Great visit to Southfields Farm in Coleshill which just about coincided with the blue skies we had this morning as it only went overcast towards the end of my visit, which made a nice change.
Highlights of the visit were seeing .c300 Linnet in one of the fields including c.50 having a bath in a large area of water left over from the recent heavy rain, I was observing them when a Jay flew very low right above them, they must have thought it was a predator as they all flew up en masse into the nearby bushes, talking of predators, when in the largest field I'd noticed it was very quiet, by the time I'd got to the end of the field it was evident why, it must have been down to the presence of three raptors, two Kestrels flying above the fields and a Buzzard sitting in a tree, all I saw in the field were a few Chaffinch and Goldfinch as well as a Skylark seemingly oblivious to a Kestrel hovering directly below it, near the river it was nice to see some Redwing, they were only small in number but still great to see all the same, towards the end of the visit came three highlights all at once, namely that of a Grey Heron flying overhead, a pair of Goldcrest in the hedgerow and a flock of .c20 Siskin.
Finally it's always great to see and hear so many House Sparrow around the outbuilding area, House Sparrows will always remain to be my favourite bird.
Birds seen today were, Buzzard, Kestrel, Skylark, Linnet, Goldcrest, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Wren, Starling, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Pied Wagtail, Pheasant, Redwing, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, Blackbird, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie and Grey Heron.
It was great to meet John the Farmer and have a quick chat, always a pleasure mate, hope you like this post !
Nice to get out and do some 'proper' birding for a change after all the rain and other things getting in the way of me getting out and about and what better time to do it than Autumn time !
Saying that, birding wasn't the primary reason for visiting Lady Bradford's it was actually a more of a Fungi hunt but I'm obviously not going to go unless I'm armed with my trusty binoculars.
Needless to say after the current wet weather there was a lot of Fungi around, I could easily post around two hundred photos, don't know what it is but I always love to see Fungi.
Birds that were easily the most notable were Parakeets especially as the sound they make is unmistakable, I already knew that they roost in nearby Shard End Lake and if heard and seen them quite a bit around Solihull so it was great to see that they are also resident here, probably because the land backs onto residential areas it was great to see and hear House Sparrow as was the sight of a Moorhen and two of this years juveniles, this piece of land is deceptive as even though it appears to be land locked there are actually a few areas with water present, especially when you wander off the beaten track, there was a sizeable number of Mistle Thrush, Starling, Woodpigeon and Corvid's just off Lady Bradford's very close by to the grounds of Castle Bromwich Hall Hotel. There is actually a 'corner' of the land that is for all intents and purposes inaccessible to humans, this is where the Foxes and Pheasants reside, you can always hear them but you very rarely get a glimpse of them but they're definitely there.
Birds seen today were, Parakeet, House Sparrow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Dunnock, Wren, Starling, Mistle Thrush, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Raven, Carrion Crow and Moorhen.
Hopefully I'll have another birding for you before the weeks out, this time from Warwickshire.
Two visits this morning, firstly was a visit to Pype Hayes Park and then it was off to the adjacent Plantsbrook Local Nature Reserve.
Pype Hayes Park.
It was great to see that there were plenty of birds all around the park with many flocks of birds seen including a very impressive flock of very noisy c.30 Long Tailed Tit with a good number of juveniles in among their number, even though they were noisy they couldn't compete with the Parakeets I saw, some flew over where I was observing the Long Tailed Tits and others were seen in and around the gardens, if you know Birmingham and Solihull well I've also seen Parakeets this week in the trees by Asda in Chelmsley Wood, so it's great to see their territory getting larger, there was also a sizeable number of Nuthatch to be seen and heard all around the park equally great to see but in much lesser numbers were Whitethroat.
On the pool it was great to see a Mute Swan Cygnet, shame there was only one but sadly it's a notoriously bad place for waterfowl to breed, even still there were still ten very small Mallard Ducklings and plenty of this years Ducklings were all around the pool as were young Moorhen, unfortunately I can't tell you what was along the Plants Brook as it's been completely overtaken by Himalayan Balsam.
