Nice walk around Pype Hayes Park this morning, even though I' haven't felt too clever of late I decided to drag myself out to see what nature had an offer.
Highlights included seeing a flock of c.40 Starling mobbing a Kestrel, something which I've never observed before, watching a flock of .c30 Goldfinch fly overhead, noting that the Muscovy Duck is still thriving at this site after being left here by the RSPCA a few years back and still managing to spot juvenile birds, which were Coot, Goldfinch (a couple were spotted in the trees along the brook), Woodpigeon and Carrion Crow.
Birds seen today were, Kestrel, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Robin, Wren, Starling, Jay, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Mute Swan, Moorhen, Coot, Muscovy Duck, Mallard and Canada Goose.
Nice walk around Shustoke Reservoir today with the highlights being a very rare sighting at this location of an Oystercatcher in flight, actually seeing a Grey Heron at the reservoir which unfortunately has been a rarity over the last couple of years, having a very close encounter with a splendid looking Green Woodpecker which looked extra nice in the bright sunshine, still having hundreds of House Martin present above the reservoir, seeing c.50 Cormorant in front of the sailing club and observing 70+ Little Grebe on the water, which is unusual at any location let this relatively small one.
Birds seen today were Kestrel, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, House Sparrow, Robin, Wren, House Martin, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Pheasant (cock), Pied Wagtail, Oystercatcher, Grey Heron, Cormorant, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Coot, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Mallard and Canada Goose.
Nice to still see butterflies still about as well, with Red Admiral and Small White seen today, equally as pleasing was the reemergence of Fungi, with Bracket Fungus, Shaggy Parasol and Sulphur Tuft.
Nice early morning walk around Plantsbrook Nature Reserve before it got too hot.
Plantsbrook is a great place to visit and have a nice relaxing walk around but not all that great for bird watching because you are under the cover of the trees for most of the time but all the same I did see a pair of Great Spotted Woodpecker take exception to a Nuthatch and proceeded to chase it away.
Birds seen today were, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Magpie, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Muscovy Duck, Mallard, Moorhen, Coot and Canada Geese flying overhead.
As soon as I got in the car this morning (in Birmingham) it started raining but I decided to go ahead with my planned trip to Cole End Park Local Nature Reserve in Coleshill which was probably just as well because I didn't see a drop of rain in Coleshill.
There was a nice mixture of birds seen along the river and around the fields most notably a fantastic flock of birds in among a decent stretch of hedgerow, I would say there were at least a hundred birds going on the noise they were making, birds included were, Siskin, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Blackbird, Dunnock, Robin and Wren and just yards down the river from that was a fine looking Little Egret fishing in the river as was a Grey Heron.
When I was walking from one field to another a Buzzard flew out from a small tree right in front of me, it looked absolutely huge, you can certainly appreciate the wingspan of this magnificent bird when you see it at such close quarters.
Birds seen today were, Buzzard, Siskin, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed, Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Wren, Robin, Pied Wagtail, House Martin, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, Blackbird, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Woodpigeon, Little Egret, Grey Heron and Mallard.
Worryingly there was a lot of building work being done through one of the fields, I'm not sure if the work was for overhead cables or the ill fated HS2, either way a large area which once contained wildflowers and nettles has now gone forever, which is a shame.
Also worth a mention in this post was the sighting of Tree Sparrows in Ansley on Saturday when I was on my way to Nuneaton and today I saw c.100 Canada Geese feeding on the grass in the grounds of Coleshill Manor.
Nice to have a walk around Southfields Farm in Coleshill this morning, unfortunately I didn't see a huge variety of birds but the birds I did see were large in number, no more so than the sighting of c.200 Linnet who were in a field behind a huge border which has been planted with seed bearing crops for the birds in the winter, watching the Linnet feeding on the ground and occasionally flying up was amazing, not even a Buzzard flying directly above them could deter them from feeding.
Another highlight was seeing a pair of Mute Swan with seven fit and healthy looking cygnets, other juvenile birds seen were House Sparrow and Dunnock.
It was still nice to see House Martin and Swallow flying majestically through the air above the fields.
Birds seen today were, Buzzard, Kestrel, Linnet, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Wren, Robin, Blackbird, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Woodpigeon, House Martin, Swallow, Mute Swan and Cormorant.
Nice to have a walk around Pype Hayes Park for the first time in about three months even though it was very quiet from both the birds and people.
Highlight was seeing not one but two Green Woodpeckers at the top of a tree on the far side of the Plants Brook which was also where the low light was, namely that of the Himalayan Balsam which has completely taken over the river as is evident in the last photo, there has been an attempt to clear a section but it's probably made it worse because they've only been chopped from about a foot off the ground and even if you cleared the river there's still swathes off the stuff on the land between the river and the golf club.
Birds seen today were, Buzzard, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Robin, Dunnock, Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Woodpigeon, Mute Swan, Mallard, Coot, Moorhen, Greylag Goose and Canada Goose.
On the pool it was great to see very young juvenile Coot, it's just a pity that the locals are still continually feeding the birds white bread which is obviously no good for them and is also killing the fish, the surface of the pool looked awful with the greasy residue left behind from the bread. Here is a link to the problems with dead fish at Pype Hayes Park. http://tyburnmail.com/2016/07/05/oxygen-rescue-bid-pype-hayes-park-fish/
Busy morning today which included a walk around Meriden Park and Colebank Local Nature Reserve in Solihull, a trip into Chelmsley Wood and a visit to Coleshill to see my friends at the Police and Fire Stations.
Birding wise highlight of the day was seeing many Tree Sparrows in a tree by the bridge that separates Meriden Park and Colebank LNR, the sighting of Tree Sparrows in itself was exciting but making it extra special was that there was plenty of juveniles in among there number, they were great to observe especially as they were singing away, if that wasn't exciting enough on the other side of bridge there were c.20 Chiffchaff in the trees and they just like the Tree Sparrows included many juveniles in their numbers, what a great sight to see great numbers of Chiffchaff juveniles.
Birds seen today were, Tree Sparrow, House Sparrow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Goldfinch, Chiffchaff, Robin, Wren, Robin, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Grey Heron, Moorhen, Coot, Mallard, Canada Goose and Domestic/Greylag Goose hybrid.
Other juvenile birds seen today were, Grey Heron, Long Tailed Tit, Blackbird, Goldfinch, Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Moorhen and Coot.
Plenty of butterflies present at Colebank, strangely though they were all Meadow Browns, funny being as there is a wide range of wildflowers at this site.
In the back garden I'm still getting the odd House Sparrow juvenile as well as Robin and Blackbird babies.
