A trip "Up North" today to twitch a pretty rare bird! Up soon after 4:00am and on the road within the hour, myself and two friends arrived at Middleton Lakes RPSB reserve in Staffordshire at around 7:40am. Luckily we bumped in to a local chap who pointed us in the right direction and by 8:00am we had seen our target bird, albeit in flight only...a summer-plumaged Pacific Golden Plover!
After about an hour of waiting for the bird to emerge from vegetation it did another fly-around and then settled for the remainder of our stay, affording brilliant views and enabling me to pick out all the characteristic plumage features. A brilliant bird and well worth the trip.
Whilst on site I also saw a couple of Snipe and two Common Sandpipers. At least two juvenile Little Ringed Plover were also present and there were good numbers of Common Terns, including several recently fledged birds. A Grasshopper Warbler was briefly heard a few times. After a couple of hours on site we headed back home and got caught in holiday traffic on the M5, so a bit of cross-country driving got us back home by early afternoon after a very successful twitch.
After a few flying visits over the past week or so, which yielded very little other than a few Common Sandpipers passing through (a maximum count of eight on 29 July) and the odd female-type Mandarin.
Today I had some time to invest at the reservoir and started off at the Northern Causeway where the sallows in the corner of West Pool held a Sedge Warbler, I presume this was a passage bird as I've not seen or heard any Sedge Warblers at Sutton Bingham for the duration of the summer. At least one Lesser Whitethroat was also skulking in this area. A single Little Egret was near the Sailing Club.
A quick look around the church failed to produce anything, though a pair of Swallows have successfully raised young.
I then spent about ninety minutes walking around the southern end of the reservoir. Warblers were pretty plentiful, with a good number of Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs, including several young birds. I also located a single Reed Warbler, again I have no idea whether this species successfully bred at Sutton Bingham this year, I somehow doubt it due to the lack of singing birds since mid-May. I was also pleased to see a couple of juvenile Willow Warblers, I had only heard one singing Willow Warbler on patch all year. A couple of Kingfishers whizzed over the path right in front of me at Cotton Bridge and a pair of Raven drifted overhead.
It was a brilliant morning for butterflies, with thirteen species being seen. The highlight of which were two, possibly three, Clouded Yellows. I also saw Ringlet, Gatekeeper, Small Skipper, Common Blue, Comma and Common Blue amongst others. There were also several different dragonflies and damselflies about, I failed on identification for nearly all but I'm pretty sure one of the larger dragonflies was a Migrant Hawker...must try harder with odonata, or get an ID guide!
Not much chance recently to get out and about due to various reasons, none of which I will bore you with. The few flying visits I have made to Sutton Bingham over the past couple of weeks have failed to produce much other than Common Sandpipers! A quick visit in the morning produced three juvenile type Mandarin on West Pool and an adult Peregrine on a pylon at the southern end.
However, this afternoon whilst scanning through the four hundred plus large gulls gathered I came across a Great Black-backed Gull, this bird was moulting to second winter plumage and was a beast of a gull...a really nice bird and by no means an annual visitor to the reservoir. The following photos show the size of this bird compared to a Mallard and a Black-headed Gull....what a monster!
The only other bird of note today was a Little Egret.
Sutton Bingham year list for 2014 now at 95 species.
After a clear night I figured I had very little chance of seeing yesterdays waders, and indeed there was nothing other than a couple of Common Sandpipers this morning perched on one of the pontoons off the Sailing Club. However, what I did find was a real surprise...two Common Scoters off the northern causeway!
These are the first Common Scoter I've seen at Sutton Bingham for a number of years and were a most unexpected sight this morning! With little time left to get to work before 8.00am I had to zoom off, but a great find and a brilliant addition to the SBR year list.
A fairly brief visit late morning failed to produce much, though eight Common Sandpipers were on the southern causeway, so obviously some wader migration starting to take place. the only other bird of note I saw was a Kingfisher, again from the southern causeway.
Frustratingly, in the early evening I had a text to say a Redshank and a couple of Green Sandpipers had dropped in (there had been a very heavy thunderstorm mid afternoon), but as I was just finishing my second glass of wine I had no chance of driving over to see them!
A morning at the reservoir produced two Common Sandpipers on the northern causeway, the first returning birds and a sign of Autumn Migration...in late June! A Kingfisher flew across the reservoir and was lost to view near the Sailing Club and a Little Egret was perched up on the water's edge.
I spent the most of the rest of my time on site concentrating on the southern end of the reservoir where on the water a couple of drake Tufted Ducks. Nine Stock Doves were feeding on one of the newly mown fields and around Cotton Bridge a Marsh Tit was seen alongside a fairly large family party of Blackcaps. At least one Treecreeper was heard and a Kingfisher put on a bit of a show.
I then returned to the car and drove round to the Water Treatment Works where a Grey Wagtail and a Little Egret were feeding in the outflow stream, my third Kingfisher of the day zoomed along the stream and rounded off a nice trip out on patch on the bird front. It was also a pretty good morning for insects with Banded Demoiselle and Broad-bodied Chaser seen at the outflow stream, whilst elsewhere on site both Azure Damselfly and Blue-tailed Damselfly. Butterflies were also present in good numbers with my first Ringlet of the year and a few Small Skippers alongside good numbers of Meadow Browns, Marbled Whites and Small Tortoiseshells.
My first proper visit to Sutton Bingham for about a month and a few things of interest, surprisingly given the fact it's mid-June. The southern end of the reservoir played host to a female Mandarin with one juvenile bird, so looks like they bred successfully at the reservoir this year. A drake Tufted Duck was also present and Great Crested Grebes seem to have had a good season with at least twenty young birds present. A Kingfisher also whizzed by as I was scanning the area from the southern causeway.
From the northern causeway it was pretty quiet, though a Hobby was soaring overhead before gathering pace and flying south. Also flying through a single Little Egret, again going south.
Lots of butterflies on the wing today, with my Marbled Whites of year alongside lots of Meadow Browns and a few Small Tortoiseshells. I also saw a single Small Skipper.