Birds seen at Pype Hayes Park were, Kestrel, Nuthatch, Whitethroat, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Robin, Parakeet, Jay, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blackbird, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Stock Dove, Feral Pigeon, Mute Swan, Gadwall, Mallard, Moorhen, Coot and Canada Goose, also all of the following juveniles were seen, Mute Swan, Mallard, Moorhen, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Jackdaw and Carrion Crow.
Plantsbrook Local Nature Reserve.
Then it was off to Plantsbrook Local Nature Reserve where upon arriving at the pool I met a couple and mentioned that it would be nice if the Terrapin was still present, they looked at me like I was mad and told me they'd been visiting this location for over twelve years and they'd never seen one, so I gave the islands around the pool a quick scan and lo and behold what's there, yep a Red Eared Terrapin.
Apart from the Terrapin the first pool was fairly quiet whereas the main larger pool was full of waterfowl including Mute Swan Cygents, Mallard Ducklings and Great Crested Grebe juveniles and it was great to see that the Muscovy Duck still present.
Birds seen at Plantsbrook Nature Reserve were, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Robin, Dunnock, Wren, Jay, Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Muscovy Duck, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Moorhen, Coot, Canada Goose and Great Crested Grebe as well as the following juveniles, Mute Swan Cygnet, Mallard, Great Crested Grebe, Coot and Jay, also on the main pool there were a couple of Coot still on the nest.
Just a pity I missed the meadow when it was in full flow, I shall definitely be going back next year to see it in all it's wonder.
I shall finish on two notes, one bad and one good, first the bad, while I was talking towards the main pool this dog came out of nowhere barking and generally going mental, so I said to the people with the dog, I'm okay as I haven't got a dog with me and their reply was 'well stay away as he'll attack you anyway', being as these horrible people had plenty of dogs I can only presume they were in a white Ford Transit parked in the car park (PO62 CVM) it wasn't just me by the way as other people I spoke to had a similar experience.
As I don't want to finish on a sour note I'll end by saying that over the years I've picked up a lot of litter from this location so I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was no litter at all which must largely down to the great work done by the Friends of Plantsbrook Local Nature Reserve who can be followed on Twitter by the following link. Plantsbrooklnr
Great visit to Edgbaston Reservoir yesterday even though it was very quiet bird wise, always good to see what wildlife is present none the less.
By the entrance to the main car park by the cafe there were still plenty of House Martin taking insects to their young in the nests on the surrounding homes, also in that area were plenty of House Sparrow as was the case all around the reservoir where the water was close to the homes, other than that there's not much to report apart from the fact that most of the trees that were planted a few years back most are still present minus the ones that were initially vandalised at the beginning of the project.
Birds seen were, House Sparrow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Robin, Wren, Dunnock, House Martin, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Mute Swan, Great Crested Grebe, Coot, Mallard and Canada Goose.
Finally a note of caution that if you are planning a visit to the reservoir be aware that the due to large scale anti-social bahaviour the car park is currently closed twenty fours hours a day, even though that decision is under review it's likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future, so if your planning a trip, prepare in advance to park off sight and walk to the venue.
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.
Great visit to Newhall Valley Country Park and a walk around the grounds of Newhall Hotel where I had a feeling there would be some Canada Goose Goslings as you can see I was right as there were six of them, it was also nice to see a Mallard Duckling just as shame that there was only one of them finally it was great to see two nesting Moorhen.
The above was seen toward's the end of the visit but the day didn't start too bad either though with flocks of both Chaffinch and Greenfinch observed, a Kestrel was seen trying to hover over one of the fields but was being constantly 'mobbed' by a lone Carrion Crow, also great to see in the same area was a good colony of House Sparrow, in the denser parts it was a real pleasure to see a Whitethroat and a male and female Blackcap taking insects to their young and last but not least the very last bird of the day spotted was none other than a Stock Dove, always nice to see them.
Other than that highlights was seeing, Green Woodpecker, Mistle Thrush and a pair of Grey Wagtail taking food to their young in the hotel grounds.
Birds seen today were, Kestrel, Buzzard, Whitethroat, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Wren, Robin, Starling, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Grey Wagtail, Mistle Thrush, Green Woopdpecker, Blackbird, Stock Dove, Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Moorhen, Mallard and Canada Goose.
