Great visit to Southfields Farm in Coleshill which yet again was bathed in sunshine replete with lush blues skies.
In all fairness it was very much the same as my last visit but that is by no means a bad thing.
There was the usual 'silly' amount of House Sparrow with them being literally everywhere especially around the farm itself and the outbuildings, in the fields themselves there were quite a few flocks of Goldfinch which of course included many juveniles among their numbers, Mistle Thrushes could be heard singing, Swifts again were above in huge numbers as were Skykark but obviously only a handful of those, in the fields and around the buildings there were also healthy amounts of both House Martin and Swallow, for some reason the last field I came to was 'Corvid city', where there were Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Rook, Raven and Magpie and they were all represented with good numbers of juveniles among them, that field may have been popular for them as it's the field the horses are always in.
There were most types of wildflower in all the fields including the meadows, there's actually too many too mention but varieties included were, Knapweed, Birds Foot Trefoil, Musk Mallow, Red Clover, Vetch, Oxeye Daisy, Lady's Bedstraw, Cranesbill, Meadowsweet, Cornflower, Wild Carrot, Red Campion and Common Poppy, there were also plenty of butterflies including Peacock, Small White, Ringlet and Meadow Brown.
Birds seen today were, Buzzard, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Wren, Robin, Skylark, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Mistle Thrush, Blackbird, Swift, House Martin, Swallow, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Rook, Raven, Magpie, Moorhen and Coot.
Today was an absolutely perfect day for a spot of birding with amazing clear blue skies and it being fairly cool early in the morning.
Highlight of the day was not even seeing a bird but hearing one, how could the sound of a Cuckoo not be the highlight of any day ? It only called about four times but what a great sound especially when it's one that's disappearing fast from our rural areas.
Other highlights were seeing hundreds if not thousands of Swift above the fields, I'v never seen so many before, which again is great when you consider just like the Cuckoo their numbers are plummeting, seeing and hearing Skylark high above the same fields, watching a Whitethroat catching insects on the wing and hearing the same bird singing whilst at the same time being able to observe it doing so, seeing a female Blackcap in the same binocular view as the Whitethroat, that certainly doesn't happen very often, hearing Mistle Thrush singing and last but not least, yep you've guessed it, the usual amazing amount of House Sparrows, I currently have around c.100 visiting my garden but even that number is dwarfed here and just like in my garden the population has been healthfully bolstered with many juveniles, there were a lot !
The only disappointment of the day was the wildflower meadow, don't get me wrong as it still looks wonderful but not nearly as wonderful as previous years, for starters it doesn't look like it's been managed as before with far too much grass growing and for some reason the 'wildflower meadow' sign was missing, not sure if that was a coincidence or not as John the farmer was busy so I didn't get to speak to him, either way there was still an abundance of Musk Mallow, Knapweed, Birds Foot Trefoil, Red Clover etc, and the field was literally buzzing with insects including hundreds of Meadow Brown and Banded Demoiselle.
Birds seen today were, Cuckoo (heard), Buzzard, Whitethroat, Skykark, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Chiffchaff, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Wren, Robin, Starling, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Mistle Thrush, Swift, House Martin, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie and Moorhen.
