Water Rail at Marsh Lane

The view from Oak Hide

Water Rail

 

Marsh Lane Buzzard

Grey Wagtail at Marsh lane



Been a while

No piccys but 2 new ticks

Started out at Marsh Lane as usual, and staright away kicked off with a Kingfisher, not a new tick admittedly but the best views ive had thus far. Did fire off some shots but he was just to far away for them to be anygood :-(

1. Kingfisher
2. Coot
3. Moorhen
4. Green Sandpiper
5. Lesser Black-backed Gull
6. Black Headed Gull
7. Greylag
8. Pochard
9. Mallard
10. Teal
11. Grey Heron
12. Cormorant
13. Mute Swan
14. Little Grebe
15. Lapwing
16. Stock Dove
17. Tufted Duck
18. Wood Pigeon
19. Buzzard
20. Crow
21. Magpie
22. Pheasant
23. Black Swan
24. Canada Goose
25. Starling
26. Greenfinch
27. Chaffinch
28. Common Tern
29. Blue Tit

Right then, fairly uneventful and where are these new ticks?

Well, we decided to head off to the new RSPB Middleton Lakes reserve, 1st impressions were ok but your a long way away from where the birds are, with no real way of getting any closer. There are no hides and no elevated sections to get you above the foilage, so large sections of the wetlands are pretty much invisible, so a scope really is a big advantage leaving photography pretty much to overhead ariel shots only..

Nevertheless, we did get 2 new ticks

1. Blue Tit
2. Great Tit
3. Goldfinch
4. Greenshank - NEW
5. Coot
6. Mute Swan
7. Mallard
8. Canada Goose
9. Lapwing
10. Swallow
11. Great Crested Grebe
12. Wood Pigeon
13. Little Egret
14. Grey Heron
15. Tufted Duck
16. Lesser Black-backed Gull
17. Peregrin - NEW
18. Crow
19. Wood Sandpiper
20. Cormorant
21. House Martin 

Finally a new tick!!

It's been very quite on the bird front lately, but at last Marsh Lane produces a new one.

The Count:

1. Water Rail - NEW
2. Coot
3. Moorhen
4. Little Egret
5. Mallard
6. Mute Swan
7. Common Tern
8. Lesser Black-backed Gull
9. Greylag
10. Dunlin
11. Buzzard
12. Wood Pigeon
13. Great Tit
14. Redshank
15. Chaffinch
16. Greenfinch
17. Pheasant
18. Grey Heron
19. Lapwing
20. Black-headed Gull
21. Black Swan
22. Little Grebe
23. Starling
24. Oystercatcher
25. Cormorant

Water Rail

Apart from the Water Rail, a quick scout around revealed nothing new or photographable so we shot off to Whitacre Heath to see if anything was showing there. A 2 hour wait through rain and a thunderstorm revealed not alot with the count making a massive 3!!!

1. Green Sandpiper
2. Sparrowhawk
3. Wood Pigeon

Green Sandpiper

Marsh Lane & Whitacre Heath

Usual Sunday visit to Marsh Lane was pretty poor today, no new ticks and a count that was struggling to  reach even 30! So after an hour and a half we gave up and headed for Whitacre Heath for a chance of the Kingfishers.

The minute we arived at the Main pool hide we knew the Kingfisher was going to be a no show, as the main pool was no longer a pool! Its now just a dry mud field with some reeds sticking out of it!

Ok we thought, lets go and see if the stilt hide over looking the scrape is the same -

A tiny bit of water still remains, but its not gonna last for long!

We sat for a couple of hours wondering if the Kingfisher would put an appearance in, but he did'nt :-(
So we killed the boredom with some Common Whitethroat and Blue Tit shots..