A birthday bird to enjoy

Yes, today's its my birthday and after much thought on how to treat myself I eventually ended up at Doxey Marshes after being too indecisive!  Star species was my first holly blue of the year near the memorial, just a few feet away from where I saw my first speckled wood a couple of days ago.  Following the recent rain the scrape is now too full for waders, although the pair of little-ringed plover and lapwings were still present.  The grasshopper warbler was also still reeling around the Oxbow Pool.

I moved on to Thorswood nature reserve in the hope of finding early purple orchids, a species I shamefully haven't yet seen.  Despite a good search around the area I was out of luck, although the first mountain pansies of the year are flowering along with a curiously placed wood anemone in the middle of the field on the side of a spoil heap.

My long meander home took me via the Ceiley Brook LNR in Cheadle, home to one of Staffordshire's few remaining water vole colonies.  Without any effort, the first 'ratty' was waiting for me next to the car park.  There was plenty of signs of activity along the brook so hopefully the population remains healthy.

My last stop was Blithfield Reservoir, initially for an ice cream.  As I checked across the reservoir a group of terns held a black tern, probably my favourite tern species and one that has been lacking in the last few years.  Although distant the bird was great to see, and definitely a birthday bird to enjoy!

Butterfly monitoring

Today I joined a team of volunteers to help start butterfly monitoring at Mottey Meadows NNR near Wheaton Aston.  This fantastic wetland site is best known for its flora including a colony of snake's head fritillaries which are considered to be the most northerly wild population in the UK.

Find out more about the reserve here - http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/designations/nnr/1006106.aspx

The butterfly monitoring is part of Natural England's long term monitoring of selected NNRs looking at the impacts of management and a changing climate.  The method used for butterflies follows that of the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) set up by Butterfly Conservation.  Its a method I use with volunteers to carry out butterfly surveys at the Trust's Highgate Common and Loynton Moss.  In simple terms you follow a transect which is split into sections, and for each section you count the number of butterflies seen with a set distance of where you're walking.

Plenty of orange-tips were on the wing along with many green-veined white and a few peacocks.  Also great to hear were 3 singing lesser whitethroats, a cuckoo and a pair of curlew.  Obviously the snake's head fritillaries stole the show, and the same afternoon at least 40 people joined the Natural England warden for a walk to see these great plants.  Latest counts are of 250+ flower heads this year.

Ooot and abooot newting

Survey season is well underway, and soon bats will become the focus.  At present my first survey with Staffordshire Ecological Services (SES) was for newts.  Last night we set bottle traps and carried a torchlight survey which produced one smooth newt.

To my delight the bottle traps this morning held four great crested newts.  As the weather got worse during the day this was my only outing, but still a great year tick.

Time to catch up with the Chase

Cannock Chase was on the agenda today, and a catch up with several of the special species which can be found there.  My walk took me from the Punchbowl through the north end of the Sherbrook Valley.  After a slow start with little more than a willow warbler for migrants a pair of tree pipits flushed up from grassland next to the path.  Year tick!

Continuing along the path a cuckoo punched a hole in the silence.  Fantastic to hear as ever.  The BTO have been satellite tracking cuckoos for several years now and one of their tagged birds has made it to northern France ready for the crossing back to East Anglia.  Its been amazing to see how these brilliant birds migrant in a circular route.

Find out more about the project here - http://www.bto.org/science/migration/tracking-studies/cuckoo-tracking

Other migrants along my walk included a whitethroat singing from the heathland and 5 singing male redstarts along the valley.  Star species of the day was a green hairstreak which flashed past.  It was hoped for, but not expected given the previously sunny day had clouded over.

'Warbler Avenue'

Today saw a dawn start at the Trust's Croxall Lakes nature reserve near Alrewas for the first of the breeding wader survey of 2014.  Immediately obvious were two pairs of oystercatchers disputing who was 'king and queen' of the island.  The battle continued throughout the morning.

