15-4-11, Cannock Chase - Old Butts.

I was hard at work around lunch time when the pager went off on my desk telling news of a Wryneck on the chase around the shooting butts area. A quick yelp in the office and my afternoon was rubbish. I need a Wryneck mainly for Staffordshire but it woulkd be a nice year tick too. I was finaaly released and was on the chase at 16.45. I was heading off to the shooting butts when I bumped into another blogger who told me it was the wrong shooting butts, I needed the old ones. Aaaargh. I didn't have a clue so I trusted the directions they gave me on the pager and I eventually found another birder who guided me to this new place. When I arrived there was a few people hanging around and slowly but surely they were drifting home. I asked one, very unhelpful, person who just said when asked where it was seen "out there". Thanks for that. I finally left site at around 19.15 and birds noted were Great Tit, Robin, Stock Dove, Willow Warbler (loads of em), Great Spotted Woodpecker, Woodpigeon, Green Woodpecker, Long-tailed Tit, Carrion Crow, Blackbird, Jay, Woodlark, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Song Thrush, Pheasant, several calling Cuckoos but I never saw any so they cannot be counted towards the year list, Mistle Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Magpie, Blue Tit, Buzzard, 2 fly over Mallards, Wren and some fly over Siskins. Yep, no Wryneck. There was so much habitat it would be impossible to find it on the floor but congratulations to the guy from the forestry commision who found it. For pictures of the bird check out Belvide blog. Work tomorrow so birding will be doubtful.