Earlswood all-dayer - Autumn 2020

This year's Earlswood autumn all-day birdwatch took place on Saturday 5th September, and it was a day to remember with a total of 71 bird species found by the team - our highest ever autumn total on patch! Previous autumn species totals have been 63 in 2019, 69 in 2018, 63 in 2017, 57 in 2016 and 56 in 2015. It was also our second highest all-dayer total ever, the spring 2016 all-dayer total of 77 species remaining Team Earlswood's best.

Everyone enjoyed it and I thoroughly did, I think particularly as we weren't able to do an all-dayer in the spring this year due to the COVID-19 restrictions. I put in about 9.5 hours of effort and some of the other team members put in several hours each too, this along with the slightly higher than usual number of participants contributed to our excellent result. Water levels at the lakes were falling but weren't particularly low on the day, with only small amounts of shoreline, and despite the pleasant weather there was still small amounts of bird movement evident.

Personal highlights for me included finding a female Redstart along Springbrook Lane, the first Meadow Pipits (5) of the autumn over Manor Farm and a Green Sandpiper flying over the lakes. I also saw a Teal on Engine Pool and a late Common Whitethroat in Spring Brook Scrubland. A Spotted Flycatcher at Springbrook Lane found by John Oates, a Peregrine over Windmill Pool seen by Joe Owen, and a couple of sightings of Yellow Wagtail (firstly by Ashley Grove) were amongst the other birds of note seen over the course of the day. Ashley also had a possible Arctic/Yellow-browed Warbler along Gypsy Lane but didn't get enough on it and it wasn't seen again unfortunately! Our most surprising omissions were Mistle Thrush and Kingfisher. Nevertheless, a great effort by the team!

Many thanks to Jon Chidwick, Ashley Grove, Yvonne Heward, Harry Hopkins, Janet James, Mike Jeeves, Peter Morgan, John Oates, Joe Owen, Tony and Barbara Philp, and John Sirrett for their participation in the field, and extra thanks to John Sirrett for collating the species recorded during the day. The full list was as follows:

1. Black-headed Gull
2. Blackbird
3. Blackcap
4. Blue Tit
5. Bullfinch
6. Buzzard
7. Canada Goose
8. Carrion Crow
9. Chaffinch
10. Chiffchaff
11. Coal Tit
12. Collared Dove
13. Common Tern
14. Coot
15. Cormorant
16. Dunnock
17. Feral Pigeon
18. Goldcrest
19. Goldfinch
20. Great Crested Grebe
21. Great Spotted Woodpecker
22. Great Tit
23. Green Sandpiper
24. Green Woodpecker
25. Greenfinch
26. Grey Heron
27. Grey Wagtail
28. Greylag Goose
29. Herring Gull
30. Hobby
31. House Martin
32. House Sparrow
33. Jackdaw
34. Jay
35. Kestrel
36. Lesser Black-backed Gull
37. Linnet
38. Long-tailed Tit
39. Magpie
40. Mallard
41. Marsh Tit
42. Meadow Pipit
43. Moorhen
44. Mute Swan
45. Nuthatch
46. Peregrine
47. Pheasant
48. Pied Wagtail
49. Raven
50. Redstart
51. Reed Bunting
52. Robin
53. Rook
54. Sand Martin
55. Siskin
56. Song Thrush
57. Sparrowhawk
58. Spotted Flycatcher
59. Starling
60. Stock Dove
61. Swallow
62. Swift
63. Tawny Owl
64. Teal
65. Treecreeper
66. Tufted Duck
67. Whitethroat
68. Willow Warbler
69. Woodpigeon
70. Wren
71. Yellow Wagtail

Within the West Midlands as a whole, a record-breaking 32 sites participated in the all-dayer on the same day, producing another record of 140 bird species observed. Earlswood fared quite well, finishing on a higher or equal total compared with other patches that normally score higher than us, and probably coming as close to Upton Warren's total as we ever will! :D

Well done to all who took part, and thanks to Phil Andrews who has once again collated the following results:

