Quick visit to Rookery Park in Erdington this morning being as I was in the area, I had planned to visit Southfields Farm in Coleshill but the hot weather put me off, hopefully I'll get there next week instead.
Highlight of the day was a joint one today because I very rarely see either, first in alphabetical and chronological order was the wonderful sighting of juvenile Goldcrest, what a truly amazing wonderful little bird, the sighting was slightly spoiled though because the tell tale call of Sparrowhawk was heard above me shortly before it swooped into a tree and maybe caught a bird, then secondly the just as equally sighting of a pair of juvenile Nuthatch, they were so young they still had their fluffy downy feathers, they were a great sight to see, other juvenile birds spotted were, Blue Tit, Great Tit and Chaffinch.
Birds seen today were, Sparrowhawk, Goldcrest, Nuthatch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Wren, Robin, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blackbird, Swift, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Carrion Crow and Magpie.
As well as all the wonderful trees that adorn this park there are also lots of great wildflowers and plants, sadly though judging by what I saw today it looks like they are shortly to be all mown down, which would be a real shame because they are in their prime and they bring a bit of colour to the grounds.
Sadly there also has to be the inevitable downside of the visit which as per usual is committed by irresponsible people, namely that of huge amounts of litter strewn across the park which largely consisted of discarded takeaway rubbish, drinks containers, school text books and literature and full dog poo bags. I will never understand why some people have no respect for nature and wildlife at such locations and have total disregard for us decent people that wish to visit these places, depressing as earlier stated a lot of this is done by schoolchildren, if they are the future then God help us !
