Deja vu

Glossy Ibis, Fishers Mill

Wigeon - part of a flock of c100 flying over Kingsbury

Painted Lady, one of 3 at Dosthill

Stonechat - Dosthill

Little Egrets, Fishers Mill

Glossy Ibis

Glossy Ibis

Monday 18th October 2009

I've lived this moment before. Same place, same species, same weather only the names of the people have been changed to protect the innocent. It was thought Sunday's Glossy Ibis had a different number / letters to the bird seen on Saturday and today's Ibis had no ring at all so definitely 2 birds involved and possibly 3. Just like corporation buses you wait for years and then 3 turn up one after the other. What is extraordinary is that the 2 or 3 birds should choose exactly the same feeding areas and move from one to the other in exactly the same way. I cannot believe there is not very similar habitat throughout the Middleton lakes site. On the other hand if you think about it, different waders very often chose the same patch of shoreline ignoring other areas which look just as good. Perhaps birds can sense optimum feeding conditions, and not waste valuable feeding time on trial and error. Perhaps.

Other birds seen at Fishers Mill include Peregrine, Garganey, 4 Little Egret and Goldeneye. Visible migration was apparent in the form of Redwing and c100 Wigeon flying south. Steve Haynes also saw large numbers of Chaffinches and several groups of Brambling near Hartshill Hayes. As it got increasingly black over Bill's mothers I retired to ASDA at Tamworth for coffee and to stock up on Hula Hoops.