Pype Hayes Park.

Another trip to Pype Hayes park to see how the Cygnets are getting on and all five are healthy and doing well, as are all the Goslings who are now fully grown. There was also 19 Ducklings today, all about 1-2 days old, I didn't see any nests there but there is an excellent small island on the pool out of harms way where the Mallards , Coots and Canada Geese must have raised their young. Birds spotted today were Great Spotted Woodpecker, Song Thrush, Jackdaw, Jay, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Wren, Dunnock, Mute Swan as well as the following juveniles/young Duckling (19) Coot (1) Robin, Magpie, Woodpigeon and even a baby Grey Squirrel. I don't know if it's the warm weather but I saw five or six lots of white dog poo today, I know everything is retro these days but this is getting ridiculous, in fact I felt compelled to listen to 'Reward' by 'The Teardrop Explodes', 'Centrefold' by 'The J.Geils Band', and 'Do Anything You Wanna Do' by 'Eddie and The Hotrods' when I got home !

Plantsbrook Nature Reserve.

Birds spotted today at Plantsbrook were Great Spotted Woodpecker, Collared Dove, Little Grebe, Moorhen, Tufted Duck, Grey Heron, Cormorant, a healthy amount of fourteen Herring Gull and the following young Great Crested Grebe (2) Moorhen (2) Coot (5) and Duckling (5) Apparently many Canada Geese including one of the two young that was born on the path and one of the Gosling's parents went 'missing' while the gippo's were camping on the industrial estate at the back of the park, just another reason to hate the pikeys ! Also saw some 'Old School' white dog poo today at Plantsbrook, I haven't seen any of that since the days of 'Spangles' Aztec Bars' and cans of 'Quatro.' There is quite a lot of Funghi out there at the moment if you can be bothered to go mooching in the undergrowth and I do love a good mooch me :)

Lady Bradford's, Castle Bromwich.

A trip over Castle Bromwich today, not the best day for birding but I did manage to see a Pheasant Hen as it flew up from the plentiful Rosebay Willowherb and scared the life out of me being as it was only about four foot in front of me and screeching like a chav when the off license is closed. Talking to a local, there are at least three Pheasant Cock and two Pheasant Hen over there and they definitely bred last your but he wasn't sure this year being as they are very hard to spot being as thankfully they inhabit a portion of the land which is hard to get to by foot. Birds spotted today were Pheasant, Willow Warbler, juvenile Robin, juvenile Song Thrush and two Grey Heron flying overhead. As always it was nice to see some Funghi. I also found a dead adult Shrew today, which I buried along with a Horse Chestnut tree I've cultivated since last winter, I must have planted 40-50 trees over there this year, but they will still probably be struck by the disease caused by the Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner which blights most of the trees over Lady Bradford's and the surrounding areas.

Middleton Lakes, RSPB Nature Reserve.

Another trip to the excellent Middleton Lakes today where the highlight was seeing my first ever Green Woodpecker in the car park, then I went and saw another one on a footpath by the lakes presumably eating ants. Birds spotted today Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, House Martin, Swallow, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Reed Warbler, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Reed Bunting, Robin, House Sparrow, Pied Wagtail, Kestrel, Buzzard, Lapwing, Great Crested Grebe, Tufted Duck, Grey Heron, Cormorant, Common Tern, plus the following chicks/juveniles, Black Headed Gull (2) Duckling (12) Tufted Duck (8) Coot (3) Moorhen (1) Great Crested Grebe (1) Lapwing (1) Cygnet (1) Robin, Blue Tit, Great Tit and Chaffinch. Other animals seen today were Rabbit, Sheep, Chickens and Cows including four English Longhorn who have the whole of the meadow field to themselves. There was an abundance of Cinnabar caterpillar's today, if there was any Ragwort about it was sure to be full of Cinnabar. It was also nice to see Goldfinch, including juveniles, feasting on teasel and thistle.

Babbs Mill Nature Reserve, Kingshurst.

A trip to Kingshurst today, where the highlight of the day was seeing a pair of Kingfishers flying back and forth between a corner of the lake and the River Cole 'fishing'. Birds seen today were Kingfisher, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Treecreeper, Song Thrush, Long Tailed Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, House Sparrow, Greylag Goose, Mute Swan, Great Crested Grebe, Moorhen, Grey Heron, and the following juveniles/chicks, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Grey Heron (2) Cygnet (5) Great Crested Grebe (1) Moorhen (4) Duckling (4) and Coot chick (5) Apparently there are also two pairs of Little Grebe's on the nest as well, couldn't find them though. I've never seen so many birds today, ranging from Farmyard Ducks and Greylag Goose to Magpies today with foot or leg injuries, apparently there are a lot of birds getting injured by the local chav 'fisherman' discarding their fishing line etc. in the water and along the riverbank in the bushes were the warblers etc. are nesting, they are probably the same idiots who have been jet-skiing and power boating on the lake and along the River Cole, they're just scum, simple as that !

