Shard End Lake.

Today was the perfect morning for a little spot of birding, so it was off to Shard End for a quick walk around the lake before I had some business not too far from this location, it was pity I was there so early as the sun was quite out yet but all the wonderful mixture of Autumnal colours made up for that.

The lake was very busy, even though there wasn't a large amount of waterfowl what species were there were very ambulant, there were fifteen Mute Swan with eleven of them being this year's juveniles, they looked great especially as the sun was coming up, it was nice to see some Gadwall, just a pity they never come to close to see them properly, thank the Lord for binoculars, being as a large colony of Parakeet have set up home here it was strange not seeing many around, speaking to a local they are still present in large numbers, in the hundreds, so they must have gone of feeding as soon as the sun arose.

Birds seen today were, Great Tit, Robin, Wren, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Parakeet, Mute Swan, Great Crested Grebe, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Moorhen Coot and Canada Goose.

Again like with the birds the fungi that was around was limited but what was there was in large amounts, it must be a good year for fungi as I've already taken hundreds of images in the last month.

Shustoke Reservoir.

 

Great visit to Shustoke Reservoir this morning where I made the schoolboy error of wearing too many layers it was unseasonably warm, still great to be out and about all the same.

One of the very first spots of the day was observing a Goldcrest foraging in the trees right in front of me, literally yards away from me, unfortunately as soon I got the camera out it was off, great start to the morning all the same.

It was very quiet on the reservoir, so I thought at least the fly-fishers pool would be bustling with birds, if anything that was even quieter than the reservoir, somewhere which was definitely quiet, in fact it was devoid of any wildlife, namely that of one of the adjacent fields of which in the past I have commented on a lot because it was full of trees and wildflowers and had been left to nature, that has sadly come to end as all the trees and any  sign of flora have been destroyed, shame on whoever was responsible (the farmer?), because it's now a barren wasteland which is even more reprehensible what with all the natural habitat that has been lost forever due to the waste of space that is HS2! At least all the trees and bushes that remain in the other fields were full of birds and insects due to the clement weather.

The reservoir didn't hold too many birds aside from a large quantity of Black Headed Gull, a relatively large number of Little and Great Crested Grebe and a lot of Mallard.

Birds seen today were, Goldcrest, Chiffchaff, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Buzzard, Pied Wagtail, Cormorant, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Canada Goose and Black Headed Gull.

Babbs Mill Local Nature Reserve.

Great visit to Babbs Mill where it was lovely and cool and actually quite pleasant to be overcast for a change.

I haven't seen and heard so many juvenile Tits in a long while, they could be seen practically all around the lake and along the River Cole, they must have had an excellent breeding season so far this year, which was certainly the case for the pair of Mute Swan on the lake, I don't think I've ever seen so many Cygnets that big from one family before and to think they were only born in May, Mallards have also been very successful at this location as there were many who were clearly from this year's breeding season, it was also great to see juvenile, Grey Heron, Great Crested Grebe and Coot.

As is always at this time of the year it's great to see all the flowers and bushes in full flow, there are some particularly large patches of wildflower here which is great for all the pollinators that visit the lake.

Birds seen today were, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, House Sparrow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Greenfinch, Wren, Robin, Dunnock, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Raven, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Parakeet, Grey Heron, Little Egret, Great Crested Grebe, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Moorhen, Coot, Greylag Goose, Domestic Goose and Canada Goose.

Plantsbrook Local Nature Reserve.

Lovely visit Plantsbrook Local Nature Reserve this morning, especially as I went nice and early and had the place to myself upon arrival and the weather was great.

It's always great to see juvenile birds, so it was a pleasure from the off to be greeted by numerous Mallard Ducklings and juvenile Coots, even if they were constantly squabbling with each other as soon as I put some bird seed down for them, other juvenile birds seen were Wren, Blue Tit and Great Tit.

