Saturday 4 June 2011

Shard End Lake and Babbs Mill Nature Reserve, Kingshurst,

                   Shard End Lake.






                                          Babbs Mill Nature Reserve.






First off today was a trip to Shard End lake but before I'd even got there I noticed lots of House Martin's in the air flying really low then I noticed them flying to at least two different nests in the eaves of the brand new houses in Shard End Crescent, I would like to have got some pictures of the nests or tried to spot some more nests but you don't go around taking pictures of peoples houses in Shard End, funny lot they are down there ! At Shard End lake birds spotted were House Martin, Swift, Robin, House Sparrow, Starling, Collared Dove, Great Crested Grebe, Gosling (7) and Coot chick (3). Birds spotted at Babbs Mill were House Martin, Swift, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Grey Heron, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Moorhen, Tufted Duck, Mute Swan, Cygnet (3) Great Crested Grebe chick (3) and Duckling (14). As you can see by one of the pictures one pair of Mallards has had ten ducklings, according to a local they are only four days old. Also today there was plenty of noisy Great Tit chicks about, which is always good to see/hear. At both locations today it was good to see that the Sparrow populations are doing very well, which is great ! As you can see on the last picture, parts of the River Cole are critically low, in most places you can walk from one side to other without hardly getting wet,  which is probably why the Kingfisher's are few and far between at the moment.

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