Just come back from 2 lovely weeks at Lake Garda in northern Italy. I don’t think I’ve ever used the words Wonderful, Beautiful and Marvelous so much, Everywhere was spotlessly clean, the people were friendly  everywhere you looked you had a magnificent view.Birdwise it was like being at home with plenty of our common species present in the area incuding Robins which I’d never seen before abroad. I did see one life tick Alpine Choughs, the best of the rest being a Firecrest. Long-tailed blue butterflies were all over. We did a lake tour and  visited Venice while we were there. We also went up the cable car at Malcesne, this was where I saw the Alpine Choughs. All I can say about Venice is plenty of water, plenty of boats, plenty of people, plenty of pigeoens, we had a ride on a gondola but alas no Cornettos!!!!

The view from our hotel room

The pool at our hotel

Firecrest by the pool

Riva Del Garda at night

Long-tailed Blue butterfly

and again

and again

No shortage of House sparrows

Coot & Terrapin at Riva

A lake Garda Black-headed Gull

Typical!!! first stop on the round the lake tour, by the time the ladies had powdered their noses it was time to go

The Castle at Sermione on the lake tour

View from the boat on the lake tour

Salo a view from the boat on the lake tour

Back to the coach on the lake tour

Cable car at Malcesne

it revolves

The 4 black dots on this photo are Alpine Choughs

Gondola ride in Venice "alas" no Cornettos!!

"Plenty of Pigeons" St Marks Square Venice

The Rialto bridge on the Grand Canal Venice

Back to Belvide this morning to have another look at the Sabines Gull and boy did we come up trumps as there was a Manx Shearwater there as well. Both of these birds being only the second sightings at Belvide since records began. The last Sabines Gull I saw was in 1996 at Blithfield and this is my first ever inland sighting of a Manx Shearwater, this is a bird you generally see skimming out over the top of the water when you’re looking out to sea.

We called at Gailey on our way back where we saw Red-necked Grebe, Shags, Arctic Terns and best of all a Painted Lady butterfly hugging the ground sheltering from the wind, these have been very few and far between this year and this was our first sighting.

Manx Shearwater Belvide 11/9/11

Manx Shearwater this is only the second ever sighting at Belvide

Sabines Gull only the second ever sighting at Belvide

And again

And again

And yet again

Red-necked Grebe at Gailey

Painted Lady butterfly at Gailey

Painted Lady lying low out of the wind

My Blackberry phone came in handy again this morning. I recieved an email from Birdguides telling me that there was a Sabines Gull at Belvide. Although it wasn’t a life tick for me as I’d seen one many many moons ago at Blithefield, it was still a cracking bird to get on my year list.

What a liitle beauty Sabines Gull below the dam at Belvide

And again

And yet again

They did a day list at Belvide yesterday achieving a total of 90 species, we went this morning and had 56 , I don’t know if this is a reflection on Belvide or on our bird watching prowess!!!!

Seriously we went hoping to see Spotted Flycatcher & Whinchats we didn’t see either, the wheat field where the Whinchats were has now been harvested and although we tried very hard we never found a Spotted Flycatcher although they had been mentioned in the last few days.

Belvide is still a great place with improvements being made all the while, the management team should be congratulated.

The new woodland hide at Belvide

The woodland feeders as seen from the new hide

We’ve seen some great birds on these feeders in the past including Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Marsh Tit, Willow tit & Tree sparrow

We called at Stubbers Green on our way to Blithfield there were 2 Little Egrets here and a Green Sandpiper both of these being good sigthtings for Stubbers.

Little Egret No 1 Stubbers Green

Little Egret No 2 Stubbers Green

We then went on to Blithfield where we saw a Little Stint and 2 Black Terns from the causeway. We then had one of those sightings that will stay with us for ever. Again from the causeway we saw an Osprey came flying in to Blythe Bay catching a fish which was too big for him to carry so it had to drag it to the shore. It was then disturbed by another Osprey and they both flew out together without the fish.

An Osprey catching a fish

The Osprey dragging the fish to the shore

The Osprey with the fish on the shore

Also in Blythe Bay were 2 Little Gulls, Redshank, Ruff, Ringed Plover, Golden Plover, Dunlin etc

Redshank & Ruff in Blythe Bay

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2 Little gulls in Blythe Bay

2 Little Gulls in flight

Then on our way round to Tad Bay the Osprey was in the dead tree again (question is, was it one of the ones we’d seen earlier in Blythe Bay which flew off in the opposite direction or was it another one?)

