Wood Warbler I’m having a really enjoyable spring just concentrating on local birding. I’m not missing twitching at all but that’s not to say I wouldn’t jump in the car at a moment’s notice for a most wanted mega! With a UK bird list now well into the four hundreds opportunities for new additions are becoming few and far between. There have been two quite rare birds that I would have been previously tempted by, a Broad-billed Sandpiper and an Alpine Accentor, but the motivation to twitch birds I’ve seen well before just does not appeal at the mo. Spring is my favourite season and I’m quite sure there is some, possibly relativistic, effect on how long it lasts as Winter always seems to be at least twice as long as spring. I can’t believe we are into May already. I set myself the aim of really getting to grips with the wonderful Wyre Forest this spring. I tend to stick with the familiar and comfortable and walk the same paths whe...
Hoopoe, Lapal Well local is a relative concept you know, after all the nearest stars are in our local universe! I’ve been out and about quite a lot in the past few weeks and the absence of any new twitchable megas has meant mainly local building. I’ve been back to the Wyre Forest and Grimley twice, been to Upton Warren once, seen a Hoopoe in Lapal and visited Middleton Lakes RSPB. I’ve also been out on my local patch recording the arrival of common migrants. The highlight on my local Pirton patch was my first every Lesser Whitethroat, the scarcer cousin of our Common Whitethroat. I used to see them every year at Otmoor RSPB when I lived in Oxfordshire but have struggled to connect with them locally. I found it in a patch of scrub and identified it on song. I then spent an hour or so trying to see it properly with some success as per the picture below. Like most warblers, it is insectivorous and is hence strongly migratory spending the winter months...