Woolston Eyes & RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands

On Sunday I was off out with the West Midland Bird Club for their monthly coach trip, this time to two destinations towards the northwest - Woolston Eyes and RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands. It's been a while since I blogged about a trip with WMBC, as I missed the March one, and got ill just after the February one so never got around to writing a blog post!

Our first stop was Woolston Eyes in Warrington where we were looking forward to seeing the reserve's speciality of Black-necked Grebes, a very rare breeding bird in the UK. Woolston Eyes has at times held up to a third of the UK's breeding population! Although the weather was rather on the manky side, we were soon keeping cosy in the various hides around the site and enjoying smashing views of the grebes.

Woolston Eyes.

Black-necked Grebe record shot (with a bonus whizz-by Swallow).

As well as the snazzily-plumaged Black-necked Grebes, we also saw two Mediterranean Gulls in tip top breeding plumage, Common Gull, plenty of Swallows, House Martins and Sand Martins whizzing about and quite a few ducks including Teal, Pochard, Shelduck, Gadwall and Shoveler. There were a few Reed Buntings around and I had a brief but satisfying view of a Reed Warbler - my first of the year. Elsewhere on the site we'd been hoping for a Grasshopper Warbler and maybe a Lesser Whitethroat but there was a marked lack of warbler action, possibly due to the cold, wet and windy weather. We did see some lovely patches of Ground-ivy along the path leading into the reserve:

Ground-ivy (Glechoma hederacea).

Luckily by the time we got to Burton Mere the weather had improved considerably. We enjoyed the walk down to the main reserve through some stunning Bluebell woods!

I couldn't decide which photo to use so I've used nearly all of them. Ha!

Bluebells!

Bluebells!

Bluebells!

Bluebells!

Bluebells!

I hadn't visited this reserve before and it turned out to be a good'un. On the wetlands we enjoyed a smorgasbord of waders, including Oystercatcher, Avocet, Lapwing, Snipe, Black-tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Spotted and Common Redshank. The Dunlin and Spotted Redshank were in their full summer plumage, and many of the Godwits were pretty much there too.

Black-tailed Godwits busily feeding; some in full summer plumage, some in winter, and some inbetween!

In one of the fields a lone Barnacle Goose was loitering, and we spotted whatever you call a Little Egret breeding colony (an egretry?) in some of the trees. We heard but didn't see a Cetti's Warbler, and walked through a lovely field of sheep and lambs to the viewpoint to spot a couple of Wheatears! I also spotted a new plant to try and identify:

I think this is Three-cornered Garlic (Allium triquetrum).

The view from the viewpoint.

Another great day with the bird club, with lots of lovely year ticks :o)

Kings Norton Nature Reserve 21/02/16

On Sunday I was very happy to be back at my local patch for the first time in a few weeks - the previous weekend I'd been both ill and not in Birmingham, and the weekend before that the weather had been truly dreadful! I still wasn't feeling 100% recovered from my illness (which I'd decided with the help of Dr Google was probably a chest infection), but I was determined to see what I could find at Kings Norton Nature Reserve. It was a good trip, assuming that none of my sightings were illness-induced hallucinations! I took plenty of (admittedly dreadful) photos of the best one, to be extra sure ;o)

Here are my highlights; I saw 38 species in all, of which one was a new one for me at this site. I've now seen 56 species in total at the reserve. It was a bit of a wildfowl extravaganza this time around....

• 11 Teal on Wychall Reservoir - as far as I could tell. The marshy nooks and crannies of the reservoir make it a bit difficult to count the Teal, but obviously provide them with some nice habitat!
• Four Goosanders and seven Tufted Ducks on Merecroft Pool.
• Also on Merecroft Pool, TWO male Shovelers - I'd only previously had one there.
• My most unexpected and exciting bird of this trip - a lovely male MANDARIN DUCK on Merecroft Pool! Provenance unknown but it sounds like he'd been doing the rounds of various local sites - I bumped into another birder who said a Mandarin had been seen at Upton Warren in the week, and Adrian (a fellow KNNR patch birder!) spotted a Mandarin in Cannon Hill Park on Monday morning. Most likely all the same bird. We may not ever see the Mandarin at KNNR again but I don't know, there are some very nice overhanging branches and secluded spots around the edge of the pool of the type favoured by Mandarins, I think he should come back ;o)
• A pair of Grey Herons building a nest in an Alder on the island in Merecroft Pool.
• A very large flock of Goldfinches in the bushes around the top end of British Waterways Meadow, with a few Siskins interspersed among them. I watched and listened for ages but couldn't find any Redpolls in there.
• A Sparrowhawk flying over the Paddocks.
• A Buzzard over Wychall Reservoir.
• A Treecreeper in trees along the Rea Valley route, not long after I'd entered from Westhill Road.

