Shenstone News - 25th to 30th July 2011

Here is a quick round up of the news from the patch whilst I have been away:

Monday 25th July
2 Little Owls (1 adult & 1 juv) still present on the North side of the patch.  There was a mass emergence of Gatekeeper butterflies along Heath Lane. Red Admiral and Peacock were present along Captains Pool dam (TS)

Tuesday 26th July
A White-letter Hairstreak was seen (just off patch) in a garden near Captains Pool and flew off in direction of pool (TS).  Good numbers of butterflies were present on the set-aside on the Stanklyn side of Captains Pool.  These included Essex Skipper, Small Skipper and Gatekeeper (TS)  This is a new location for Essex Skipper on the patch.

A family of 5 Common Whitethroat, 2 Swifts and a Little Owl were seen along Heath Lane (TS)

Wednesday 27th July
A flock of 10 Corn Buntings were seen feeding on the newly harvested field along Heath Lane (TS)

Saturday 30th July
An adult Common Tern was over Captains Pool at 10:30 am (TS)

Please Note

Hi Folks

Just a quick note to let you know that there will be no posts on this blog next week as I am away on holiday.  Normal service will however be resumed on my return.

If any local birders would like to email me their Shenstone sightings I will put them on the blog when I get back.

Cheers Jason

Shenstone Birder on Flickr

Hi folks

Just to let you know, the Shenstone Birder Flickr account is finally back up and running (it only took the Flickr help team 4 weeks to sort it out!).  I have added a selection of new photos and will keep it regularly updated from now on.

The Flickr gallery can be accessed by clicking on the 'Shenstone Birder Flickr' logo at the top right-hand side of the blog or clicking on the below link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shentsonebirder/

Cheers Jase

Wednesday 20th July 2011 - Shenstone

I decided to do a brief evening visit to the patch today, just to mix things up a little.  

I arrived around 8pm and headed to Stanklyn Lane paddocks first.  Here there was a summer flock of 20 Mistle Thrush.   I also recorded a juvenile Green Woodpecker in the one paddock and a Yellow Wagtail flew over calling.

From Stanklyn Lane I popped to Barrs Lane next where I was greeted by the sight of 3 Common Buzzards (2 juvenile and 1 adult) all perched in the same tree. The young Buzzards were calling regularly.

My final patch stop was to check on one of the Little Owl territories.  On arriving I was overjoyed to see a rather downy looking juvenile Little Owl sat in a tree with an adult sat on another branch a few feet higher.  This is great news as it it the 2nd successive year that they have bred here. 

Little Owl (juvenile)

Monday 18th July 2011 - Bircher Common and Yatton Hill Common (Herefordshire)

Today TS and I went off patch and headed over to the North Herefordshire hills in search of Dark Green Fritillaries.  Interestingly enough where I live in North Worcestershire you can get to 5 different counties within a 50 minute drive...anyway I digress.

We arrived at Bircher Common and walked the paths through the bracken (as mentioned in the 30 Butterfly Walks in the West Midlands book) with very little success.  The weather was getting cooler and windier and the only butterflies we saw were Ringlet, Small White and Large White.  It was nice to see lots of  Harebell in flower along these grassy rides. Whilst there we bumped into a guy with a pair of bins and asked him about the Dark Green Fritillaries.  He suggested a better sight was at Yatton Hill Common a few miles down the road.

We decided to continue our walk at Bircher for a while and I did see a fleeting Dark Green Fritillary zip over the bracken but it was a very unsatisfying view.  We headed up to the grazed common above the bracken and had a consolation bird in the form of a ♀ Common Redstart that was showing well. Linnets and Yellowhammers were also seen. 

We returned to the car and headed over to Yatton Hill Common.  Here you can park in Yatton village and walk up, it is a fairly steep ascent for the unfit (myself included!).  Looking up at the bracken covered common through binoculars I could see a Fallow Deer neer the summit.  On taking the footpath from the village to the hill there are cereal fields either side.  Here we had the highlight of the day when we heard 2 singing Quails.  We stopped and listened for a while and then continued our trek up the hill. 

Towards the summit I had a somewhat worn Dark Green Fritillary on the path.  I called Tony over and it flew just has he got there (so no photos I'm afraid).  As the fritillary flew off over the bracken a 2nd one flew up and zipped across.  This was the end of our fritillary sightings for the day.  We continued to the summit where the views were stunning looking right across to the Black mountains in Wales.  After a short rest it was back down the hill, just getting to the village as the heavens opened up.

View from Yatton Hill Common

Click on photo to enlarge

Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia)