area, unfortunately looking into the sun! The right sort of start though!








The place to be was on the far (West) bank and after waking up, that's exactly where the Grebe opted to go, (a process repeated several times during the morning) in a reasonable wind driven swell....






Red-necked Grebes certainly go for it when diving! Sometimes leaving the water on the plunge downwards!








There's only so many poses you can capture from the swim past, here's a couple of them!








Eventually it was feeding time and first down the hatch was a shrimp-like crustacean of some sort....






Followed by a succession of Sticklebacks, never quite managing to strike the perfect alignment but these will have to do!











By 1.30, I reckoned it was time to nip back to Whixall Moss and having ticked a couple of flyover Ring-necked Parakeets at the local cemetary, I was on my way!

Owls being Owls, it proved to be a no-show so I got my tactics right on the day and had my long overdue 'away day' (and a bird I've never had close enough to the lens before)!

Waxwings ( for a change ??)

Couldn't resist a lunchtime spell on Waxie watch, I counted only 14 birds present today but that's more than enough!

I was hoping to get some flight shots to break up the monotony! Here they come, into their favourite perch.....








Keeping a close eye on the berries....






Very close!






So many to choose from!








One at a time today.....








As for flight, this will do nicely......






Gorgeous birds and it's hard not to ignore them......

Waxie finish to the day

I did make it! A total of 19 Waxwings (one on it's own) were waiting for me in Allgold Drive and with some friendly interest from the locals, I settled down using the car as a 'hide'.

They were using a couple of nearby trees for 'digestive' rest.






Between energetic forays amongst the berries.....










Getting greedy - two berries at a time = half the effort!








Lucky to catch this flight shot!






The lady from no. 1 (many thanks for putting up with us!) has a print of any of these waiting to be picked.... Chances are I'll return for another session in better light?

Grey start brightens up the day!

It's early days and I'm still content to bird locally (I don't think it will last) and today - Waxwings were the target! They have become a little elusive of late though with the retail park berries largely exhaused. News of three in Roden the previous day at least got me in the right area for a decent encounter - but not of the Waxwing kind!!

Will, Rob and Mike had checked out Roden without success and then during a trawl of the local lanes, Eagle-eyed Will had found 8 Grey Partridge! I was there in minutes (Here's 7 of them in one field of view!).....






Slowly but surely, they worked their way closer to the roadside hedge which gave plenty of cover....






After half an hour of watching them do... well, absolutely nothing... I checked out Roden again and all I found was Andy! A return to the Grey Partridge proved to be a good decision as they had moved nearer to the road! I had no choice but to single out smaller groups!






Eventually, single birds were looming large in the viewfinder - shame about the clound and as ever 'into the light'. Shame about more year ticks too, no way was going to leave this little party....










The sun shone briefly and a quick change of angle lit the birds up nicely....








By 2.30 I had so far resisted the lure of 18 Waxwings reported at midday in Shrewsbury..... I couldn't leave it much longer but had I left it too late?

Wild Goose Chase?

It wasn't exactly the crack of dawn or 'armed with torches' but slowly, surely, resisting sleep by counting Canada Geese, several birders descended upon Whixall Moss. Whilst Howard claimed the bird of the day (male Hen Harrier no less) the rest of us (well, me) were content with the crumbs of year ticks like... Pintail!






and Marsh Tit








Speaking of crumbs, for the second day running Willow Tits were on the menu, I'll be quite happy if I see them every day but I think the bubble will burst (from tomorrow!)








It was an early finish for me too but not before I had paid my daily dues to Little Welney near Cound, from where the Staffs contingent of Bewick's had now departed (presumably crop tasting at Acton Pigot?) and the three Whoopers were.... somewhere else!

Never mind, EIGHT Bewick's Swans were still loving every minute of the Shropshire air! They were a little bit closer too, so.... shots of one's and two's!






One of the two juveniles....






The two's .....








A strange 'Siamese' creation??






I was enjoying every minute of their company.....

Happy New Shropsyear

Given the weather and the absence of anything decent twitchable I opted for a bit of 'local birding' with the camrea tucked way for most of the day! Met up with Andy Latham and first stop was 'Little Welney' that newly formed Swan sanctuary near Cound...

We had just checked the 8 Bewick's and 3 Whooper Swans were still there when, the sound of calling Swans was confirmed as not just the ones of the deck as a flock of Bewicks Swans flew in - easy to count in the air - an amazing and additional 23!! Given the gloom, I hadn't even got my camera with me to record their arrival but here's a few of them settling down to feed in the kale......

(I nipped back for the camera to get a record shot)








Presumably these are the relocated Gailey birds? - 'Welcome to Shropshire' - stay as long as you like!

A call at Leighton didn't reveal anything of note. Venus Pool was nearly 100% ice still with a decent number of finches including Brambling in the top field. Priorslee lake was quiet and the only gulls of note were 1st Winter Common Gull and Great black-backed Gull at the Flash.

That well known SSI at Tee lake (Andy's garden and environs) allowed us to tick the only Redpoll of the day. A few Corn Bunting were predictably found in Isombridge lane and after a bit of a search, 2 Green Sandpiper at Mire Lake.

Haughmond wrapped the day up with one or two additional birds including Willow Tit, always a welcome sight in Shropshire!

It wasn't even a bird race (I might try one when the ice recedes) but totting up revealed a final tally of 62 species for the day!

Less words and more images may be the order of the day for future posts but today was all about birding! Happy New Year everybody.....


Oh and thanks to everyone for voting on the piccies - here's the winner for the year, the Kinmel Bay Snow Bunting.....