The Great White & The Mere Adventure!!...

Bloody typical aint it?.... Yet another seriously brilliant county bird is found & I cant go!!... At least immediately... I had my daughter! So, it's 17:40hrs & I'm frantically waiting for my ex-wife to arrive from work to pick my daughter up!!... Of course, she's late!!!

I set off for The Mere at my usual hectic speed, as usual get caught up in traffic... arrive at The Mere to find Jim, Andy, Dave, Rob & Mike already there... & the bird?... It had literally just flown 10 seconds before I pulled up!!!

A very frantic search ensued.... Dave thought he'd seen something drop in the far south corner, so I battled through thorns, nettles & branches to find just a lone Cormorant... but then in the corner of my eye, what looked to be a white bird got up & flew out of sight!!!

I eventually joined Dave & the others to inform them that I'd thought I'd flushed it when....

Alan Heath calls Andy to say he's been on the bird for a good 20mins back where we started!!!??... A race back up the road & sure enough, on the far side of the Mere is the Great White Egret!!! My 8th county tick & my 150th species for Shropshire this year!!!...

Distant but great views were had.... Relief sets in...

As to what me & Dave saw???.... No idea??....

I dont care... GW Egret OMSL!!!... ;~)

Happy Shropshire Birders!!... County tick for all, in the bag!!....

...& a couple of yet more naff pics of the Great White Egret at The Mere today... what a great tick, and indeed, a great bird!!!....

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More Bleary-eyed Birding!!....

Aah yes, so soon & I'm back working night shifts!! Although, after working 7 consecutive night shifts last time, these measley 4 should be a doddle?!!... It's aslo the one time I seem to get any birding in!!! Who would've thought that being single would actually work against me & leave me less time to bird!!!?....
Anyway, as normal a few ticks slipped past me, Jim had a Ringed Plover the other day whilst I was busy supping Guinness in my local!! The logbook reports a female Goosander (this'll be easily gripped back ~ early winter mornings, trust me!!)... A Spotted Flycatcher by Cound Stank bridge was a good report, also the person reported an Otter busily fishing here!!!! That'd be an awesome sight, I've only ever seen one Otter & that was last year on Mull!!...
Back to VP this morning.... the lone Little Egret was again busily feeding, the only waders came in the shape of solitary Curlew & Green Sandpiper!!...
With virtually nothing much else of note (bar a brief Reed Warbler busily hopping around in the far phrags!!), but with dark clouds rolling in I decided to give in 'half an hour'.... I busied myself with a quick game of poker on my mobile, but soon decided that shouts of 'oh bollocks!!', 'soddit!!!' & 'you jammy bastard!!' eminating from the hide window were hardly likely to entice a seriously blown off course Semi.P. Sand to drop into VP!!... (or anything else, come to that!!)... So, I put my mobile away.... But the pool remained quiet... Anyway, 2 ticks below from a few past visits that I just couldn't bring myself to post about as they were sooooo drab!!...

74 ~ Meadow Pipit.
75 ~ Herring Gull.

So, not quite the end of August yet & already 3/4 of the way to my target.... But, with an easy 15 species still to hit, how hard will the other 10 prove to be?...

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Early am. at VP!!....

Having just had an excellent time at the Farmer Phil's festival at Ratlinghope, despite subjecting my body to serious alcohol overload!!... I was at VP this morning just before 6am in the hope that last nights heavy rain may have dropped something in?...
It hadn't!!....
Just a lone Little Egret outside the main hide & 2 Curlew on the main island..... I did spend maybe 30 minutes scanning through the ducks, now all in eclpise, in the vain hope for a Garganey or a Gadwall.... nowt!!... In fact to quote a line in the log - Little Egret, Little Ringed Plover and little else!!.... ;~)

Anyway.... 73 ~ Curlew.

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End of Nights!!...

Finally I've finished an entire week of night shifts, so somewhat worn out I stopped off once again at VP en route home...
Little of change, but a very persistant Peregrine livend things up by relentlessly hunting over the pool for an entire 10mins!!... A very lucky Lapwing escaped several close calls... but ultimately the Peregrine left empty taloned!!...
The juv. Redstart was once again showing brilliantly outside the main hide.... At last I scored a single Green Sandpiper which briefly flew around the pool...
As the gulls began to arrive a single Common Gull was a good bird, several LBB Gull, but when I left at 08:10am, there was no sign of the Med. Gull, which seem's to be quite a frequent visitor to VP these last couple of days....

A Common Gull at VP this morning.... not common at VP though!!....

71 ~ Green Sandpiper. 72 ~ Common Gull.

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Only Just Med. It!!...