The path between the car park and the first bird hide is one of my favourite places on the nature reserve, an area I've called 'warbler avenue'.  Today it lived up to its name.  Eight species of warbler were present; chiffchaff, willow warbler, whitethroat, sedge warbler, reed warbler, blackcap, garden warbler and a brilliant lesser whitethroat in the scrub next to the bird hide.  A second 'lesser-throat' was on the other side of the railway near the south tunnel.

Otherwise the reserve was surprisingly quiet.  A single lapwing flew over, two snipe flushed out of the river connection channel at the north end of the west lake and two common sandpipers were feeding on islands in the river restoration area.  Also here were several teal, a little egret and two pairs of shelduck.

Find out more about the reserve here - http://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/reserves/croxall-lakes

'Warbler avenue' is definitely worth a visit

The river restoration area looking great

An evening visit to Doxey Marshes produced a new grasshopper warbler reeling from the fence line around the oxbow reedbed at the east end of the reserve.

Five year ticks in one evening just shows I've been slacking

Doxey Marshes was doing me great this evening, much better than I originally thought it would.  OK, first up was speckled wood, year tick number one.  I think I can be forgiven for this one as they're only just starting to be seen.  Two of these beauties were embroiled in battle right next to the cemetery entrance, completely oblivious to the passing visitors.

Around the corner a blob a-top a bush caught my eye.  Sometimes knowing a site inside out can help, and the blob turned out to be a cracking whinchat, year tick number two.  Once I'd set my scope up for a closer look it had been joined by a wheatear, not a year tick outright, but a year tick for the site.

From the hide, scanning along the back edge of the scrape, there were 3 little-ringed plovers and singles of common sandpiper, lapwing and snipe, all feeding within a few yards of each other.  A sparrowhawk blasted over the hedge and another 6 snipe which were previously hidden in the rushes took flight.  The pair of shelduck remain, along with two pairs of gadwall.  The two females goosanders dropped in again just before I left, this time with a male.

Pushing on around the reserve I reached Warrens Lane and was delighted to hear reed warbler, garden warbler and grasshopper warbler simultaneously.  A real treat, and three year ticks in one go although three that I probably should have got at least a week ago when the birds were first arriving.

All in all a rewarding evening that nearly didn't happen.

Let's try a video, or three

A day out and about with my mate Mark was rewarding with several goals achieved, including finding his first dipper at Staffordshire Wildlife Trust's Cotton Dell nature reserve.  I can't recall a time I've been and failed to see a bird.  As it turned out, we enjoyed some of the best views I've had of the bird hunting in the rocky brook.

The evening was then spent on Doxey Marshes (where else?) enjoying the delights of little-ringed plover politics.  A few days ago three pairs where on the scrape, but this evening just one pair and a single bird remained.  Presumably the male of the pair would dutifully chase off the single bird but also spent some time nest scraping.  Hopefully the videos below work and give you a flavour of what was going on.

How do you get another LRP's attention?  Try waving

LRPs can certainly shift, blink and you'll miss it!

Not the sharpest tool in the box, getting lost during a chase

Checking up

The day started with a visit to a breeding lapwing site I first surveyed at the end of March.  Since then it appears as though the field has been 'worked', presumably destroying the three nests recorded.  Today two nests were present, with several other birds present in the neighbouring field.

Elsewhere in the county a colleague reported the first lapwing chicks of the year in South Staffordshire.  Look carefully in the photo below and you can see the reflection of a chick along the edge of the pool, just to the right of the adult bird.

This evening I did a bit more checking up, this time of the local heronry where I'd seen a few little egrets on previous visits.  No egrets this time but 14 grey heron nests were active, another increase from 11 nests last year and 9 the year before.  As the BTO regional representative for Staffordshire, I'm responsible for co-ordinating survey volunteers.  If you know of a heronry please let me know in case its not known about already.  Just email me scott.petrek@gmail.com  The BTO heronry census is the longest running single species breeding bird survey in the world, originally starting as a one-off in 1928.  You can find out more about the survey here: http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/heronries

Quick trip to Doxey Marshes

A quick hour on Doxey Marshes this evening produced six little-ringed plover on the scrape from the bird hide.  Along with lapwing, a couple of snipe and a pair of shelduck there wasn't much else of note.  However there has clearly been an arrival of sedge warblers last night with at least 4 new birds singing between Homebase and the bird hide.

