Edgbaston Reservoir.

 A dead tree where a Great Spotted Woodpecker chick is nesting.

The tell tale signs of Woodpecker activity found upon the ground and on top of the nettles where the Great Spotted Woodpecker chick is nesting.


The planned trip to Edgbaston Reservoir went ahead in what turned out to be a gloriously hot sunny day. The difference in the water levels from this and my last visit back in early January was quite staggering, if you look at the post from then and now the transformation is quite unbelievable, the second picture from that post and the sixth from this post are taken in the exact same place, in fact according to one of the locals, they've never even seen the reservoir so full in over thirty years, the water was actually lapping over the edges in places. 

It was also great to go back to the reservoir in all it's colourful splendor, plenty of greens, browns and plenty of wild flowers and even plenty of weeds, which do get a bad press but in the proper environment they do look nice and serve their purpose in the ecological chain.

Highlights of the day was seeing the Reservoir nice and full, the Great Spotted Woodpecker feeding the noisy young chick plenty of grubs and seeing my first juvenile Blackbird of the year, very underrated is the Blackbird, I personally think they are a great bird. It was great too see plenty of Moorhen because you don't always see that many here, especially when the water levels are low, which certainly wasn't the case today. 

Birds spotted were, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Song Thrush, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Wren, Chaffinch, Robin, House Sparrow, House Martin, Blackbird, Carrion Crow, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Mute Swan, Great Crested Grebe, Moorhen, Coot, Mallard and Canada Goose, plus the following chicks juveniles, Great Spotted Woodpecker (1), Blackbird (1) and Coot (7) finally the following nesting waterfowl, Great Crested Grebe (2) and Coot (11).

Ward End Park.

I spent barely thirty minutes at Ward End Park today thanks to the rain, so unfortunately there's not many bird spots to report even though it was nice to hear some Great Spotted Woodpecker chicks in one of the old trees around the park, I'd already heard the chicks but after seeing an adult Great Spotted Woodpecker fly out of the hole where the noise was coming from it was all the confirmation I needed. Birds spotted were, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Goldfinch, Robin, Blackbird, Collard Dove, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Moorhen, Canada Goose, Coot, Mallard, Pekin Duck and the following juveniles, Gosling (1) and Coot (1). It doesn't seem to be a vintage year for breeding the water fowl this year, even though I know it's early days, I'm only seeing most adults with only one chick at the moment, which seems a real shame, one thing I put it down to is the high amount of Gulls wherever I go, but if it is that I don't condone culling them so I don't know what the answer is ? Another depressing thing to see was one of the resident Muscovy Ducks lying dead on one the three islands and the other usual resident, ominously nowhere to be seen, it was hard to see how it met it's demise but with the other one missing it does seem strange how one is dead and one is missing presumed dead. The only other spots from today was seeing a pair of Greenfinch in the Fort Retail car park and seeing a Sparrowhawk nearly take a Magpie in the car journey away from the Fort. All being well I should be visiting Edgbaston reservoir again next week, another visit was on the cards again but even more so now the water levels have risen again and it's also nice to see the Reservoir being granted Local Nature Reserve status.

Plantsbrook Nature Reserve and Pype Hayes Park.

Plantsbrook Nature Reserve.

Pype Hayes Park.

A trip to Plantsbrook Nature Reserve and Pype Hayes this morning, primarily to see how many new  arrivals there are and also to see if the recent rainfall has had any effect on the river that flows into the Plants Brook. I spoke to a local at Plantsbrook and he told me that some of the moronic chavs had tried to injure or kill the Mute Swan on the nest with a big piece of wood, but thankfully had no success, I don't know what goes through their tiny minds, if they don't appreciate nature then they should stay away from it, string the little bastards up I would. Birds spotted at Plantsbrook were, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blackcap (male). Chiffchaff, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Robin, Collared Dove, Blackbird, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Woodpigeon, Grey Heron , Cormorant, Mute Swan, Great Crested Grebe, Moorhen, Coot, Canada Goose and Mallard. Also seen today were the following chicks/juveniles, Coot (11) Duckling (8) Gosling (1) Robin (1) and Long Tailed Tit (2), as well as the following nesting birds, Mute Swan (1) Canada Goose (1) and Coot (9). Then it was off to the adjacent Pype Hayes Park where the following birds were spotted, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Blackcap (male), Blue Tit, Great Tit, Robin, Starling, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Coot and Mallard. As well as the following chicks, Gosling (5) and Coot (5). Also seen today was a Jackdaw nest in one of the very old trees, I've seen them going into this tree before to the very same spot with scraps of food so maybe they are raising some young. As mentioned before, I also took a walk down to the Plants Brook to see if the recent rainfall had affected the water levels but sadly it hasn't, which doesn't bode well for the future even though there were two Grey Heron fishing in about a twenty foot stretch of water.

Kingsbury Water Park.