The Osprey on the dead tree in Tad Bay

All in all a fantastic morning 2 more year ticks with Black Terns & Little Gulls now 178 for the year.

Well we took the bull by the horns today, there were 2 very good reasons for not going to Gailey & Belvide today, one being the traffic for the V festival at Weston Park, the other being a work party at the Western end of Belvide clearing the scrub from around the hides. We totally disregarded these and went all the same and we weren’t affected by either.

Firstly we called at Gailey for the Red-necked Grebe that had been there all week, it was still there and we had great views the first time I’d seen one in summer plumage and guess what!! it actually had a red neck!!

Secondly we then went on to Belvide to see if we could find the Whinchat which had been reported from a corn field below the Dam, We did manage to see a very distant one but we had to trespass on to the top of the dam to see it.

Great 2 more year ticks. Total now a measly 176 no chance of making 200 this year.

Red-necked Grebe Gailey boating pool 21st Aug 2011

and again

and yet again.

You’ll just have to believe me, the brown blob sitting on top of the corn in the middle of the tree trunk is a Whinchat.

The words of the song say "What a difference a day makes" but what a difference a week makes. We had an indifferent day last week at Middleton lakes RSPB, we went again to day and had a great morning. Seeing, Wood Sandpiper (a year tick), Green Sandpiper, Greenshank, 2 Ruff, Little-ringed Plover and Little Egret.

Wood Sandpiper (through the heat haze)

Greenshank

Little Egret

Little Egret in flight you can just about make out the yellow feet

3 baby Swallows

English Longhorn Cattle from the meadow trail at Middleton Lakes RSPB

We used to visit Kingsbury Water Park and walk down the canal past the north pit then over the river to Dosthill lake, this was always a good walk for bird watching, we’ve seen all sorts over the years on this walk. Temmincks Stint, Ferruginous Duck, Least Sandpiper, all 3 Woodpeckers etc etc etc. Whenever we visited we always had a count of at least 50 species.

But alas all now has changed maybe for the better in the long term, but in the short term things are certainly not for the better. We now have a brand spanking new Middleton Lakes RSPB bird reserve. We visited here on Sunday morning full of expectancy but it ended up being a very disappointing morning, total species seen 37. Below are 2 of the species seen:-

Green Sandpiper 2 on Hall pool

Linnet several on the reserve

We had a great morning at Blithfield this morning, fabulous weather, fabulous birds, fabulous butterflies. The birds included Spoonbill, Osprey, Arctic Tern, Sandwich Tern, Little Tern, Commom Tern, 4 Dunlin and at least 14 "Ringies" (either Ringed or Little ringed plovers).

The butterflies included, Purple Hairstreak, Comma, Red Admiral, Gatekeeper, Small Skipper, Peacock, Green Viened White, Large White, Meadow Brown, Speckled Wood. 

Spoonbill Tad Bay 31st July 2011

Osprey Tad Bay 31st July 2011

Gatekeeper, Blithfield 31st July 2011

It’s nice to be back birding what with holidays and charity walks it’s been 4 weeks since I was out birding properly on a Sunday morning.

2 weeks ago it was the Heartcare Charity walk from The Dilke public house in Aldridge along the canal around Park Lime Pits and back again.

 Last week was Rosies Helping Hands charity walk from Aldridge Airport along the canal to the Sutton Road up to the Three Crowns public house and into Cuckoo’s Nook and The Dingle finishing off in Hay Head Wood and back to the Airfield.

30 Crossbills have been mentioned twice in the last week in the Larch trees by the carpark on the top of Brocton Coppice so we thought we’d have a look, but it was all to no avail, it was the same again at the Shooting Butts and Strawberry Hill still no Crossbills whats more to the point still no birds, I’ve never known the Chase so quiet, we walked for an hour and a half and only saw a few Wood Pigeons.

We finished off at Hazel Slade another place where we have seen Crossbills in the past but again no luck.

Hazel Slade Pool

It wasn’t a totally wasted morning though we’d called at Stubbers Green on the way to the Chase and found a Yellow Legged Gull which was a year tick.

Yellow Legged Gull, Stubbers Green