Earlswood all-dayer - Autumn 2017

A total of 63 bird species were recorded during yesterday's Autumn all-dayer at Earlswood, which was a great result considering the pleasant weather and large amount of disturbance at the lakes (cf. 57 spp. in 2016, 56 spp. in 2015). Many thanks to John Bishop, Jon Chidwick, Janet James, Mike Jeeves, John Oates, Tony Philp, John Sirrett and Jim Winsper who also took part, and extra thanks to Mr. Sirrett who collated sightings during the first half of the morning. Species list as follows, highlights in bold:

1. Greylag Goose
2. Canada Goose
3. Mallard
4. Shoveler (1)
5. Tufted Duck
6. Pheasant
7. Little Grebe (at private site)
8. Great Crested Grebe
9. Cormorant
10. Grey Heron
11. Sparrowhawk
12. Buzzard
13. Kestrel
14. Moorhen
15. Coot
16. Lapwing (1)
17. Common Sandpiper (2)
18. Black-headed Gull
19. Lesser Black-backed Gull
20. Herring Gull
21. Stock Dove
22. Wood Pigeon
23. Collared Dove
24. Swift (5 - quite late)
25. Kingfisher
26. Green Woodpecker
27. Great Spotted Woodpecker
28. Swallow
29. House Martin
30. Grey Wagtail
31. Pied Wagtail
32. Wren
33. Dunnock
34. Robin
35. Whinchat (2)
36. Wheatear (3)
37. Blackbird
38. Song Thrush
39. Mistle Thrush
40. Blackcap
41. Common Whitethroat
42. Chiffchaff
43. Willow Warbler
44. Goldcrest
45. Spotted Flycatcher (1)
46. Long-tailed Tit
47. Blue Tit
48. Great Tit
49. Coal Tit
50. Marsh Tit
51. Nuthatch
52. Jay
53. Magpie
54. Jackdaw
55. Carrion Crow
56. Raven
57. Starling
58. House Sparrow
59. Chaffinch
60. Greenfinch
61. Goldfinch
62. Linnet
63. Bullfinch

Somehow no-one managed to find Treecreeper though!!! Bat box checks with Earlswood Wildlife Partnership were a nice distraction for 4 hours, and the session was probably the best I've attended in the six years the project has been running, as we had five species including two scarcer ones: a Leisler's Bat (for the second consecutive year) and a Whiskered/Alcathoe/Brandt's Bat (droppings collected for DNA analysis to ID later). Later on, I also had a very close encounter with a young Badger at a new sett - all in all, a great day :-)

We had no hopes of beating most of the other patches that also participated, given that they were mainly premier birding sites, but we came second-from-last. West Midlands all-dayer results were as follows:

1. Middleton Lakes 95
2. Belvide Reservoir 94
3. Grimley 91
4. Draycote Water 85
5. Ladywalk 84
6. Sandwell Valley 82
7. Upton Warren 81
8. Venus Pool 80
9. Earlswood Lakes 63
10. Whitemoor Haye 61