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.
Today turned out to be the prefect day to visit Kingsbury Water Park in North Warwickshire where the weather in my opinion was absolutely ideal.
You couldn't go anywhere in the park today without hearing songbirds singing and what's not too like about that ? Personal favourites were, Willow Warbler, Whitehroat, Blackcap, Dunnock and a flock of c.20 Long Tailed Tit, just a shame most people don't appreciate song birds singing for what it is, one of nature's most wonderful gifts to us.
The Willow Warblers singing sounded like they were singing for the bird singing Olympics, they were giving it their all without stopping for breath, Whitethroat and Blackcap as you know have a wonderful song, the Dunnock's song is very underrated and even though Long Tailed Tits haven't got the best song the sheer volume of the noise had to be appreciated.
I don't normally go this far into a blog at this time of the year without mentioning juveniles so here goes, there were six Mallard Ducklings and ten juvenile Coot seen with one Mute Swan, three Canada Goose and one Coot observed on the nest.
Also great to see was the return of House Martin's as well as Little Egret and Common Tern, sadly the island where the Little Egret used to be located has been hacked down to almost a bare scrape so much so that I didn't see a single Little Egret on said island and the only one I saw was on the adjacent River Tame, I don't know why but I always love to see Common Tern maybe it's because they are great to watch when in flight.
Birds seen today were, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Wren, Robin, Starling, Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, House Martin, Cormorant, Common Tern, Little Egret, Mute Swan, Great Crested Grebe, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Moorhen, Coot, Greylag Goose and Canada Goose.
The only downside was being told by a local that I'd just missed a sighting of a Muntjac Deer by mere seconds but on the positive side at least they are present at this location.
Finally in a location very close to the park but not in the park it was my great pleasure to observe Starlings taking food to their young in a great accidental site for nesting birds, they have done so there for many years, I shan't point out the location just in case I alert people who might not be so welcoming as I would be.
Nice to visit Shustoke Reservoir this morning with the weather being just about perfect for a nice spot of bird watching.
I didn't have to wait long either for the highlight of the day, namely that of twelve Mallard Ducklings which just happened to be my first of the year but as per usual they were scared away form the waters edge by two dogs because the owners couldn't be bothered to put them on a lead even though the signs clearly state so at the entrance that they must be kept on a lead at all times, congratulations to every dog walker I saw there this morning because mot one of you had your dogs on a lead.
Nice to hear many Skylark singing high above the farmers fields, as well as Mistle Thrush who could be observed singing everywhere I went today at this location and being as we are coming to/in the breeding season most songbirds could be heard singing especially in the many hedgerow around the fields as they have been cut back properly and not flailed to within an inch of their life.
It was also great to see the return of House Martin and Swallow with hundreds flying above the water which is always great to see.
Birds seen today were, Buzzard, Skylark, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Chiffchaff, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Wren, Robin, Mistle Thrush, Blackbird, Collared Dove, Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, House Martin, Swallow, Pied Wagtail, Cormorant, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Great Crested Grebe, Wigeon, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Coot and Canada Goose.
