Having never seen a Caspian Gull before I took the trip up to Stubbers Green nr Walsall hoping to see one. I spent plenty of time preparing, learning the id features and hoping that I could pick one out.

I got there early in the afternoon and there were plenty of gulls loafing about on the shore and on the lake. It didn’t take long to find an adult Caspian Gull. Everything I wanted to see was there. Long,straight, greenish bill,beady eye,spindly fleshy coloured legs. The gleaming white head made it stand out from a distance. I couldn’t have asked for a more classic example.

After a while the Iceland Gull arrived and I was able to capture both Caspian and Iceland Gull in the same photograph.

(c) Wilf King

(c) Mark Coller

I still haven’t photographed the Kingsgate Park Shoveler. I won’t bother now as Mark Coller and Wilf King have done it for me. Not only that but the photos are a shed load better than I would have got anyway. So the plan for the future is to not photograph anything, winge on the blog and see what I get !!

Mark has also let me have some photos of Black Headed Gulls at the park, including an albino looking bird that might make you double take if you were still half asleep in the morning.

(c) Mark Coller

(c) Mark Coller

(c) Mark Coller

(c) Lin Kendall

There seems to be 3 Kingfishers wintering on the Yate patch at the moment. 2 at Kingsgate Park which are being seen regularly (not by me though) and 1 at Yate Common.

The Yate Common bird sits out on the handrail on the small wooden bridge by the pond. Yate Common regular Lin Kendall supplied me with the above photo of the bird.

Yate birding notched up a level or two this week with 5 Canada Geese on Coopers Lake rather than 1.

I was going to try and post a picture of Kingsgates returning drake Shoveler but it hides whenever I go there with my camera.

Only a week after the Junco it was back to Hampshire again. This time to try and see the Spanish Sparrow.

I left Yate at  6:30 and after a good run down arrived in Calshot at around 8:30. There were plenty of people heading back to their cars so it waa obvious that the bird had been showing.

I parked at the pay and display which was free because it was out of season and made my way back up the road. When I arrived I was told that the bird was in the usual hedge but had flown over the houses into the gardens.

I waited for it to return and at one point I turned around to find myself face to face with a TV camera. I hope that I wasnt on TV somewhere because I would have looked more gormless than usual.

Eventually the bird was relocated in the car park of the village hall which was doubling as the “Spanish Sparrow Cafe” Good views were had as it sat in the hedge chirping away. I’ve read on some forums that the call is distingishable from House Sparrow. I must admit that i struggled to hear a difference. here is a short video of the bird, the call can be heard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D3ewrvSAH4&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

On the way back up I popped in for a Black Throated Diver at Elling. I saw it but the views weren’t to good as it was quite distant and the sun was in the wrong position. Also here was a Common Sandpiper and 2 Kingfishers.

I am going to try and get out and about around the Yate patch this week and see if I can rustle up anything decent. it has been hard going of late with the best I can muster being a drake Shoveler and some Tufties.

It’s been a good week. Last Monday I did a whirlwind tour of Norfolk picking up a few ticks along the way. GOLDEN PHEASANT at Wolferton,ARCTIC REDPOLL at Titchwell,WESTERN SANDPIPER at Cley and ended the day down at Buckenham Marshes for the LESSER WHITE FRONTED GOOSE.

Yesterday we headed down to the New Forest for the DARK EYED JUNCO in the Hawkhill Enclosure. Couldnt ask for much better really the bird showed well in a nice location, the sun was out and there were Crossbills on show at point blank range for all of the time we were there.

On the way back I finally ticked off Willow Tit at a site in Wiltshire that I had been given directions for (Thanks Mark).

On the Yate Birding front it has been very quiet. Today’s highlights were 4 Gadwall,5 Tufted Ducks, a Canada Goose and 2 Raven. Riveting stuff eh. Roll on Spring

Well it’s nice to be back. As you can see I have a redesigned blog. Not redesigned by me I must add. Surfbirds decided to change their blogging software and overnight it has turned into this. I will see how I get on with it. Although all of my widgets,counters etc have all be removed much to my dismay.

On the 2nd of Jan I took a quick trip to the Forest of Dean to try and see Willow Tit which was (note WAS) my bogey bird. My first stop was Brierley. No Willow Tits but plenty of good birds on show. There were a group of Crossbills feeding on cones atop of of tree. I manged a photo but the day was so grey that the quality was poor. Siskins and Redpolls streamed constantly overhead. The best birds were Hawfinches. Initially one but then more came in and I ended up with ten. Also here were Goldcrest,Treecreeper,Jay and Redwing. A solitary Buzzard circled overhead.

After Brierley I moved onto Woorgreens. Not a lot here except for more Siskins and Redpolls and a Coal Tit feeding on a feeding net hanging from a tree.

No joy with Willow Tits,

Afterwards we took the kids to watch possibly the worst film ever.

                                                                                 
It’s been a while since I posted anything decent regarding Yate birds. It’s not through lack of trying, just lack of decent birds. To date there hasn’t been any wildfowl arrival on either of the lakes.

Last week I visited Yate Common a couple of times and I was walking down the track that runs alongside the railway track when a bird flicked up on the other side of the railway, it hovered for a while against the side of a warehouse and then dropped down. BLACK REDSTART I thought to myself. I waited and the bird flicked up again and sat on a security light comfirming what I had thought. Excellent a new Yate/CS tick.
I watched the bird for the remainder of my lunch hour.
A few days later Mark coller went to look for the bird but unfortunately was unsuccesful. However he did come across two very obliging Water Rails feeding in the small pond on the common.