Whitacre Heath Nature Reserve (SSSI), Tamworth.

Great afternoon spent yesterday at Whitacre Heath Nature Reserve in Tamworth on a wetland and wildflower walk courtesy of Tame Valley Wetlands and Warwickshire Wildlife Trust.

I would normally put a list up of all the birds I saw on the visit but most of the time was spent looking down rather than up and I also made the schoolboy error of forgetting my binoculars, only the second time that that's ever happened !

So instead I'll list all of the wildflowers we saw, I am by no means a wildflower and wetland flower expert so it was great to find out how many there were in such a small area and also to learn which flower you're most likely to be growing in certain locations and soil types.

Here is a list of flowers seen in the order they were find starting from the car park and around the reserve, Lady's Bedstraw, Oxeye Daisy, White Clover, Red Clover, Birds Foot Trefoil, Lesser Trefoil, Hogweed, Knapweed, Willowherb, Ragwort (many were full of Cinnabar Moth Caterpillars), Burdock, False Oat-grass, St John's Wort, Black Medic, Weld, Marsh Thistle, Rosebay Willowherb, Teasel, Broom, Creeping Thistle, Fairy Flax, Blue Fleabane, Smooth Hawks-Beard, Common Vetch, Tufted Vetch, Spotted Orchid, False Fox-sedge, Meadowsweet, Tufted Hair Grass, Water Figwort, Hawkweed, Hemlock, Cocksfoot, Cut-leaf Cransebill, Mugwort, Hedge Woundwort, Dog Rose, Creeping Buttercup, Forget-Me-Not, Self-heal, Wild Raspberry, Perennial Rye-grass, Yorkshire Fog, Bentgrass, Foxglove and Sticky Weed, there were also other plants identified but unfortunately I can't read what I've written down.

My favourite wildflower that I saw was Blue Fleabane because it can only found at a handful of locations in Warwickshire and was actually very abundant at this location.

Staying on the wildlower theme all being well I shall be visiting Southfields Farm in Coleshill the weekend to see how the wildflower meadow is looking, I was told yesterday that it looks fantastic, I shall also remember to take my binoculars this time so I can do the all important bird list.