Trip reports

A grand day out

Sunday, 18 January 2009

Call me an obsessive but January is undoubtedly my favourite birding month of the year. It's not because I particularly love winter birds ahead of spring, summer or autumn birds, but it definitely has something to do with the year list. January is the one month of the year when I abandon my ideologies about all birds being beautiful and enjoyable and relentlessly pursue what is destined to be another year where I fail to see 200 species of birds in the UK. I say this not because I particularly enjoy describing and discussing my own state of mind, but rather because I'd like to explain the tone of my account of the Wolverhampton RSPB group's jaunt to Old Moor.

The prospect of hail and sleet showers throughout the day was not a good one, but as it turned out we were once again bathed in gorgeous sunshine. The wind was piercing and it was absolutely freezing but that hardly seemed to matter. Not only was the sun out all day but the light was outstanding and that meant that the shimmering flocks of Golden Plover and the stately lines of Lapwing were incredible. The former swept from gold to white while the latter had a bottle-green shine all day and that was quite enough to make any trip worthwhile.

Old Moor is famous for its Tree Sparrows and these certainly didn't disappoint, lingering in almost every bush and visiting the feeding station throughout the day. They were joined by the four common species of British finch, with the Bullfinches and Goldfinches in particular showing superbly. However, reference to the first paragraph will reveal why my personal highlight, during three long stints at the feeding station, was the one and a half seconds where a Willow Tit visited the seeds.

Away from the garden birds and the lakes were full to bursting with wildfowl. A solitary Pink-footed Goose frustrated yours truly throughout the day (which is baffling as I'd spent the previous Friday at Holkham and had seen about 20,000) but the Gadwall, Shoveler, Teal and Tufted Duck all drifted on the icy water. There was a lovely male Goldeneye on show but the highlight for me was a large flock of Goosander, which appeared quite from nowhere and then seemed to melt back into the banks of Old Moor's central lake. Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and a Peregrine (spotted by only a lucky few) were a constant menace to the water birds - but the fact that they exposed the Golden Plover to the sunlight left no cause for complaint!

A couple of birds really stood out for this humble writer, and only partly because of that January feeling! The first was a remarkably obliging Little Owl: that is it was until the precise moment when the Group Leader tried to see it (haha). The others, surprisingly, were a group of one of Britain's most unnoticed birds - the Stock Dove. It proved an excellent day to study this species as they lingered on the banks of the lake or loitered on a Barn Owl box (which at least proved that looking for a Barn Owl was wasted time!).

Oh who am I kidding? It's partly because it's January! The real stars were the Tree Sparrows, the shiny colours of the Lapwings of Plovers and the gorgeous weather. Thank you Old Moor for a fantastic start to 2009 in every way possible.
Arash Marashi- Trip Leader.