Chester Road Canal, Birmingham.

Great trip to one of the many canals that can be found in Birmingham which was two weeks later than planned due to the recent weather and other events out of my control but that was maybe down to fate giving the drama that unfolded this morning. 

The drama seems a good place to start, so here goes, whilst walking along the canal and approaching one of the locks a woman spoke to us and explained that there were four ducklings trapped in the lock and making it sound like it was in the past tense, to my horror when I approached the lock four little ducklings were trapped in the lock with no way out whatsoever and they were constantly calling for their mother who was further down the canal under the bridge with ten other little babies and she was also constantly calling out for them, so there was absolutely no way in the world I was going to leave them there, but what to do, fish them out of the water - no, try to make them jump out the side of the lock - no chance it was far too high, fashion something from the surroundings to scoop them out - there was nothing suitable so after about twenty minutes of frantically trying to stop them from getting them out of the other end of the lock (which had been left open by the aforementioned woman) where there was fast flushing water leading to a drain I happened upon the idea of finding a branch so they could walk up the branch and run to freedom to their mother, I'm happy to say after another ten minutes of risking falling in the canal and running back and forth like a maniac to get the birds in the right position to help them, I actually managed to get all four to walk up the branch so they could run down the path to be reunited with their mother, I did it all for them but I did feel a great deal of satisfaction for helping the little ones out, they are in the first photo by the way.

Talking of baby birds also seen today were twenty four Ducklings, three Moorhen juveniles, two Canada Goose Goslings, Blue Tit and Starling juveniles as well as hundreds of House Sparrows where a good quarter of their number were juveniles, which is even more amazing when you consider they were all seen in about a one mile stretch of the canal.

Birds seen today were, Blackcap (male) who was having a good old sing song, Blue Tit, House Sparrow, Robin, Wren, Chiffchaff, Goldfinch, Starling, Collared Dove, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Moorhen, Mallard and Canada Goose.

I'm also pleased to report that according to a local a pair of Kingfisher have successfully raised young further down the canal to where I walked, great to know there are juvenile Kingfisher on the canal !