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Sunday, 23 April 2006

Field Trip to Shropshire Saturday 22nd April 2006

On Saturday 22 April 21 members met at Venus Pool, south-east of Shrewsbury, which is a Shropshire Ornithological Society reserve. Despite a coldish start, singing migrants were much in evidence, including willow warblers, blackcaps and a single lesser whitethroat which showed well but briefly. The meadow held up to eight yellow wagtails with a couple of white wagtails and a wheatear. Swallows, sand martins and house martins hawked over the pools while a few rested on the path-side fence wires. Fly-overs included buzzard, kestrel and a single swift, the first of the year for most of us. Tree sparrow was also seen, with many species of water birds on the main pool.

Haughmond Hill, a mixed woodland site, was the next port of call, and a pleasant hour's walk here yielded marsh tit, goldcrest, chiffchaff and great spotted woodpecker.

At our final destination, Wood Lane Reserve (Shropshire Wildlife Trust) near Ellesmere, the highlight was a large flock of sand martins using a massive mound of sand at the adjacent sand plant as a natural sandbank in which to excavate their nest holes. In all we recorded approximately 70 species of birds for the day.