A good Friday

The day started with a visit to Loynton Moss near Woodseaves to complete this weeks butterfly survey.  I'll be alternating with a volunteer to complete the weekly survey.  The butterfly coppice lived up to its name and the final tally was 2 orange-tips, 4 peacocks, 4 small tortoiseshells and 4 green veined whites.

If you're looking for a good butterfly site in Staffordshire, I'd highly recommend Loynton Moss.  Last year you couldn't move without the ground erupting with them.  With luck you'll also see purple and white-letter hairstreak.  Find out more about the nature reserve here - http://staffs-wildlife.org.uk/reserves/loynton-moss

Butterflies were evident everywhere today.  My next port of call was Tixall to check out the area for breeding lapwing.  Neighbouring the Broad Water on the canal at Tixall is Rawbones Meadow SSSI which was designated for breeding snipe with some habitat for lapwing.  Two male lapwing were displaying in fields on the opposite side of the canal.  The rest of my walk along the canal and back towards Tixall had limited highlights, although a displaying curlew was a surprise.  Numerous orange-tips and peacocks were evident along the walk.

An evening visit to Doxey Marshes beckoned following my work on the scrape wall yesterday.  Water levels had dropped about a foot which is a good start.  From here on the scrape will just get muddier and more birds should appear.  Tonight's highlights were 2 common sandpipers, 2 white wagtails, single yellow wagtail and little egret, 2 pairs of shelduck, 2 female goosander and a barnacle goose.  Two male lapwing were displaying and occasionally fighting over the scrape.  One of them appeared to always be 'on top' and in between displaying would display to a nearby female and dig out a nest scrape.

What did you do this evening?

Tonight was the night, I was out to repair the bank to the scrape at Doxey Marshes.  I tried a couple of months ago but flooding washed it away again before it had set.  At present the water levels have dropped nicely but the bank wasn't high enough to stop the flash overflowing and keeping the scrape full.

Whilst repairing the bank I was surrounded by sand martins and swallows.  A nice addition were my first house martins of the year.  Two dunlin and a green sandpiper were hiding on the bank as I arrived, two lapwing were displaying around the edge of the flash and a common sandpiper was calling somewhere nearby.

So the bank is repaired again, lets see how long it lasts.  Hopefully water levels in the scrape will drop and waders will pour in.  May usually heralds greenshank, wood sandpiper and black-tailed godwits but waders generally start to peak form the last week of April.  Easter is here so why not pop down and see what turns up?

Quick evening on Doxey Marshes

Almost the first bird I heard on my arrival to Doxey Marshes this evening was a sedge warbler, a long awaited year tick.  These stripy 'across' are probably one of my favourite warblers, certainly of those that occur on the reserve.

Tillington Flash and the scrape were surprisingly quiet at first, but birds soon started to drop in ready to roost.  A pair of shelduck dropped in, followed by another pair that caused a bit of an argument.  A pair of little egrets arrived in the roosting tree along with 5 cormorants.  Otherwise the only other birds of interest were a couple of displaying lapwing and a single snipe.

It was clear there has been another arrival of willow warbler last night, not only more birds at Doxey Marshes but also around the grounds at The Wolseley Centre earlier in the day.

Things you don't expect

Another gloriously sunny day required an evening outside enjoying the delights of spring and definitely not stuck inside watching the same poor excuse for TV.

A walk around the river meadow at The Wolseley Centre was full of butterflies.  At least six peacocks and eleven small tortoiseshells jostled for the best position in the sun, usually amongst themselves but the odd feisty small tort wouldn't shy away from a bigger challenge.  An orange-tip and an unexpected brimstone completed the tally.

Earlier in the day news broke of an avocet "swimming" at Blithfield Reservoir, just a few miles form the office.  Out of curiosity I took the long way home to see how a wader copes with 'the deep end'.  On arrival the bird was in flight, circling above the reservoir and calling.  Eventually it dropped back down on to the water nearer the causeway.  No sooner did I arrive back on Watery Lane did the bird take flight again back towards the dam.

