Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - Birding In The Mist

I had high hopes for my birding on Monday. I planned to visit Shenstone, Norchard, Grimley and maybe take in the Lickey Hills too. I thought if I had an excellent day and a bit of good luck I could bag ten year ticks and maybe a lifer or two. Alas, it was not to be.

I arrived in Shenstone to find that the county of Worcestershire was shrouded in a thick curtain of mist. It was going to be hard enough to see my hand in front of my face, let alone spot a Woodlark, one of my main targets, from distance.

Never to be discouraged, I took a deep breath and immersed myself in the gloom. I thought I had a good chance of seeing Corn Bunting, Red-Legged Partridge and Grey Partridge here, but I failed to locate any of them. There were several hundred Fieldfare in the field adjacent to the public footpath, a small flock of Siskins further down, and I managed to locate a pair of Reed Buntings as I made my way back to the car, but that was about it.

A stroll up Heath Lane revealed a couple of Song Thrush and a Wren, but nothing out of the ordinary. Finally, a hunt for the recently reported Brambling half a mile down the road in Summerfield was unsuccessful. As I consoled myself with a chicken sandwich and a swig of hot tea, I had some consolation in the form of a Greenfinch [year tick 75!] in a nearby tree.

Next I headed off to Norchard. Woodlarks have been seen here consistently for a couple of weeks. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but I was quite prepared to invest an hour or more here. Woodlarks would not be lifers for me, but as I have only ever had a fleeting view of one as it flew away from me I was obviously keen to get a proper look.

I found the place with relative ease and knew I was in the right field when I spied a couple of fellow birders with scopes ahead of me. Although I'm not shy of putting in a bit of hard graft to find a bird, I was hopeful that these two chaps had already had a positive sighting, not least because the mist had come down again and it was not possible to see across to the other side of the field. Armed with only my binoculars, it was also difficult to comfortably scan much more than half of the field.

Sadly, the two chaps had not seen anything and within fifteen minutes they headed off. I persevered and became more optimistic when the mist cleared a little, but despite seeing a few small birds at distance, there was no way I could be certain that they were the Woodlarks. I tried my luck further down the lane, my heart skipping a beat as a Meadow Pipit [year tick 76!] appeared in front of me, but there was no access to the other side of the field. I gave it another five or ten minutes back in my original position, but eventually had to concede defeat and headed for Grimley.



I had a thirty minute walk around Grimley. There were some nice species here including Snipe, of which I saw three flying, Pochard, Teal, Goldeneye in reasonable numbers, Shoveler and Gadwall. I think some Wigeon flew over, but ducks in flight are not one of my strong points so I couldn't be certain. There was no sign of the Water Pipit, but I didn't really expect to see that if I was being honest.

As I was without Brambling, I decided to stop off at the top of the Lickey Hills on the way back. I walked through the area near the church and Twatling Road for about ten minutes or so and I can honestly say I did not see one bird!



I headed home a bit dejected. I always enjoy my birding, whatever the result, but having invested a good five hours in the field I was a bit disappointed to get just two year ticks, especially as they were birds that I am bound to see in good numbers over the course of the year.

Let's hope the next outing is a liitle better. Until then, happy birding!