A lot can happen in a week...

... but most of this week has been office based so not too much to report on.

On Monday I headed north for the evening to take a look around for some owls at one of my favourite sites for them.  Previously I've had tawny, long-eared, little and barn in one evening with short-eared report nearby.  A pair of tawny owls were in a nest box in a patch of woodland, whilst nearby the little owls were out hunting.  Sadly no barn owls this evening.  More annoying was a local lapwing site which has been mown destroying at least two nests.  The males were displaying again so they may have a second go at it.

Wednesday / Thursday saw more newt survey work, this time ten great crested newts were seen on the torchlight survey, with six caught the following morning in bottle traps.  Bat survey season has also started at the consultancy, but thankfully I'm not on the first few although its looking like a very busy summer ahead.

The weekend has so far been mainly work, but much better than the office.  Saturday started early with a dawn chorus walk at Highgate Common.  Before we'd even left the car park a cuckoo was calling nearby.  The brilliant heathland nature reserve is important for its invertebrates including oil beetle and bloody-nosed beetle but it also has some great birds.  Whitethroat were evident and plenty of willow warbler around, but stars of the show were tree pipit.  One individual even performed its parachuting display just a few feet in front of us before giving everyone in the group great views on the ground.

Afterwards I called in at Doxey Marshes for a walk in the glorious sunshine.  I was greeted by a lesser whitethroat singing near the eastern entrance gate at the memorial pyramid whilst the walk to the bird hide held probably the highest count of sedge warbler I've managed for this part of the reserve; 18 singing males!  Should be a great show for the dawn chorus walk next weekend, for which a few places are still available so check out the Trust website for details - http://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/dawnchorus

Speaking of dawn chorus walks, today was my second this time at the Trust's HQ near Rugeley.  The Wolseley Centre isn't famed for its birds but offers the chance to see species up close, and this time followed by a bacon sandwich!  Species seen included blackcap, garden warbler, reed warbler, chiffchaff and song thrush.  The kingfisher even put in an appearance on the river too.

Once that was over my day moved to Tamworth to deliver another bird ID training session for Dosthill LNR volunteers.  A nice collection of species at this surprising park included sedge warbler, great views of whitethroat and a beautiful pair of mistle thrush to end the day.  A family of recently fledged blackbirds were also great to see.

All in all a great weekend, and there is a bank holiday tomorrow so even more birding time ahead!