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:
- Black-headed Gull
- Blackbird
- Blackcap
- Blue Tit
- Bullfinch
- Buzzard
- Canada Goose
- Carrion Crow
- Chaffinch
- Chiffchaff
- Coal Tit
- Collared Dove
- Common Tern
- Coot
- Cormorant
- Dunnock
- Feral Pigeon
- Goldcrest
- Goldfinch
- Great Crested Grebe
- Great Spotted Woodpecker
- Great Tit
- Green Sandpiper
- Green Woodpecker
- Greenfinch
- Grey Heron
- Grey Wagtail
- Greylag Goose
- Herring Gull
- Hobby
- House Martin
- House Sparrow
- Jackdaw
- Jay
- Kestrel
- Lesser Black-backed Gull
- Linnet
- Long-tailed Tit
- Magpie
- Mallard
- Marsh Tit
- Meadow Pipit
- Moorhen
- Mute Swan
- Nuthatch
- Peregrine
- Pheasant
- Pied Wagtail
- Raven
- Redstart
- Reed Bunting
- Robin
- Rook
- Sand Martin
- Siskin
- Song Thrush
- Sparrowhawk
- Spotted Flycatcher
- Starling
- Stock Dove
- Swallow
- Swift
- Tawny Owl
- Teal
- Treecreeper
- Tufted Duck
- Whitethroat
- Willow Warbler
- Woodpigeon
- Wren
- 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:
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