Birmingham and Fazeley Canal.

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.