Shropshire birding!

Saturday 6 February

A bit of a zoom around Shropshire with Jim today, could we beat the 70 species seen on New Year's Day?! No time to take pics, but here's a brief(ish!!) summary of the day.

At VP there were all the usual species on the pool, though the top field was rather quiet with the large Linnet and Goldfinch flocks not seen. Good numbers of Reed Buntings though and several Bullfinch near the car park making a total of 44 species.

Heading off north, the fog became much worse and on arrival at Colemere it was no surprise to find, it wasn't there! Not a chance of seeing anything, so we headed to Wood Lane to pass some time in the hope of it clearing.

Visibility wasn't a great deal better here but at least the first pool could be seen. Three Oystercatchers were a nice surprise, two Common Snipe probing the mud and a Common Gull flew in. Four Shelduck and some Teal were about all else that could be seen from the hide and two Goldcrests were in the trees near the car park.

Back to Colemere then and the fog had cleared just everso slightly! We decided on a walk in the woods first and soon came across around 50 Redpoll and a few Siskin feeding high in the tree tops. Two Willow Tit were a really nice surprise, with several Treecreeper and Nuthatch around too. A Tawny Owl was calling from somewhere deeper into the woods and a Raven was heard flying over.

Back out to view the Mere and with a scope it was now just possible to pick out a distant group of Goosanders. A walk around the other side eventually gave much better views of the 30+ birds. Sadly no sign of the RB Merganser that had been with them the previous few days and a walker (in a fluorescent yellow jacket!!) soon had them all spooked and flying off to somewhere quieter!

The Upton Magna area found several hundred Fieldfare and a couple of Redwing but surprisingly no Partridge of either species. A search for Corn Buntings in the Isombridge area turned up Meadow Pipits, Yellowhammer and around 50 Linnets with 20+ Curlew feeding further along the lane.

A brief stop at Priorslee added a pair of Gadwall and a GBb Gull. Then finally it was south to the Long Mynd, noting a few Golden Plover in with the 3000+ Lapwings by the A49 on the way there. On the Mynd we were hoping to spot a raptor or maybe a Red Grouse. It wasn't to be though, two Raven and a Buzzard were virtually the only birds seen!

A great day, just beating the New Year tally, with 72 species in all!