Friday 11th October 2013 - Grimley

Today, Tony and I popped to the Camp Lane Pits at Grimley to see the 2 Whooper Swans that had been discovered there (by Mike Bourne) earlier that morning.  Whooper Swans are scarce passage visitors in Worcestershire and can be less than annual.

On arrival we were greeted by a small group of local birders who were huddled under the trees at the North end of the pits trying to avoid the rain.  I set up my scope and it was long before we had reasonable views of the 2 Whooper Swans that were in the middle of the main pool.

After a while we were nattering away (as birders do) when a Merlin flew low over the field on the NW side and flushed all the Meadow Pipits that were feeding there...result!  this bird was a young  male Merlin, possibly 2nd calendar year as it was showing patches of blue/grey in it's otherwise brown upper parts.

6 Little Egrets were also of note at Camp Lane Pits and good numbers of Wigeon were also present

Whooper Swan

5 comments:

  1. Beautiful image of the Whooper Swan, great Jason.

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  2. Nice double there, Jase.

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  3. Thanks Bob!

    Cheers Dean...it was a good trip out

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  4. Still living in hope of a Merlin here Jase, no chance of a Whooper though :-)

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  5. Great to see some Whoopers Jason, a real taste of the coming Winter!

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