Having just bought a new digital camera in a desperate effort to try & improve on my photography skills... (I missed out putting 'non-existant' in that last sentence!!),... I was busy loading the program to my laptop when my phone went off, it was Geoff - Juv. Med. Gull @ VP!!!....

I was off like a shot, cursing all the law abiding road users en route... I arrived just in time to see the juv. Mediterranean Gull perched on the south end of the stump island!!... There was time for me to whip off a couple of my 'typical Jase type' shots (as Geoff refered to them, chuckling away), before the bird moved out of view!!...

Then it was up & landed directly in front of the main hide!!! Too close to focus on through my scope with my camera, before the bird lifted & flew off to the south!!...

Presumably, this is the same bird which has been seen at a couple of site's around Shropshire recently?... So, worth keeping an eye out for...

A great tick, & only my 2nd ever Med. Gull at VP!! (Funnily enough, my only other was juv., which I found whilst doing my 'big VP list!!'...).

Couple of shots of the juv. Mediterranean Gull which made a brief stay at VP today.....

70 ~ Mediterranean Gull.

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Patience Finally Pays Off!!....

Torential rain fell as I left work, slightly later than normal, at 06:50am.... I had a good feeling that this would surely drop something into VP?... My gut feeling was a tern sp. But I'd just as soon be happy with a godwit or a Green Sand!!...
I ran down to the hide as the rain fell heavier & the skies grew greyer!!... As I scanned the pool my heart began to sink!!! Apart from the almost now resident 2 LRP's (the ad. & the juv.), there were no other obvious waders (a lone remaining Dunlin did eventually venture out from the end spit of the main island!!).... I scanned the pool... but nothing!!! As this had been my 5th consecutive night shift, and with still 2 to go, I was feeling very weary & decided to leave for home & bed!!... Fortunately the rain was still chucking it down!!...
I occupied myself scanning a group of hirundines that the bad weather had 'downed', which were busy feeding in the south end of the pool. Mainly Sand Martin, around 50+, with several House Martin & 2 Swift!! I only saw 1 Swallow...
Then I saw 2 white birds that had joined this group of hirundines!!... Two tern's!!!! Yes!! At last!! I watched the birds carefully for a few minutes (they were both adults), the compact shape, with the wings appearing very 'forward' on the body, a small 'all red' bill.... yes, 2 ad. Arctic Tern's!!!
Sadly, after just 10 minutes, the birds flew off to the west. But a great tick! After a short wait a juv. Sparrowhawk flew through the pool (seemed to have a go at the BH Gull's present... which wasn't surprising as this must've been a female as it was a very large bird indeed.... but def. a Sparrowhawk!!).....
I was soon joined by Jim, but apart from 2 LBB Gull landing on the pool, there was now little happening...

69 ~ Arctic Tern.

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No HB at VP 4 me!!!...

Indeed, I've been to VP every morning around 06:45am, after work, and have scored nil, nowt, nothing, nada!!... Oh, to have seen Jim's Honey Buzzard yesterday would've been awesome!!! A county tick plus a 1st for VP!!!...
Again, this morning, there was little change.... But then a solitary Raven flew over, shortly followed by a Sparrowhawk & several Long-tailed Tit outside the hide!!...
With the arrival of 'Lucky' Jimbo I was slightly more hopeful, & indeed, Jim got onto a distant tern sp., but as it was flying away, no ID could be pinned to it....
Anyway, few more ticks....

65 ~ Raven.
66 ~ Sparrowhawk.
67~ Long-tailed Tit.
68 ~ Bullfinch.

I shall keep on trying, but I think Jim has had the star bird for VP this year!!!...

VP Flying visit!!...

Thanks to a text from Jim, a couple more juicy wee ticks en route home from work today!!... Nice to see Ray in the hide when I arrived!!... The Little Egret was showing well over on the far left island & after a brief wait the juv. Redstart hopped up onto the fence in front of the main hide... Excellent!!.. Then I had to dash off home to see my daughter!!

61 ~ Little Egret.
62 ~ Redstart.

(& from a previous visit, to drab for a post!!)....

63 ~ House Sparrow.
64 ~ Starling.

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Anyway... back to this birding lark!!...

Only quickie this one!!.... Quick visit to VP early this morning turned up 4 more additions for my VP tonne!!!...

57 ~ Shoveler.
58 ~ Dunlin.
59 ~ Rook!!! (at last!!!!)
60 ~ Kestrel.

.....So, finally got to the 60 mark!!... I can remember I once saw 64 species at VP in just one 3 hr. visit!!!... Now, there's a number that'd take some topping!!!... ;~)