On arrival we soon picked up the 2 chats working the fence line. I never tire of seeing these smart looking passage migrants and spent some time enjoying them as they flicked down to ground and back whilst the fed.
Stonechat was a common wintering bird in North Worcestershire up until the hard winter of 2009/2010 when numbers plummeted. The 2010/2011 hard winter knocked back numbers further still leading to passage numbers to fall considerably in the region. They are now a scarce passage bird in the north of the county.
At Shenstone there were 2 pairs of Stonechat over-wintering in 2007/2008 and 1 pair over-wintered in 2008/2009. Passage birds haven't been seen at Shenstone since Spring 2010. This is a similar picture at a number of tradition Stonechat sites within the county, so you get the idea of how scarce they have become!
Anyway back to Woodrow. There was little else of note there with the exception of an escaped Canary that was picking about on the plough next to where we were stood. Ok, i know it's an escape but it was a handsome looking all yellow bird with a white tail.
Stonechats - Woodrow, 5th October 2012
Not had a Stonechat here this year Jase, I do generally get one sighting a year :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's quite worrying really warren...but I'm sure they will bounce back!
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