Thursday 29th Dec 2011 - Out and about in Shropshire

Today I met up with Mark P (aka BirderWolf, WoodDingle etc) to do a bit of birding a few miles up the road in Southeast Shropshire.

First port of call was Chelmarsh Reservoir near Bridgnorth.  Unfortunately the water level at the scrape was so high that the scrape was now a pool with very little on it. There were however good numbers of Reed Bunting present.

After spending a rather un-eventful period of time in the hide at the scrape we walked onto the causeway to view the main reservoir.  Within a short period of time we picked up the long staying Red-throated Diver.  This is the same bird that was on the River Severn at Bewdley (approx 15 miles down river) back in November.  Also of note on the water were 23 Goosander (9 drakes).


On the way back we decided to pop to Sturt Common in the Shropshire side of the Wyre Forest to look for Crossbills.  We pulled up on the lane and scanned the tops of the numerous Larches.  Eventually we connected with a flock of 8 Common Crossbills (3 ♂) feeding frantically away on the seeds of the Larch cones.  I managed to grab about 15 seconds of video of one of the males before the flock flew deeper into the forest.

All in all a good away day's birding...but my patch is beckoning again!

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4 comments:

  1. Bob Bushell29 December 2011 at 13:14

    Really brilliant video, thanks Jason.

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  2. Warren Baker30 December 2011 at 09:32

    Like the Crossbills Jase :-). Lats day of the year on your patch then ? Might just get something nice!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jason K30 December 2011 at 10:21

    Cheers Bob

    Thanks Warren...who knows but then if its anything like today it was wet and almost birdless on the patch

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rob2 January 2012 at 13:15

    Excellent footage of the Crossbill feeding, Jason.

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