The Birds of Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands 2010 Annual Report 77 Editor D.W. Emley Published by West Midland Bird Club 2012 Published by West Midland Bird Club © West Midland Bird Club All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission of the copyright owners. The West Midland Bird Club is a registered charity No. 213311. Website: http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/ ISSN 1476-2862 Printed by Healeys Print Group, Unit 10, The Sterling Complex, Farthing Road, Ipswich, Suffolk IP1 5AP. Price £9.00 The Birds of Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands 2010 Annual Report 77 Contents 4 Editorial 5 Submission of Records 6 Birds and Weather in 2010 17 Systematic List 231 West Midland 2009 Wildfowl Errata 237 Ringing in 2010 252 First confirmed breeding record of Common Crossbill Loxia curvirostra for Warwickshire 253 Woodchat Shrike, Whitemoor Haye, September 8th 2010 253 What is the true status of ‘Greenland Wheatear’ Oenanthe oenanthe leucorhoa in the West Midlands region? 258 County Lists 265 Gazetteer 273 List of Contributors 280 Index of Species Front cover photograph: Wood Warbler at Hawksmoor, Steve Seal 3 Editorial The production of the Annual report is a major undertaking taking many hundreds, or more, man hours. This year two stalwarts have called it a day. Neil Carter has retired from the Staffordshire team after many years while Jonathan Bowley retires as Recorder for Warwickshire after 16 years. We thank them both for their sterling efforts and wish them well in the future. We also welcome Steve Haynes back as Warwickshire Recorder – a post he held from 1986 – 1996 prior to Jonathan taking over! It is nice to welcome back to the team Jim Winsper who has produced the Birds and Weather report. We often get records that arrive too late for the Report and they are usually added as addenda but, mistakes do happen, and the 2009 Report had incorrect data for a number of the wildfowl in the West Midlands and I have included the corrections in a separate section so as not to interrupt the flow of the report. Acknowledgements I would like to thank all those who helped with this year’s report. I am especially grateful to all those who contributed records, especially those sending in valuable census data; to John Harris, Stuart Collins and Alan Dean for their articles; to Andy Lawrence for help with the Ringing Report, to Jim Winsper for his Birds and Weather and to artists and photographers Dave Burns, Alan Dean, Steve Gibson, Bill Goldstraw, Phil Jones, Dave Kelsall, Hughie King, Robert Powell, John Robinson, Steve Seal, Neil Thorneycroft and Steve Valentine for making their work available; and above all to the County Recorders and their teams: Warwickshire: Jonathan Bowley Worcestershire: Steve Payne, Report Writers & Compilers SP and Andy Warr; Rarities Committee; Gavin Peplow, Rob Prudden, Brian Stretch, Dave Walker and Andy Warr Staffordshire: Nick Pomiankowski, Report Writers; NDP, Neil Carter and Andy Lawrence, Rarities Committee; Steve Nuttall, Bernard Smith, Mark Sutton, Steve Turner, Site Report Compilers; Mike Boote, Roger Broadbent, Graham Evans, Frank Gribble, Pete Jordan, Tom Perrins, Steve Nuttall, Ray Perry, Brenda Scott; Data Input; NDP, Mary Holley. West Midlands: Kevin Clements, Gareth Clements and John Oates. I would like to thank Sarah Ricks of Healeys and my wife Sue, for her support and help during the compilation of this report. David Emley 4 Submission of Records All contributors are asked to follow the guidelines set out in the booklet A Checklist of the Birds of the Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands and Guide to Status and Record Submission (third edition 2011). A copy of these can be found on our website http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com. All records should be sent to the relevant County Recorder as soon as possible after observation. Concise, though adequate, field descriptions (including how the species was identified, the circumstances of the sighting and the observer's experience of the species) should accompany records of all species – marked as A in the Details column of the checklist. In addition, descriptions are required for all out-of-season migrants, unusual hybrids and scarce sub-species, including Scandinavian Rock Pipit, Blue-headed and other flava race wagtails, White Wagtail (autumn only), Black-bellied Dipper, Greenland Wheatear and Chiffchaff races. The lack of an acceptable description may lead to records being rejected. Records should be sent to the appropriate County Recorder: Warwickshire Steve Haynes 4 Spinney Close, Arley, Warwickshire, CV7 8PD [email protected] Worcestershire Steve Payne 6 Norbury Close, Redditch, B98 8RP [email protected] Staffordshire