Red-footed Falcon 24th July 2015
Having watched the postings about a Red-footed Falcon being seen regularly just outside the gates of Chatterley Whitfield Colliery near Stoke the temptation was eventually too much and armed with a post code we set off one morning wondering if we stood any chance of finding it. As it happened, it could not have been more obliging and with a simple one hour drive we had added a new bird to our life list. Not only that but we also added another lovely bird to our year list.
The site is a horse paddock just before the entrance gate to the Chatterley Whitfield Enterprise Park (which is on the site of the old colliery). The post code is ST6 8UW. or (53.078063, -2.177682). From the A527 going south we took the first turning off the roundabout just after Brindley Ford. This led down to down to the gates of the enterprise park. We parked up right by the horse paddock and within a minute or two we had the bird pointed out to us perched in a short tree very near the roadside.There were several birders there because it has been so popular and at the weekends apparently the numbers have reached a couple of hundred.
We spent about three hours watching this bird mainly roosting and preening but sometimes sallying forth to select a morsel off one of the mounds of horse droppings scattered around the fields. When it did take wing it was fantastically fast and really impressive. During our spell with this bird we took the opportunity to look for the juvenile Black Redstart that had also been reported as a sighting very nearby. Thinking that we were unlikely to be so lucky as to see this bird as well, we walked a few yards down the road to the main entrance gates to the business park, expecting to be disappointed. We edged just inside, careful not to antagonise the security guards at the next set of gates a little further down the road, and there were a couple of people who said they had seen the bird a while ago but not recently. A little disappointed I looked into the grassy area to the left which borders a small car park and immediately I saw the bird on a white post on the edge of the car park.
We watched this bird for about half an hour as it moved around the edge of this grassy area, moving from post to post, and then dropping down for some insect or another it had seen. It eventually flew over the road and into a much more overgrown area that is part of the nature reserve proper but even here we could see it from time to time before it eventually disappeared for long enough for us to decide to return to the Red-footed Falcon. By then it was a bit more active and sallied forth a few times before eventually flying off into a much taller tree behind its usual one and this was the cue for us to leave for a spot of lunch.
What a fantastic morning; a life tick and a year tick and both birds spotted within a few seconds of looking for them. I doesn’t get easier than this !