104 - Belvide

  96 - Branston GPs

  94 - Ladywalk

  90 - Grimley

  90 - Middleton Lakes

  89 - Venus Pool

  85 - Chelmarsh

  85 - Sandwell Valley

  82 - Bittell

  82 - Chasewater

  79 - Salford Priors GPs

  76 - Alvecote Pools

  73 - Upton Warren

  71 - Dairy Farm

  71 - Earlswood

  71 - Marsh Lane

  70 - Coney Meadows

  70 - Whitemoor Haye

  69 - Doxey Marshes

  68 - Sutton Park

  63 - Draycote

  63 - Morton Bagot

  63 - Stoke patches

  60 - South Coventry

  58 - Highgate Common etc

  54 - Avon Meadows

  54 - Blithfield

  53 - Edgbaston Reservoir

  51 - Sheepwash

  49 - Plantsbrook etc

  46 - Little Aston SWT

  46 - Halesowen (2)

  42 - Halesowen (1)

Further details for each patch have been posted by Phil here.

Fingers very much crossed that the spring all-dayer next year will be able to go ahead...

Matt

Advice on Earlswood birding during the COVID-19 lock-down

Posted 24/03/2020
Updated 26/03/2020
Updated 18/04/2020

New guidance issued by the National Police Chiefs' Council has been posted on the facebook page of Alcester Police, regarding travel for exercise. They say:

"The NPCC guidance below sets out a range of 'likely' and 'unlikely' reasonable excuses. It is worth reading the statement on the first image to get a better understanding of how the excuses are to be interpreted."

All three pages of guidance as follows, but those relevant to exercise/birding are on the first two:

Much of the below is still applicable though, particularly in terms of risk of coming into contact with infected people at the lakes and woods during nice weather, and the need to suppress rare/scarce bird news to discourage twitches/gatherings.

Birders should not be driving to Earlswood to exercise during the lock-down since this involves non-essential travel. The following is addressed to birders who live within walking distance of the areas of Earlswood they can legally exercise at.

Hi folks,

In light of the nationwide coronavirus (COVID-19) lock-down announced yesterday evening, please follow government guidance first and foremost when going about local birding. The government are still permitting people to leave their home for "one form of exercise a day" (including walking) alone or with members of their household, exercise starting and finishing from their home.

A number of Earlswood birders live within the patch recording area and will still be birding from their gardens or whilst out exercising during this time. Recognising this, and following some discussion between local birders regarding patch bird news dissemination over the course of this pandemic, we would like to recommend the following:

• If you wish to post updates and photos about Earlswood birds publicly on social media, please do so only for regular bird species and only after nightfall. Regular birds are residents and annually-occurring visiting species which are unlikely to cause a twitch or other gathering of birders. These reports and photos provide interest and pleasure to those of us who are no longer able to visit the patch, and help us to keep in touch and feel less isolated. Posting after nightfall will help to reduce the likelihood of birders acting upon instant news.
• Please do not share news or photos for rare/scarce bird species at Earlswood publicly on social media, until the lock-down is officially over. Rare/scarce birds are any species which do not occur every year, or which are annual but infrequent or particularly popular with observers, and can hang around, i.e. twitchable, such as Black Tern.
• Exceptions to this might be posting news/photos of untwitchable rare/scarce birds, such as those flying over or in nocmig recordings on patch, on social media. For example, a repeat of the 2 White Storks that flew over last year.

The key point here is to use some common sense and consider the consequences of putting news out, to prevent non-essential travel and potential gatherings. If in doubt, please drop me an email or DM.

Since the start of the lock-down, there have been reports of angling, picnicking and large numbers of walkers around the lakes still during the nice weather. Therefore, exercising at the lakes (and probably the woods) has a higher risk for coming into contact with infected people than other accessible areas. 

Anyone exercising at the lakes or woods should also consider the following:

• In places around the lakes and woods, it will not be possible for people to pass each other at a safe 2-metre distance apart, due to some paths being narrow and/or very muddy.
• The wooden fishing platforms around Engine Pool are potentially useful for avoiding close contact with other people, but some of them are rotting in places and potentially unsafe to walk on.

These recommendations are open to further discussion and amendment. The situation in terms of birders using Earlswood during the lock-down will be monitored, in case there is a need for full news blackout.

Wishing everyone to stay safe and well.

Matt