Nick Pomiankowski 22 The Villas, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 5AQ [email protected] West Midlands Kevin Clements 26 Hambrook Close, Dunstall Park, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, WV6 0XA [email protected] Records can be sent electronically as Excel, Word, CSV or RTF files or on record slips. These are available from the Club Secretary (address inside back cover) at indoor meetings or a copy can be downloaded from our web site: http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/. Another alternative that is proving very popular is the BTO’s BirdTrack website http://www.bto.org.uk/birdtrack/. Data entered here can be accessed, with permission, by the County Recorder, thus obviating the need to send in slips etc. D. W. Emley, 23 Leacroft, Stone, Staffs, ST15 8GF [email protected] 5 Birds and Weather in 2010 Expectations of bettering our annual Regional record of 242 species will need to be placed on hold for another year. With 231 species recorded this year we fall well short of this total and down on the totals in the two previous years cf. 238 in 2009 and 234 in 2008. While there were no additions to the Regional list there were notable firsts at county level. Staffordshire recorded its first Woodchat Shrike, this following a first for the same species in Warwickshire in 2009. In Warwickshire a female Blue-headed Wagtail raised a brood with a male Yellow Wagtail thus constituting the first county breeding involving this race. Again in Warwickshire, confirmed breeding of Common Crossbill is also a county first while Marsh Lane NR produced the first county breeding of Cetti’s Warbler for the West Midlands. The cold spell that arrived in the second half of December 2009 continued into January. Southward moving weather fronts and an intensifying low pressure system produced some significant falls of snow and extremely sharp frosts. Temperatures plummeted throughout the region in the first half of the month. On the 1st two Whooper Swans arrived at Whitemoor Haye and on the same date there was a strong movement of Pink-footed Geese over Staffordshire, a skein of 215 flew over Uttoxeter Quarry and skeins of 130 and 85 moved over Blithfield on the morning of the 3rd. Record winter counts for Mandarin Duck were made at Trimpley, with a maxim of 112 for the month. Elsewhere in Worcestershire there were eight Corn Buntings at Birlingham on 3rd and 11 in deep snow at Little Comberton on 6th. Again at Trimpley 60 Common Crossbill were located on 1st and on the same day 200 Lesser Redpoll were at Lineholt. Staffordshire held the largest January flock of Siskin with 350 at Hanchurch Woods while Grandborough, Warwickshire, hosted a Linnet flock consisting of 1300 birds. Amongst the predators attracted to this flock was a Great Grey Shrike. The Black Redstart that was located in 2009 continued to frequent the Worcester Cathedral area during the first half of the month. The severe weather conditions had moved the nomadic winter thrushes to pastures new, the most notable flock being 1400 Fieldfare over Draycote on 6th. Common Starlings using Throckmorton Tip peaked at 6500 on 6th while the largest roost of 35,000 birds was at Stone Business Park. The harsh winter weather did not appear to affect Blackcaps that visited West Midland gardens, with a scattering of records throughout the county. A Common Chiffchaff was located at Lutley Wedge in the first week and at least six birds were present at the effluent outfall at Hams Hall. The massive decline of the Willow Tit in Worcestershire continues, a single bird at Grimley on 1st was a notable record. Glaucous Gull roosted at Belvide on 3rd and Draycote on 6th and an Iceland Gull arrived at Throckmorton Tip on 10th. Merlin put in appearances at Toft Farm with a male and female on 4th, another male was at Fishers Mill on 1st and Ladywalk on 8th and 9th. A further male was located at Throckmorton Tip on 3rd and a female at Castlemorton Common on 7th. A Black-necked Grebe visited Bartley Reservoir on 10th and the sighting of a Glossy Ibis on 1st at Holt Fleet attracted many observers. Another great attraction was the Great White Egret that moved between Brandon and Long Lawford during the 1st to the 7th. Just before mid month the very cold spell came to an end. Rain and less cold air spread in from the south-west, while this was preceded by a band of snow across the region, the milder conditions took over and temperatures rose closer to average by 15th. Ice free waters in the middle Tame valley had attracted wildfowl in good numbers. Smew frequented the area with a party peaking at seven birds, including three males in the Coton – Kingsbury WP area on 12th. A female Red- 6 breasted Merganser at Draycote on 17th was joined by a male the following day.