Wednesday 31 December 2014

Babbs Mill Nature Reserve, Solihull.






I thought the last trip out for 2014 would be to Babbs Mill Nature Reserve in Solihull being as I haven't been there very often this year, which was just as well because everywhere looked great in the early morning frost.

Highlight of the day had to be seeing a pair of Goldcrest, unbelievably I've seen a pair of Goldcrest on the last four visits out, something of a record for me, that's with also having a pair visiting my small garden in Birmingham, talking of my garden it's worth mentioning as well as record numbers of Tits visiting I also had a female Blackcap taking advantage of one of the suet cakes hanging in my apple tree. It was also nice to see a huge flock of Goldfinch in the car park, hard to tell the count exactly but they were in the hundreds feeding in amongst the Silver Birch, it was great to also see Greenfinch, Bullfinch, House Sparrow, Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay and Widgeon.

I also spotted a Buzzard being mobbed by a lone but very plucky Carrion Crow, unfortunately it it did was chase into the Yorks Wood which is heavily polluted with songbirds.

The only downside was seeing the lake almost completely frozen over, I know it's natural but I don't like to see the waterfowl struggling also for some reason they were fighting a lot more than usual today probably because there was a lot less space to move about in.

Birds seen today were Buzzard, Goldcrest, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Bullfinch, House Sparrow, Robin, Wren, Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, Collared Dove, Blackbird, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Mute Swan, Moorhen, Coot, Widgeon, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Domestic Goose and Canada Goose.

I hope everyone who takes the time out to read this blog has had a nice Christmas and you have a great New Year !  

My first trip out of 2015 will be Kingsbury Water Park on Friday all being well.

Monday 29 December 2014

Rookery Park, Erdington.






Paid a visit to Rookery Park in Erdington which is a great little park with a variety of trees, large areas of grassland and plenty of bushes, unfortunately the surrounding areas to the park which is a rich habitat for a wide range of birds has been brought up by a developer and is going to have houses built on the land, so not only will that wild habitat be lost forever but it will only have negative effects on the park as a whole.

I was only passing through the area so I could only visit the park for an hour but it was still great to see birds in abundance probably because it was the first sub zero night in Birmingham this Autumn/Winter, so there were plenty of Blackbirds, Tits, Finches and surprisingly lots of Magpies foraging.

Highlights were seeing a pair of Goldcrest and Nuthatch, House Sparrows and Dunnocks and seeing a Mistle Thrush having a good old sing song.

Birds seen today were, Goldcrest, Nuthatch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Robin, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Robin, Starling, Mistle Thrush, Blackbird, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Woodpigeon and Feral Pigeon.

Tuesday 23 December 2014

Sutton Park.






I decided to go back to Sutton Park again today following Saturday's visit, Saturday's visit took in walks around Blackroot, Bracebridge and Little Bracebridge pools where today I went to Longmoor pool and walked around a large part of the heathland and areas populated mainly by Pine, Alder and Silver Birch.

Highlights had to be seeing Goldcrest, Treecreeper and Nuthatch again, seeing a small flock of Redwing in the same area as a mixed flock of Goldfinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit and Chaffinch, plenty of Jay and it's always a pleasure to see House Sparrow and Dunnock.

The only downside (apart from the sporadic amounts of litter including a bucket of KFC and all the contents strewn everywhere including the receipt from Woking !) was that even though there are still five of this years Cygnet's left, the adults are trying to shun one of them away, I don't know why ones been singled out buy hopefully it's not harmed or even worse killed.

Birds seen today were Goldcrest, Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Wren, Robin, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, Redwing, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Coot, Tufted Duck and Mallard.

Saturday 20 December 2014

Sutton Park.





Another nice early trip out, this time to North Birmingham to visit the huge and always worth visiting Sutton Park.

Highlight of the day was a toss up between seeing a flock of Goldcrest foraging amongst an area highly populated with pine trees, also seen with the Goldcrests were Coal Tit, Treecreeper, Nuthatch and various Tits, thankfully it was also nice to see Treecreeper and Nuthatch in various other locations during my visit. The other highlight was seeing three Exmoor Ponies grazing on grass by the Bracebridge Pool of which I'll upload a couple of videos of which you'll find a link to an my homepage.

The only disappointment was seeing no Song Thrush, Redwing, Fieldfare and not a great variety on the pools.

Birds seen today were Buzzard, Goldcrest, Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Chaffinch, Robin, Wren, Dunnock, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blackbird, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Woodpigeon (including a juvenile feasting on holly berries), Great Crested Grebe, Moorhen, Coot, Tufted Duck and Mallard.

Another pleasant surprise was finding some nice Yellow Brain Fungus which you can see in the bottom picture.

Wednesday 17 December 2014

Shustoke Reservoir.






Nice early trip out to Shustoke Reservoir today as soon as I'd had a coffee in the car park, put seed down in various places for the birds and it was light enough I was off.

Highlights were seeing a flock of c.100 of Woodpigeon fly up from the ground in a farmers field, a flock of c.80 Goldfinch feasting on Alder tree along the river, over the reservoir it was great to see a flock of c.50 Lapwing circling the water, on the fly fishers pool it was pleasant to see a lone female Goosander, finally it was nice to see a male Pheasant, that thankfully some Hooray Henry hasn't shot yet.

Birds seen today were Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Robin, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Wren, Starling, Blackbird, Jay, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Woodpigeon, Pied Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, Pheasant (Cock), Lapwing, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Goosander (Female), Gadwall, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Coot and Canada Goose.

Unfortunately on the road outside the Reservoir there was a dead Muntjac Deer that was definitely not there on the inward journey, I couldn't just leave it in the road to be squashed by a lorry like most people can so on went the gardening gloves and I moved it to a much better resting place.

I stopped off at Coleshill again on the way home to have dinner and notable events were seeing a Carrion Crow have a very lucky escape with a Sparrowhawk, a flock of c.100 Starling, a pair of Collared Dove, c.20 Blackbird and c.30 Pied Wagtail on the Coleshill Memorial Park grass and seeing and hearing the resident House Sparrow population.

Tuesday 9 December 2014

Meriden Park, Solihull.





Another trip over to Solihull today this time to visit Meriden Park where I also took in a walk around Colebank Nature Reserve which was just as well because this was where the majority of the birds were seen with plenty of flocks of Tits, including a flock of c.40 Long Tailed Tit and a mixed flock of .50 Blue and Great Tit, also in the car park there was a flock of c.50 Long Tailed Tit and c.40 Goldfinch.

On the water is was nice to see a couple of Little Grebe and the resident Greylag/Domestic Goose plus plenty of Mallard.

Birds seen today were Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Goldfinch, Robin, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Wren, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Pied Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, Cormorant, Grey Heron (at least three), Little Grebe, Coot and Mallard.

Tuesday 2 December 2014

Newhall Valley Country Park.




Had a trip over to Sutton today to visit Newhall Valley Country Park where in all honesty there wasn't a lot of bird activity with the most exciting things saw were a Treecreeper, a nice mixed flock of Tits (Blue, Great and Long Tailed Tit), and seeing a young Grey Heron 'fishing' on the Plantsbrook, but as always it's always about what you see. it's just nice to get out and about.

Birds seen today were Treecreeper, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Goldfinch, House Sparrow, Robin, Wren, Starling, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Pied Wagtail, Grey Heron, Moorhen, Mallard and Canada Goose.