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Wednesday 4 January 2012

Good Patch Start 2/1/2012

Final day off before the return to the daily grind. A strange fiery ball was rising in a an unfamiliar blue sky. So today a chance to boost the year list, and see what my local patch had to offer. The Redwings that had been prominent of late were nowhere to be seen, but one of the local populations of House Sparrow greeted me as I headed towards Forge Pool, where I was able to clock a Teal pootling about through the branches that hide much of it.
Then, a immediate result, 5 Lesser Redpoll (see pic)  feeding along the side of the Green, a patch tick !!
Anyone who regularly covers an unremarkable local patch will appreciate how pleasing it is to add a new species to a small patch list. I was dead chuffed to add Little Grebe a week earlier ,my fist addition to the patch since August, these things are hard to get. I Spent a while trying to get some sort of decent record of this historic event.
Ladies Pool was Goosanderless,but as well as the usual BHG's, Coots, Mallards and Moorhen, the Little Grebe was present. I bumped into a fellow local Birder, Glen, who I had probably seen around Upton but never spoken too. It's always good to share a bit of local info, knowledge is power afterall.
Onwards and the trees along the pool were hosting numerous Chaffinch, Goldfinch and 3 very smart Siskins. A Song Thrush was singing and a pair of Blue Tits were flirting with each other, obviously getting a bit ahead of themselves. My first raptor of the year was a very healthy looking Buzzard which drifted over the stubble field. Finally a Redwing showed on the way home, and with a handful of species seen not overlapping the previous days sightings my year list nudged up to 45, with those patch Redpolls almost putting me in a good mood to go back to work. Almost.
Lesser Redpoll on Patch by WoodwolfUW

13 comments:

  1. I only recorded Lesser Redpoll twice at Shenstone last year...so it is a good patch year tick to pick up early on.

    P.s. Liking the look and feel of your blog. I look forward to you weekly udates!

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  2. From a blogmeister like yourself, that means a lot, cheers Jase

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  3. Found your site through Jason (shenstone) I'll keep up with your sightings, and put a link to your site on my blog, good luck with both birds and blog :-)

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  4. Hey Mark, Nice blog, and so far, Good photo's and posts!
    The Lesserpoll in this one is great!
    Keep it up!
    MB

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  5. Warren,Craig, HNY ! Really appreciate the encouragement. I will aspire to get close your consistently high standards !

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  6. Look forward to your posts - i am 'on the border' myself so more local info the better !

    Laurie -

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  7. Thanks Laurie,

    Agree, It's good to network with like minded folks

    Mark

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  8. Hello Birderwolf, nice blog and looking forward to more.

    We live in Blakedown by the station and although our garden list is not too bad, it never ceases to amaze us how devoid of birds the Ladies Pool and surrounds are compared to just down the road at Shenstone.

    Will keep an eye out for you

    Regards

    Ron

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  9. Hi Ron
    thanks for the kind words, will keep an eye out too !
    The Ladies Pool area gets a lot of 'traffic' and also has fisherman.It's a relatively small area,best visited when quiet,not always possible with work :( I will do a patch list for the blog soon. My local patch includes other areas of Blakedown and Churchill, as will be revealed in due course ! Shenstone certainly benefits from some good farming practice, and is well watched by Jase, but I'm sure he would say he has many quiet days too !

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  10. Best wishes for the new blog - an impressive list of sightings already!

    The 'strange fiery ball' is a welcome sight in itself!

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  11. Cheers Rob
    I'm counting the days til Spring !

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  12. Another Blog to follow - Brilliant, Keep up the good work!

    Hope to add the Redpoll to my list at the weekend!

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  13. Thanks, liking your blog too, and that new piece of kit,It's what I would have If I went down the DSLR route.

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