Moseley Bog Nature Reserve and Sarehole Mill.

Moseley Bog.

Sarehole Mill.

I haven't had any proper walking boots for the past six weeks so I've been a bit restricted to the places I've been able to visit, so after a lot of hassle with Millets (the boots were actually brought at Blacks) and basically standing my ground and not falling for their incompetence, I got my money back and brought a nice shiny pair of Mammut walking boots from Go Outdoors, so I can now go to a few more places without worrying about my footwear, hence today's visit to Moseley Bog Nature Reserve and Sarehole Mill, favourite haunts of J.R.R.Tolkien and the inspiration for The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit.
 
First off it was a visit to the very impressive Moseley Bog Nature Reserve, I've never seen such a wide variety of trees in such a small place, with the dead and fallen trees equally as impressive as the living ones, I wish I'd have somewhere like that to have an explore around when I was child. Like I said even the dead and fallen trees were creating many weird and wonderful natural patterns with their branches and uprooted roots. As soon as you walked in the place was filled with many song birds singing and flitting from tree to tree. I will certainly be returning here very soon and definitely in the Autumn time because I saw some great Funghi today but I imagine that will be nothing compared to the Autumn, plus it will have the added bonus for the birdwatcher, a bit less leaf cover to hide our feathered friends.

Birds spotted were Kestrel (being mobbed by a lone Magpie), Buzzard (circling high above), Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, Nuthatch, Wren, Robin, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Woodpigeon as well as the following juveniles, Song Thrush and Woodpigeon.
 
Then it was off to Sarehole Mill were we also took in the guided tour. It was just a pity that the Mill Pond is currently dry as part of the restoration work, it would have been nice to see it full of water fowl and we might even have spotted a Kingfisher. The only birds seen here were the usual suspects such as Robin and Woodpigeon etc.