Oldbury Power Station 28.1.12

I got to the Oldbury power station car park and things got off to a great start, seeing a green Woodpecker flying off into the tree’s. As I walked to the hide overlooking Lagoon 3 I saw a Blue Tit fly over and into a tree as I got my binoculars on to the bird it suddenly flew upwards and it had flown up to a lamppost and at the end the Blue Tit was cling on to it. I was not surprised to see this because having been there before in the summer I had witnessed a Blue Tit family nesting in the lamppost. As I moved closer to the hide I heard a Song Thrush singing. I looked up to the tallest tree and at the top was the singing bird. I then went to the hide and in there was Peter Hazelwood who updates a website called Oldbury Power Station (http://www.opsbirds.webspace.virginmedia.com/). After greeting him I looked at the 100 or so Lapwing, about 300 Dunlin and around 50 Gulls I also saw three small birds about the size of sparrows. 2 or 3 minutes later Peter Hazelwood said, “Did you come here looking for the Twite?”

I said, “I had heard about them. Why?

“They are over there.” He replied. I was very excited. The birds I thought were sparrows were actually Twite. After Peter Hazelwood left we saw a lonely Curlew which appear to have just woken up. After that hide I walked long the stretch of the walkway past the River Severn. The only birds about were Mallards, in fact I must of seen at least 30 mallards all chasing each other about. I then reached Lagoon 2 where there was a sense of business about. The brambles were alive with the sound of bird song. Unfortunately not much could actually be seen. I did see a flock of about 7 goldfinches and also a Bullfinch. I walked around to the orchard and stopped to take photos of the many Tits which were there. I sat down onto a bench there for a rest but I could hear this strange squawking sound. I just thought it was a Magpie but on closer inspection it turned out to a couple of Fieldfares another species of which I had never seen. The trip turned out to be a good one and I really enjoyed it!!!