Sunday 3 September 2017

Earlswood all-dayer - Autumn 2017

A total of 63 bird species were recorded during yesterday's Autumn all-dayer at Earlswood, which was a great result considering the pleasant weather and large amount of disturbance at the lakes (cf. 57 spp. in 2016, 56 spp. in 2015). Many thanks to John Bishop, Jon Chidwick, Janet James, Mike Jeeves, John Oates, Tony Philp, John Sirrett and Jim Winsper who also took part, and extra thanks to Mr. Sirrett who collated sightings during the first half of the morning. Species list as follows, highlights in bold:

  1. Greylag Goose
  2. Canada Goose
  3. Mallard
  4. Shoveler (1)
  5. Tufted Duck
  6. Pheasant
  7. Little Grebe (at private site)
  8. Great Crested Grebe
  9. Cormorant
  10. Grey Heron
  11. Sparrowhawk
  12. Buzzard
  13. Kestrel
  14. Moorhen
  15. Coot
  16. Lapwing (1)
  17. Common Sandpiper (2)
  18. Black-headed Gull
  19. Lesser Black-backed Gull
  20. Herring Gull
  21. Stock Dove
  22. Wood Pigeon
  23. Collared Dove
  24. Swift (5 - quite late)
  25. Kingfisher
  26. Green Woodpecker
  27. Great Spotted Woodpecker
  28. Swallow
  29. House Martin
  30. Grey Wagtail
  31. Pied Wagtail
  32. Wren
  33. Dunnock
  34. Robin
  35. Whinchat (2)
  36. Wheatear (3)
  37. Blackbird
  38. Song Thrush
  39. Mistle Thrush
  40. Blackcap
  41. Common Whitethroat
  42. Chiffchaff
  43. Willow Warbler
  44. Goldcrest
  45. Spotted Flycatcher (1)
  46. Long-tailed Tit
  47. Blue Tit
  48. Great Tit
  49. Coal Tit
  50. Marsh Tit
  51. Nuthatch
  52. Jay
  53. Magpie
  54. Jackdaw
  55. Carrion Crow
  56. Raven
  57. Starling
  58. House Sparrow
  59. Chaffinch
  60. Greenfinch
  61. Goldfinch
  62. Linnet
  63. Bullfinch


Somehow no-one managed to find Treecreeper though!!! Bat box checks with Earlswood Wildlife Partnership were a nice distraction for 4 hours, and the session was probably the best I've attended in the six years the project has been running, as we had five species including two scarcer ones: a Leisler's Bat (for the second consecutive year) and a Whiskered/Alcathoe/Brandt's Bat (droppings collected for DNA analysis to ID later). Later on, I also had a very close encounter with a young Badger at a new sett - all in all, a great day :-)

We had no hopes of beating most of the other patches that also participated, given that they were mainly premier birding sites, but we came second-from-last. West Midlands all-dayer results were as follows:

  1. Middleton Lakes 95
  2. Belvide Reservoir 94
  3. Grimley 91
  4. Draycote Water 85
  5. Ladywalk 84
  6. Sandwell Valley 82
  7. Upton Warren 81
  8. Venus Pool 80
  9. Earlswood Lakes 63
  10. Whitemoor Haye 61