On my way out to Shenstone this morning I decided to pop for a cup of tea at Tony's Cafe (they will let any old riffraff in there its great!). Whilst there both myself and TS received a message saying that a Marsh Harrier was at Upton Warren Flashes and had gone to ground in the reed bed. We decided to go for it and on arriving at the hide we were told it hadn't gone up yet. The waiting game was on. After about half hour the farmer whose land is adjacent to the reed bed went across the edge of his field in his Range Rover, this was enough to put the bird up and we were treated to cracking views of this stunning ♂ Marsh Harrier. Eventually it was mobbed by many corvids and flew off into the distance not to be seen again that day. In my opinion this was a bird well worth going for, as most sightings in Worcestershire of this fairly scarce (in this county) raptor are brief flyovers and this infact was a county tick for me. Also of note on the flashes were 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Green Sandpiper and c.60 Shoveller.
After spending a while at Upton we decided to go and check out Grimley. First call was the farm shop for a coffee to warm the cockles. Whilst consuming our beverages another message came through from Worcester Birding (I highly recommend subscribing to this relatively inexpensive service to all local birders). This time the message was to let us know that a Pectoral Sandpiper had dropped in at Upton Warren Flashes. Needless to say we returned to Upton to see this scarce American passage wader and I'm so glad we did. The bird was showing really well not too far away from the hide and what a superb looking bird this immature Pectoral Sandpiper was, especially when the sunlight caught it. My second county tick of the day. After a good while, and many photos later, TS and I left and headed back to Kidderminster.
After spending a while at Upton we decided to go and check out Grimley. First call was the farm shop for a coffee to warm the cockles. Whilst consuming our beverages another message came through from Worcester Birding (I highly recommend subscribing to this relatively inexpensive service to all local birders). This time the message was to let us know that a Pectoral Sandpiper had dropped in at Upton Warren Flashes. Needless to say we returned to Upton to see this scarce American passage wader and I'm so glad we did. The bird was showing really well not too far away from the hide and what a superb looking bird this immature Pectoral Sandpiper was, especially when the sunlight caught it. My second county tick of the day. After a good while, and many photos later, TS and I left and headed back to Kidderminster.
Pectoral Sandpiper - Upton Warren, 24th Sept 2010:
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From Tony's I then quickly shot round Shenstone. The number of Lapwings in the field alongside the A450 continues to increase with 76 Lapwings present today. A covey of 6 Red-legged Partridge were in the field opposite the Islamic School, Heath Lane and c.70 Linnets were in the harvested cereal field along Butts Lane. The large ploughed field along Witch Lane is drying out and only contained 3 Pied Wagtails today. The same field also contained 21 Herring Gulls and 29 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and 4 Stock Doves were also present. 2 Grey Herons were sat in another field along Witch Lane.
Worcester Birding/Birding Today news service:
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