Even though the weather forecast wasn't hopeful for today, I decided to risk a trip to Kingsbury Water Park, which was a wise decision because there wasn't one spot of rain during my visit, it was also a very wise decision for a Great Crested Grebe chick who had strayed from one of the large pools and gone down the water overflow and was  making a distress call and frantically trying to do the impossible and swim back up the oncoming flow and to make it back up the overflow, I didn't see it actually go down the overflow but being as it was trying to go back that way that's what must have happened, so I, along with the help of a passing female helper, managed to scoop it out of the water and take it half way down the pool and release it, where upon it started making the distress call and swimming back in the general direction of the overflow but was met halfway with what was presumably one of it's parents, so hopefully it was a happy ending for the little chap or chapess. That was obviously a  highlight, in the end, so was hearing and seeing plenty of Sedge Warblers, a great little bird with a great variety of song, I also love the black streaks on the back, in the right lighting conditions they are very striking. Talking of great singing birds, how wonderful is it to hear a Blackcap in fully fledged song, it always a pleasure to hear them. Another pleasant sight was seeing a Greylag Goose chick in amongst the twenty or so resident Greylags by the children's play area. It's not every day that I see a Hobby either, this one was circling over the field mentioned later on in this post and the river, no doubt after some unsuspecting Swallow, House Martin or the many insects about today. Birds spotted today were, Hobby, Sedge Warbler, Blackcap (male and female) House Martin, Swallow, Swift, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Dunnock. Wren, Robin, House Sparrow, Starling, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Woodpigeon, Blackbird, Grey Heron, Cormorant, Mute Swan, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose, Great Crested Grebe, Mallard and Coot. There was also the flollowing chicks, Great Crested Grebe (1) Greylag Goose (1) and Gosling (9) as well as the following birds on the nest, Coot (2) and Canada Goose (1). On the last visit here nearly three months ago there was some markers in the huge field on the entrance I use into the park, so I thought they'd sold off the land to some contractor or the like but fortunately it was just for some fencing to keep some horses in but also now has the added spin off that it is now used by the Mallards and Canada Geese to eat the grass or just chill out without being pestered by pesky humans. The water levels on the adjacent River Tame have obviously risen dramatically since my last visit which will be good news in the long run but unfortunately not at the moment for any nesting birds. While I was in the area, I also had a walk up to the Kingsbury Parish Church, but unfortunately it was locked, but in the kirk yard I did hear, but not actually see, a Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Song Thrush.

Chester Road Canalside Walk.

I thought it was about time I had a walk again down a stretch of one of many of Birmingham's canals, we might have more canals in Brum than in Venice but theirs are not strewn with shopping trolleys and all the other various crap people think it's okay to dump in our waterways. People in Birmingham or anyone near canals for that matter seem to overlook canals even though they have a rich habitat for waterfowl, birds and wildlife in general, saying that I didn't expect to find what I did in the canal, I saw what I thought was a Coot nest even though it was floating on the water, when I got closer it was obvious that it wasn't a nest but there was plastic tubing and string interwoven in it, so I bent down to remove the tubing etc. then I got an overpowering, unmistakable whiff of cannabis, so I decided to fish it out the water and there was easily four kilograms of the stuff, which I decided to put in the undergrowth further down the canal, it did cross my mind to tell the Police but what with the many questions I would have to have dealt with, I couldn't be bothered. Anyway back to the purpose of today's visit, birdwatching, birds spotted were, House Martin, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Goldfinch, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Robin, Starling, Collared Dove, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Moorhen, Coot, Canada Goose and Mallard along with the following chicks/juvenile birds, Gosling (4) Long Tailed Tit, Starling and Robin. It was great to see Starlings all along the walk there and back, including two adult Starling feeding some hungry chicks in a hole in an apex of one of the factories adjacent to the canal, the adults were back and forth continuously feeding the hungry chicks some fresh worms. But it wasn't good to see a dead Kestrel in the canal, I fished it out of the canal but it had suffered heavy decomposition, I could only tell it was Kestrel by the size and feathers, so again I left it in amongst some undergrowth. Today's walk was from the The Tyburn House public house up to the The Boat Inn public house and back to the Tyburn again, next time we'll park up at The Boat Inn and carry on our walk from there and see were we end up, it's a bit more into open countryside so I might see some different varieties of birds and more wildlife.

Middleton Lakes.

The two planned trips out in the week were a complete washout, so it was nice to get up and see some clear blue skies, so a trip to Middleton Lakes was the order of the day even though it was actually overcast while I was at Middleton. Highlights of the day were seeing and hearing my first ever Cuckoo, seeing a Grey Plover in it's amazing full summer plumage and finally seeing a Pheasant Hen with at least four very young chicks, it was hard to tell exactly how many there were because they were rummaging about in some wild garlic. The water levels have risen dramatically both on the lakes and on the adjacent River Tame, a couple of the small islands on the lakes have been almost completely enveloped with water, while the river has risen a couple of feet or so, whilst walking along the river I noticed a very young ducking making a distress call while it was being swept down the river by the very fast flow, I did try and rescue it but it was impossible, I know it's nature and them are the breaks, but I still don't like to see it, it was horrible watching it being swept away to an almost certain demise, poor little thing. Back to something more pleasant, it was great to see the ever so friendly Robin still at the same place, he does love a mealworm or twenty, in fact the Robins, Great Tits, Blue Tits and Chaffinches were very appreciative for a gift of mealworms, suet pellets and bird seeds, but only the Robin is brave enough to eat out of your hand. Another highlight was seeing the returning migrants, it's always a pleasure to have the Swifts, House Martins and Swallows flying and swooping above your head. Birds spotted were Pheasant Hen and chicks, Cuckoo, Blackcap (female) House Martin, Swallow, Swift, Chiffchaff, Reed Warbler, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Blue, Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Robin, Starling, Rook, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Buzzard, Kestrel, Pied Wagtail, Grey Heron, Cormorant, Grey Plover, Common Sandpiper, Lapwing, Gadwall, Wigeon, Greylag Goose, Great Crested Grebe, Tufted Duck, Moorhen, Coot, Mallard and Canada Goose. There was also at least four Mute Swan and one Coot on the nest. I have also had Swifts flying above the house in the last week.