Twists of Fate

The Middleton Avocets caused a few raised eyebrows when two of the chicks appeared on the Jubilee Wetland area, around 500 meters from where they hatched. As they can’t fly yet, they obviously walked and it must of been a bit of a trek for them. One remained on the North pit, causing the parent birds a few issues, but eventually, a day later, all three ended up on the Jubilee Wetland area. It does seem that one of the initial four chicks has not made it to this stage and it wasn’t the smallest last to hatch chick that has gone missing either but one of the larger ones.

The remaining chicks are growing fast and already starting to look like the adults.

Ringed and Little Ringed Plover seem to be thriving at Middleton and can be seen rapidly scurrying about on most of the scrapes.

Friday evening I braved the threat of heavy rain and headed for Cannock Chase to look for some Long Eared Owls I had been told about. The directions I had been given were excellent and after a short wait, an adult Long Eared Owl put in an appearance flying low over the Heather and disappearing from view. From the small woodland it had emerged from came the high pitched squeaking of its young and soon two Long Eared Owl chicks also flew from the woodland, but they landed on a low branch of a tree and started preening and calling to the parent birds. The light was fading fast and it was raining. I tried to get a few record shots with my digiscoping camera, but it was struggling in the gloom. In desperation for a decent record shot, I attempted to hand hold my iPhone to the eyepiece of my scope, this achieved the best pictures of the young Owls.

This is my first ever sighting of Long Eared Owls, so I really wanted a record of it. The phone again proved its worth in the field!

This was the start of a great evening. The first adult I had seen returned and coaxed the young to follow it. They didn’t need much persuasion and soon all three were out of sight. I hung around for another 10 minutes and did get occasional glimpses of them in flight.

I moved on from here and was soon watching Woodcock fly overhead and getting the best views of Nightjar I have ever had. The rain then became heavier and reluctantly, I headed back to the car. It rained for the next 15 hours!

The rain brought the rivers up rapidly and Middleton was soon suffering from rising water levels. A second Avocet nest that a few regulars had been keeping an eye on became a casualty of the rising water with reports that the parents had abandoned the nest on Saturday, a day before the eggs were expected to hatch. Sad news indeed.

Then, on Sunday a report came through that it seems two of the eggs had indeed hatched, and two chicks from this second nest had been seen, what great news. I hope after such a tough start lady luck smiles on these latest chicks and they catch a few breaks in the survival stakes. 

Local Surprises

The first surprise, well not really a surprise as I knew the proposed date of this event, but the surprise was in the fact that this time the promised date delivered the goods ......... The long awaited bridge over the river Tame joining the Dosthill and Middleton sides of the RSPB reserve opened for public use. I enjoyed my first walk across on Sunday morning. 

The next surprise was news on Tuesday 19th May, of the first successful breeding of Avocets in Staffordshire, right on our doorstep at Middleton RSPB. Great news and I went straight from work on Wednesday to see these history making Avocets and chicks for myself. I was very pleased to get reasonable views of them. I hope they survive and look forward to future photo opportunities and ultimately more breeding Avocets at Middleton. 

Surprise number three! A local walk in an area I had almost forgotten about produced some interesting results. Pete had been looking at Ordnance survey maps in an effort to find some local areas we may have overlooked. He had identified some areas of interest and Saturday morning we set off to have a look around. Now it is possible to Customise your own Ordnance survey map, it's never been easier to find interesting areas radiating out from the central starting point of your choice. 

The area in question was pretty much as I remembered it until we ventured off the main paths following a route Pete had picked out on the Ordnance map, and started walking through areas new to both of us. 

There was an abundance of Herring Gulls and Crows in the area, and then scanning the fields my first local Hare of the year was seen crossing through a crop in front of us. Then, in the same field a large Vixen appeared, her coat was very light, almost blonde in fact. One I will definitely recognise if our paths cross again. Unfortunally, I didn't manage pictures of either. 

A bit further along our route and Pete stopped, lifted his binoculars to check what he obviously suspected and then confirmed he had just seen a local Tree Sparrow. They can be a bit thin on the ground around these parts. 

We were soon both watching a few Tree Sparrows, and I quickly counted about thirteen. As we moved further along the route it became apparent that there was even more Tree Sparrows than I had first though. We spent a good while watching the antics of these Chestnut headed beauties. I will be keeping a regular eye on this breeding Tree Sparrow colony and monitoring their progress with interest.