Not wanting to play follow the avocet I headed for Cannock Chase and the north end of the Sherbrook Valley in the hope that a redstart or tree pipit might be around.  Sadly my evening ramble produced little more than willow warblers and treecreepers, brilliant birds in their own right but not the sign of spring I was after.  On heading back to the car 5 brambling added to my list of 'things I didn't expect', cracking birds and possibly the last I'll see for a few months.

Elsewhere a green sandpiper was on the pool in the Trent Meadows at Navigation Farm near Little Haywood, along with a pair of oystercatcher and a couple of lapwing.  This time, all were expected

Spring goes up a gear

Today I travelled to Dosthill Park Local Nature Reserve in Tamworth to deliver a bird ID training session to the 'Wild About Tamworth' project volunteers who look after the site.  Along with numerous blackcap and chiffchaff a skulking whitethroat was new for the year and set the tone for the day.

Aside from birds, butterflies were everywhere.  Most common were small tortoiseshell, but there were good numbers of peacocks too.  Another two year ticks came in the form of a stunning male orange-tip and a large white.

Find out more about Dosthill Park LNR here - www.dpwg.org.uk

After a brief stop off at the office I called in at Blithfield Reservoir to catch up with yellow wagtails that had been seen earlier in the day.  Six birds were present along the dam, all a stunning bright vibrant yellow.  Before long a car passed and the birds flew down into the field and perched in the top of a hawthorn tree.  A wheatear was also present in the sheep fields.

The day finished with an evening visit to Doxey Marshes, which was more productive than I hoped for.  In all 3 pairs of shelduck were still present, 4 pairs of gadwall and single pairs of shoveler and tufted duck.  From the bird hide a pair of little-ringed plover were present with a single dunlin.  Also present was a pair of oystercatcher, common sandpiper, two snipe and 2 displaying male lapwing, with a female close by.  Also from the hide were around 20 swallows and a couple of sand martin.  Two little egrets were on Doxey Flash.

Looking at Staffordshire Bird News www.staffordshirebirding.blogspot.co.uk it would appear that I missed sedge warbler, reed warbler and house martin.  Something to try for in the next week I guess.

A day off...

A day off yet I still managed to visit a Trust nature reserve to see what was around.  As I left the house the sun was shining and the afternoon looked great, but as I arrived at Bateswood the cloud descended and combined with the wind, didn't make for a stunning afternoon.

There are certainly no shortage of willow warblers singing around the reserve, with a male heard around every corner.  Not to be out done several blackcap and chiffchaff were also present, as was a skylark singing away above the plateau.

Find out more about Bateswood here - www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/reserves/bateswood

Heading home I dropped in at a breeding lapwing site near Stafford to check on progress.  When I called a month or so ago the birds were displaying and bickering in a couple of arable fields.  Now these crops have already grown too tall and most of the birds have moved down the hill to a patch of wet grassland.  Thankfully all the birds appear to still be present.

Also still present was a common sandpiper on the river nearby.

Early start in the moorlands

Today signalled the start of survey season for me (in the field at least as preparations started months ago), and I was up early to cover part of the Roaches bird survey I co-ordinate for Staffordshire Wildlife Trust.  I arrived before dawn to see the first light of the day creep across the iconic landscape.

After a couple of hours I'd completed the survey and finally year ticked willow warbler (yes its taken me this long).  Also new for the year was stonechat and red grouse.  The latter of these seemed to be absolutely everywhere within my 1km square.

Before heading back to the office I called in at a local breeding lapwing site.  Along with the county bird recorder at West Midland Bird Club, I'm co-ordinating a breeding lapwing survey across Staffordshire so all the records will help gain a clear picture of where the species occurs.  At least 6 pairs were present along with 3 pairs of curlew and my first wheatear of the year.  If you've seen a breeding lapwing in the county, make sure you report it - www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/lapwing2014

It was then back to the office at the Wolseley Centre for the official opening of the new bird hide, built entirely by the Trust's volunteers.  Along with a pair of reed bunting on the feeder, there are chiffchaff and blackcap all around.

Find out more about the Roaches here - www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/reserves/the-roaches