An absolute delight but very unusual sight was that of a Green Woodpecker in the meadow, I'm pretty sure I've never seen here before, especially strange though when you consider that they normally prefer grassland, maybe it came over from the adjacent Pype Hayes Park as that was very busy with dog walkers and there was no one in Plantsbrook, not until I turned up anyway.

There were a pair of Mute Swan but sadly there were no signs of a nest or any young, saying that the location where they were you would have been hard pushed to spot a nest anyway.

It was also great to see the meadow has been left untouched which was really nice to see, wildflowers seen were Heath Spotted Orchid, Meadow Crane's-bill, Bird's-foot trefoil, Red Clover, Cornflower and Cow Parsley.

Birds seen today were, Chiffchaff, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Mallard, Domestic Duck, Mallard, Moorhen, Coot and Canada Goose, also seen were the following juveniles, Mallard (22), Coot (16), Wren, Blue Tit, Great Tit and three nesting Coot.

Brookvale Park, Erdington.

 

Nice visit to Brookvale Park in Erdington this morning which was definitely very Spring like with fairly warm weather, blues skies and everything coming back into life at full speed.

In my opinion, the best three things about this location is the huge amount of House Sparrow which is mainly due to all the old homes situated adjacent to the pool, the huge amount of Mute Swan always present, .c50 was the number today and also the high number of House Martin present during the Spring and Summer, which is due again to old the old homes that can be found here, their numbers were quite low today, still early days in the breeding season though.

It was a pleasure to see two juvenile Coot today, there was also one Great Crested Grebe and five Coot on the nest, saying that the nest are fairly had to spot at this site,

Birds seen today were, Chiffchaff, House Sparrow, Wren, Dunnock, Blue Tit, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Carrion Crow, Magpie, House Martin, Cormorant, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Great Crested Grebe and Canada Goose.

Newhall Valley Country Park.

Great visit to Newhall Valley Country Park in Royal Sutton Coldfield, where it was actually quite warm, didn't stop both the neighbours having their heating on full blast when I got home, they have both had it on twenty four hours a day for over five months now but I digress, as I drew up in the car park this morning and there were Redwing foraging on the grass right in front of the car which was a nice surprise, then shortly after leaving the car park I spotted a Little Egret high up in a tree and actually managed to get under the branch to get some photos that is until a rude dog walker scared it off, I say rude as other dog walkers managed to walk by without scaring it off, there was quite a lot of birdsong to be heard with plenty of Song Thrush in particular in full voice.

Spot of the day had to be the sighting of a Goldcrest, saying that I've currently got (at least) one visiting my garden, which when I got home and was cleaning my boots was singing to me from the apple tree in my garden, as I've said before I do love to see all the birds, but it is nice to see something you don't see all the time, a bird seen more commonly of late is Parakeet which unusually wasn't seen until the very end of my visit today, last but not least it was a real pleasure to see many mixed flocks of Tit and Finch, especially as they will soon go their seperate ways when it's breeding season and food is more readily available.

Birds seen this morning were, Goldcrest, House Sparrow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Robin, Wren, Dunnock, Starling, Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Parakeet, Redwing, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Moorhen, Coot, Mallard and Canada Goose.

Plantsrook Local Nature Reserve.

Great visit to Plantsbrook this morning, even though it was very misty, I initially thought the weather conditions would ruin the visit, but it gave it a nice gothic feel with the odd splash of vivid colour.

It was great to see Shoveller, Goosander and Domestic Duck on the pool, shame there were no Mute Swan or Canada Geese present though, always good to see Cormorant in attendance as well, especially as they always dry their wings on the raft which is far enough away so they don't suffer and human interference.

As is anywhere in Birmingham at the moment, there were no shortage of Parakeet to be seen and heard, in fact it was nice to see plenty of birds singing, especially Song Thrush who were very vocal.

Birds seen today were, House Sparrow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Wren, Robin, Song Thrush, Jay, Parakeet, Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Cormorant, Shoveller, Goosander, Domestic Duck, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Moorhen and Coot.