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 !
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