Being as I enjoyed my walk along the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal on Monday I thought I'd go back today and start my walk from The Boat Inn but walk in the opposite direction.
Today's story starts before I even got out of the car as on the way there I spotted Blue Tits feeding young at the top of a street sign outside a school and when I parked up I noticed a pair of Blue Tits going to and from the roof at The Boat Inn who were clearly feeding their young, funnily enough I plastered the room below the roof many years ago.
So in what was already a good start to the day, when I got to the canal the Goslings were still present in the garden and they had been fed giant Yorkshire Puddings which is first for me I must admit but they were enjoying them either way and even though I still thought there were ten, there were actually eleven Goslings when I looked back at the photos I had taken, which is great news especially when you see the size of them.
Other juveniles seen were seven Moorhen chicks, it was a pleasure to watch them foraging among the vegetation, just a pity there was a lot of plastic litter as well which has now sadly become commonplace, other juveniles seen were Starling, Blackbird, Magpie and Feral Pigeon, the juvenile Blackbird looked as if it had just fledged as it was very noisy and was constantly following the parents and begging for food at the same time.
In one of the farmers fields were there was a lone tree, there was the unusual sight of a Kestrel chasing away Corvids and not being mobbed by them as usually happens, as the Kestrel only left the tree to chase off the Corvids I suspect it had a nest there but it was located on the opposite side of the canal and too far way to be certain.
As was the case on Monday, wherever there were homes there were House Sparrows and plenty of them, no juveniles yet though but in the same area there were plenty of Starling juveniles, who were making their custom racket, I haven't always been a fan of the noise they make but I'm now definitely a fan.
Birds seen today were, Buzzard, Kestrel, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Wren, Robin, Chiffchaff, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Blue Tit, Starling, Jay, Blackbird, Collared Dove, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Moorhen, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Canada Goose as well as the following juveniles, Canada Goose Gosling (11), Moorhen (7), Blackbird, Starling, Magpie and Feral Pigeon.
I also paid a visit to Coleshill this morning and there were plenty of juvenile Starling present and then when I get home I could here that customary noise of juvenile Starlings and above is the first one that I saw in the garden.
Nice little visit, mostly anyway, to one of Birmingham's many canals this morning, namely that of a stretch of the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal around the Tyburn and Minworth areas and I when I say early it was and I was finished at around 9:30 a.m.
It was great to see four ducklings with attentive parents and ten goslings all from the same parents, even though they were fairly big a Carrion Crow was showing an interest in them but the parents wasn't letting it near, they were located in a garden opposite The Boat Inn but were too far away for decent photos.
As always it was great to see and hear much House Sparrow activity, they were present wherever there were homes on the canal except for where there are new homes on the former Cincinnati factory site where sadly the trees that have been felled there were no signs of Song Thrush whereas on every previous visit they were ever present.
Birds seen today were, Buzzard, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Wren, Robin, Blue Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Starling, Blackbird, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Little Egret, Moorhen, Mallard, Canada Goose as well as the following juveniles, Mallard Duckling (4), Canada Goose Gosling (10), Woodpigeon and Magpie, also Starlings were observed taking off food clealry meant for their young.
Large parts of the canal did look wonderful with all the trees, bushes and flowers in full flow but sadly that was masking the inevitable...
There were four seperate Feral Pigeons that had been caught up in netting under the Minworth Bridge and clearly died of starvation which is against the law under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 whether it was a deliberate act of cruelty or not, also large stretches of the water were a complete and utter disgrace, there were hundreds if not thousands of empty crisp packets and plastic bottles, not only did the water look a complete and utter mess which is clearly not ideal for the wildlife which inhabit the canal and then there was the obvious litter on the canal sides mainly made up of beer cans, plastic carrier bags and for some unknown reason lots of dumped machinery, clearly this canal is treated as 'out of sight, out of mind', well that's not the case anymore because I shall be raising my objections to the relevant bodies.
Great trip to Edgbaston Reservoir today where there wasn't a single cloud, just blue skies for as far as the eye could see.
As well as blue skies it was great to see juvenile birds, birds on the nest as well as building nests and the flowers and trees really coming to the fore, the trees in particular looked stunning.
I saw eight juvenile Coot, two sets of four, but there have may have been more as they were still actually on the nest with the parent still present, there were also at least twenty nesting Coot with others building nests.
In one of the two main areas of woodland I inadvertently scared off a Buzzard which was good news for all the birds present in that area of the reservoir, as well as all the birds you'd expect to see and hear there was a Mistle Thrush singing to it's hearts content, it was a pleasure to hear it having a good old sing song.
Birds seen today were, Buzzard, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chiffchaff, Chaffinch, Wren, Robin, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Mistle Thrush, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Mute Swan, Great Crested Grebe, Moorhen, Coot, Mallard and Canada Goose.
Butterflies seen today were Small White, Speckled Wood and Orange Tip.
I did notice upon arrival that the water levels were extremely high and talking to a local who's lived adjacent to the reservoir for over twenty three years he told me he's never seen them so high himself, what was more amazing was the amount of water running into the canal from the reservoir, it was gushing out at a very high speed without making any difference to the water levels.
As you can see from the above photo there were also very large Carp present, these fish clearly migrate to the warmer areas of the water as their were a good number in one of the shallow 'corners' where I've never seen them before.
As you can see I've left the most depressing aspect from today until last, when I went to the section where the newer trees have been planted to check how many were still intact I could smell burning wood when I noticed the above aberration, what an absolutely disgusting thing to do, sod nature, sod wildlife, in fact sod everybody else but us because we are so selfish, totally unacceptable and abhorrent, still I picked up all of the litter which included over forty bottles of empty lager, as well as empty food packaging etc, for some reason I decided to smell the rubbish which was an extremely bad idea as it made me throw up, I won't do that again ! Apart from that most of the trees still remained intact with only a few snapped by the mindless morons that do such things. I must also say thank you to the people at 'Midland Sailing Club' who are located on the reservoir for allowing me to use their facilities to wash my hands after I'd deposited all the litter.
I'll finish on a good note and say that it's great to see the Mason Bees enjoying the warm weather in my back garden today, they are never active for very long but it's great to see them when they are.
