Skirr Cottage Diary.

“There’s nowt about, shall we go?” said the birder to his mate. I was sat in a bird hide at Tittesworth Reservoir with who we could call two ‘heavy’ Staffordshire birders. They were Belstaffed –up and bristling with the latest gear: a camera with a dust bin for a lens, Swarovski scopes and bins and a rather superior attitude to match, as they never offered to even pass the time of day. Within minutes they had grabbed their gear and marched out. This is an attitude I’ve come across quite often recently in various nature reserves around the country. It seems that if it’s not rare or at least uncommon – it’s not worth looking at!! I settled down to watch the lapwings on the rocky island reminding myself what great looking birds they are. Among them I found a sleeping oystercatcher. Over in the bay four goosanders bobbed and dived and were joined by a pochard and some tufted duck splendid in the sunlight. There were cormorants on the scaffold and some wigeon over by the sunlit reeds. Suddenly in the alders by the hide, a tribe of long-tailed tits erupted performing their acrobatics among the branches. A willow tit appeared, stealing a peanut from a nearby feeding cage. House sparrows are on the red list, lapwings have declined incredibly, and willow tits are far from common. If you are a birder all birds should be important – and there is very rarely “nowt about.”