Pype Hayes Park and Plantsbrook Nature Reserve.

                   Pype Hayes Park.

                    Plantsbrook.

  
Quick visit to see if the Cygnets are still okay at Pype Hayes park, and all five are still doing well, birds spotted at Pype Hayes were Nuthatch, Swallow, Tufted Duck, Mute Swan, Cygnet (5) Duckling (5) and Coot chick (2) All fifteen of the Goslings here have now lost their down and are only slightly smaller than the adults. Birds seen at Plantsbrook were Great Spotted Woodpecker, Song Thrush, Swift, Long Tailed Tit, Robin (juvenile) Great Crested Grebe, Little Grebe, Tufted Duck, Cormorant, Great Crested Grebe chick (1) Moorhen chick (4) Duckling (5) and Coot chick (10) There only appears to be one of two Goslings left from the couple born from the female that was on the footpath, which is a shame, because they were really friendly which possibly was the downfall for one of them. I saw a female Mallard approximately four weeks ago with a broken wing, I did report it to the ranger but he was about much use as a B******ham C**y striker, 'we are a nature reserve not an animal sanctuary' he informed me, if that's the case he wants to pick up the copious amounts of litter I see on every visit instead of leaving it to mugs like me, I find it hard to just leave it there though, because of the dangers it presents to the wildlife, anyway this Mallard is still alive, but the twitching in it's wing has got more repetitive, hopefully she'll be okay though.


Literally seconds after I'd said today was a bit uneventful, I saw a dead cat in the road by the Fort Dunlop, so I went back, retrieved it, nearly getting run over by the moronic chavbag drivers, checked for a name tag, there was a collar but no name tag, so I took it home and buried it and gave it a decent send off, only realising later it could have been chipped, still it was better than leaving it where it was, because of the huge lorries that were only just missing it and nearly flattening the poor thing. There is only space for two cats left in the pet cemetery, sorry I mean back garden, one space for the resident cat (cover your ears 'Fudge') and one for another unfortunate find. 

No posts for a week, then my longest post (ooeerr missus) I am blessed with a long post even if I do say so myself. Hope you enjoyed reading the blog anyway.

Middleton Lakes RSPB Nature Reserve, Tamworth.

A trip today to Middleton Lakes RSPB Nature Reserve just south of Tamworth. In fact we were supposed to be going to Kingsbury Water Park, but saw the sign post for RSPB's newest Nature Reserve and decided to go there, which was a wise choice. Lot's of lakes, the River Tame, a canal, meadow fields, waterlands, grasslands, woodlands and reedbeds, so there is plenty of birds, wildlife and plant life. Birds seen were Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, House Martin, Swallow, Swift, Willow Warbler, Reed Warbler, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Robin, Song Thrush, Kingfisher, Pied Wagtail, Grey Heron, Common Tern, Little Ringed Plover, Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Gadwall, Great Crested Grebe, Moorhen, Tufted Duck, Mute Swan and the following chicks/juveniles, Lapwing (3) Coot (7) Cygnet (3) Moorhen (3) Robin (3) and 9 Tufted Duck chicks from the same family. While we were watching the Lapwing chicks, an adult Lapwing was going mental, even though we were in the hide, it was screeching and feigning injury pretending to have a broken wing to avert our attention from the chicks, so we left as not to agitate it any more. Other animals seen were Hare, Horse, Cow and chickens. We also went to see next years Premier League champions 'Aston Villa F.C.' at Aston Villa's training ground 'Bodymoor Heath' which is adjacent to the reserve. I've uploaded the video of the Song Thrush singing today for a trial for future uploads, it was one of the first birds I saw today, it seemed to be enjoying itself anyway.

Rookery Park and Brookvale Park, Erdington.

                              Rookery Park. 

                                           Brookvale Park.

A trip to Rookery Park and Brookvale Park in Erdington. Birds seen at Rookery Park were Nuthatch, Song Trush, Swift, Robin and a juvenile Blackbird. Birds seen at Brookvale Park were Swallow, House Martin, Swift, House Sparrow, Starling, Greylag Goose, Great Crested Grebe, Tufted Duck, Coot chick (19) Duckling (3) Gosling (4) Great Crested Grebe chick (1) and House Sparrow fledglings. There was lots of House Martin's and Swallow's flying into the eaves of the houses adjacent to the pool presumably feeding their young, even non birders (weirdo's) were looking up at the high pitched calls the birds were making, there must have been seventy plus birds. There was no sign of the five Cygnets that was there on my last visit (26th May) hopefully they were fine and were just on one of the islands and hadn't been a snack for one of our Polish 'friends'. It was also Grey Squirel central at Brookvale, they were everywhere, judging by the litter all around the pool, it's because there's no shortage of food for them.