Sunday 9th October 2011 - Shenstone

Today I headed over to the patch for a visit with Tony.  Both Stanklyn Lane and Heath Lane were near bird less, so we headed of to Witch Lane.

The large freshly ploughed field along the lane was again the patch hot spot.  There were c.100 gulls present, a mix of Black-headed Gulls, Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed Gulls.  On setting up my scope and panning through them I picked up what I had been hoping for, an adult Yellow-legged Gull.  As mentioned before, my patch is only 2-3 miles away from the small landfill site at Hartlebury (which usually holds 400-600 gulls).  When fields are being freshly ploughed on my patch a number of them will follow the plough...a bit like there sea faring cousins would follow a trawler.  For a couple of days afterwards a varying number of Gulls will visit these fields allowing for the chance of finding something a bit more unusual.

Also present in this field were 100+ Linnets, 12 Greenfinch and 8 Stock Doves.  Whilst there a flock of alba Wagtails dropped in.  These numbered 3 White Wagtails and 6 Pied Wagtails.  Two separate flocks containing 56 & 41 Lapwing flew over heading West.  A number of Meadow Pipits and Skylarks were also heard calling as they flew over.  A Kestrel, a juv Sparrowhawk and a Common Buzzard were also noted in the Witch Lane area.

From Witch Lane we headed over to Butts Lane to undertake my usual walk.  It was nowhere near as productive as some days, only 1 Skylark, 2 Meadow Pipits and 3 Linnets were recorded.  A Common Buzzard flew over and a ♀ Sparrowhawk was seen at Eastfields Farm.

Another highlight for me was finding the larvae of a Ruby Tiger Moth near the Butts Lane drainage pond.  The hairy caterpillars of some of this family of moths are also known as 'woolly bears' and if you look at my photo you can see why.  The only other insect of note today was a single Small White butterfly that was on the wing.

Yellow-legged Gull (poor record shot)



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Ruby Tiger Moth Larvae




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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous10 October 2011 at 13:11

    Well done with the Yellow Leg, Jason. We don`t get many large Gulls down now, since the local landfills finished. Shame, really.

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  2. Jason K10 October 2011 at 13:16

    Cheers Dean...I'm just hoping to pick up a patch 1st Iceland Gull with them one day...a patch birder's optimism eh!

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  3. Warren Baker12 October 2011 at 09:36

    A bit of diligent scope work paid off there Jase -good one mate :-)

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  4. Jason K12 October 2011 at 13:46

    Thanks Warren...its always worth scoping through those gulls ;-)

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  5. Bob Bushell12 October 2011 at 14:50

    Lovely, the Yellow-legged Gulls and the Moth larvae. Thanks Jason.

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