Nice visit to Shustoke Reservoir early this morning where it was nice to see so many Mallard Ducklings, I counted thirty seven in different stages of growth from tiny little young ones to others who are now only slightly different to the adults, also seen were four Mute Swan Cygnets, seven Coot juveniles as well as the following, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Robin and Carrion Crow, in fact the wooded area between the farmers field and the fly-fishers pool there was an amazing amount of juvenile birds which were mainly the aforementioned Tits and Finches, also heard but not seen were calling Great Spotted Woodpeckers, I also saw one Mute Swan on the nest and a Great Spotted Grebe trying to build a nest, they always find it difficult to build a nest on the reservoir.
The water fowl weren't present in great numbers today but there was a good flock of c.40 Canada Geese which is unusual for this location, there was actually more going on above the water with hundreds of House Martin, Swift and Sand Martin.
It was great to see two Skylark today of which were above separate farmer's fields, hopefully if they have nests in the fields they are left undisturbed.
Birds seen today were, Buzzard, Skylark, Nuthatch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Chiffchaff, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Robin, Wren, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Carrion Crow, House Martin, Swift, Sand Martin, Great Crested Grebe, Coot, Tufted Duck, Mallard and Canada Goose.
Great visit to Meriden Park and Cole End Nature Reserve in Solihull this morning which was ironic because it wasn't the location that I originally intended to visit but then again anybody who knows me knows that I do like to change my mind at the last minute.
Firstly I'll start by saying how this park has a 'Green Flag' award is completely beyond me as on this visit just like the previous occasions it's a disgusting mess, I really do feel sorry for the wildlife that inhabit the water as it's always full of litter, shopping trolley's in double numbers, plastic and cans etc and to top it off the section by the college stinks, which it always has done, sadly this is a great park which is purely let down by the location and the people that live there, it's no wonder that Solihull don't actually want Chelmsley Wood to part of it, all the same I must give top marks that there is a sign to discourage people from feeding the ducks bread and the Amey workers always pick up the the litter every morning.
Now I've got that off my chest what about the birds I hear you say, obviously the only place to start is the juveniles and there were plenty of them, everywhere I went today there were Blue Tit and Great Tit seen and heard and you sure can hear them, also seen and heard where the not so vocal baby Long Tailed Tits, in the wooded area there were juvenile Robin's who looked like they'd just fledged, it was great to watch them for over ten minutes, I saw three but there may have been more, there were clearly a lot of juvenile Starling, you certainly can't miss them, I dare say there were also baby House Sparrows but I didn't spot any, along the river amongst the vegetation both juvenile Mistle Thrush and Blackbird were seen, disappointingly the Mute Swans didn't have any young but I did see fifteen Mallard Duckling and three Moorhen chicks, I didn't see any Coot chicks but I did see three Coots on the nest.
I also saw a Buzzard nest in a tree on the edge of the river, worryingly the nest is located right where the juvenile Mallard and Moorhen's are, one of the raptors made an unsuccessful attempt at taking one of the very young ducklings but with them only looking days old and there being plenty of them I can't see them avoiding the Buzzard's for too long.
On the River Cole that heads towards the A452 it was great to see Grey Heron, Little Egret and a good mixture of birds, most of the birds today were seen in that area as was copious amounts of Rabbits, it's great to see that they've held onto this area despite houses being built on the opposite side of the river.
The area where the rabbits are located is known as Cole End Nature Reserve which like I say is great for birds but it's also an excellent area for many types of wildflower, I've never seen so much birds-foot trefoil in one location as there was today but the best spot for was finding a lovely Bladder Campion plant (it's the one in the fifth picture above), I only saw one plant but that was still great to see, just a pity today was dull and rainy as otherwise the area would have seen many butterflies and insects if the sun would have been out, so I'll have to pay there another visit soon when the suns out.
Birds seen today were, Buzzard, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chiffchaff, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Wren, Robin, Starling, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Mistle Thrush, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Little Egret, Little Grebe, Mallard, Moorhen, Coot and Domestic/Greylag hybrid.
Also in the garden I've had a huge influx of juvenile House Sparrow and Starling which is great news !
Nice visit to Southfields Farm in Coleshill today where the were plenty of juveniles present, there were huge numbers of baby House Sparrow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Goldfinch, Starling with Carrion Crow and Magpie seen in much lower numbers.
I spoke to John the Farmer before I set off and he told me that Lapwings have nests in one of the farrow fields, unfortunately I couldn't locate it but knowing they are nesting on the land is good enough for me, funnily enough John deliberately set aside a patch of land for the Lapwings to nest on but as wildlife tends to do they've decided to completely ignore it and have settled where they want to, also be rest assured John told me that the land will not be touched until the Lapwings have fledged.
I'm not sure whether this is a good or bad thing but there were a lot of Buzzard present, I suppose in the big scheme of things it's good have a bit of balance but I just thought there were a lot for how many I saw on the area I covered this morning.
Even though the wildflower meadow was a bit disappointing as at the moment most flowers haven't come into their own yet there was a pleasant surprise in one of the fields as where I've only seen crops before there was a massive area awash with many different kinds of wildflowers, when I say massive area I really do mean it, not sure why that field is now full of wildflowers as I didn't see John again, hopefully I'll find out next time, either way there was a flock of c.60 Goldfinch, which included many juveniles feasting on all the seed that were on offer.
I was hoping to spot Yellowhammer today which I didn't manage to do but I did see and hear many Skylark which is a good second.
Birds seen today were, Buzzard, Skylark, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chiffchaff, Goldfinch, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Wren, Robin, Starling, Blackbird, Jay, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, House Martin, Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie and Grey Heron in one of the fields that's adjacent to the river.
If you were planning to visit the farm this weekend for 'Open Farm Sunday', sadly John's not having one this year due to various reasons but he's going to have one next year that's bigger and better.