Sadly I neglected the West Extension once again - I'd pretty much run out of energy by the time I reached Popes Lane, but am looking forward to getting back to KNNR for the guided walk this Saturday, by which time I am sure I'll be 100% recovered.

Here are a couple of scenes of the reserve from my trip:

Path down the side of the paddocks.

Pinehurst Meadow (HDR) - it was a bit windy for HDRs really, some dodgy alignment in there.

Unfortunately I hadn't brought my zoom lens with me, so could only take some truly dreadful record shots of the Mandarin!

View full size to spot the Mandarin!

View full size to spot the Mandarin!

I also took a few photos of the Herons building their nest, again rather far away:

Grey Herons nesting.

Grey Herons nesting.

The reason I'd left my zoom lens behind was to bring my close-up lens instead, to photograph some plants - I've recently started a new course, Identiplant, which will enable me to develop my botanical identification skills to a more advanced level. At the moment I know quite a few common plants, but this course should equip me with the skills to use a floristic key properly and therefore the ability (in theory) to identify any plant! As part of my first assignment I had to find three monocots in flower; not too hard at this time of year, especially with the warm weather we've been having over much of winter. I don't actually have to take photos of the plants I find for my assignments, but I enjoy doing it and it's a good way to keep records. Here's what I found, hopefully my identifications are correct:

Galanthus nivalis (Snowdrop).

Crocus vernus (Spring Crocus).

Muscari armeniacum (Garden Grape Hyacinth). OK so I cheated a bit, I actually took this photo in our neighbour's front garden when I got home!

FULL BIRD LIST

Blackbird	Goosander	Nuthatch
Black-headed Gull	Great Spotted Woodpecker	Robin
Blue Tit	Great Tit	Shoveler
Bullfinch	Greenfinch	Siskin
Buzzard	Grey Heron	Sparrowhawk
Carrion Crow	Herring Gull	Starling
Chaffinch	Jackdaw	Stock Dove
Coal Tit	Lesser Black-backed Gull	Teal
Coot	Long-tailed Tit	Treecreeper
Dunnock	Magpie	Tufted Duck
Feral Pigeon	Mallard	Woodpigeon
Goldcrest	Mandarin Duck	Wren
Goldfinch	Moorhen

Sandwell Valley - October 2015

On Sunday I was back at RSPB Sandwell Valley for my monthly volunteering stint. Although the forecast had been for sunny spells, the day ended up being one of blazing sunshine and cloud-free skies and I felt a bit overdressed in my woolly jumper (I am ready for winter!). The calm conditions meant that there wasn't much out of the ordinary around but we had an enjoyable day nonetheless. 

Alf and I started the day with our usual walk around the reserve. We began by heading up to the horse paddock as I thought I'd spotted a Fox sunbathing there (as they often do) from the car on the way in. When we got to the paddock there were no signs of life, so we turned around to walk down to the river, only to see a bushy russet tail whisk away into the undergrowth on the other side of the road! The sneaky fox had probably been watching us the whole time! So I was unsuccessful in my attempts to get a Fox photo, but here are a few other photos of the reserve looking splendid in the early autumn sun.

The woodland around the path leading down to Kingfisher Corner.

Not 100% sure but I think this is Prickly Sow-thistle (Sonchus asper).

A very shiny iridescent beetle on some Nettles. My identification efforts only got me as far as some kind of leaf beetle, can anyone else identify it more conclusively?

Forge Mill Lake.

The new nature-themed screen looking over the marsh.

We saw a pair of what we were 90% sure were Ravens flying down the railway line near the bridge - they zoomed past us so we only caught a glimpse, but their apparent large size, longish-looking tails and the whoosh of air against their powerful wings gave us definite Raven vibes. Along the River Tame we saw Grey Wagtail and Meadow Pipit, some nice views of Snipe on the far side of the islands, several Buzzards up and enjoying the clear skies, and there was lots of Jay action, unsurprising for the time of year. We saw a fair few busily ferrying acorns around, causing us to ponder the mutualistic relationship between Jays and Oaks, and also between other species of jay and tree. I then started thinking about jays generally and how awesome they are - I have only seen three jay species (Eurasian, Siberian and Blue); how amazing would it be to see every jay species in the world!

From the hide Teal had increased in number since my last visit and there seemed to be plenty of Gadwalls quacking around, but only a few Shovelers and one Pochard. The Kingfishers were putting on a good display once again, they seem to have become used to using the numbered posts around the Lake edge as perches. We also heard the squeal of a Water Rail which remained typically hidden in the reeds, and the Lapwings were very jumpy indeed, all taking flight at the slightest provocation. Our best sighting of the day was a  Mediterranean Gull roosting with the Black-headed Gulls; it was preening its snowy plumage with one hefty bill! I enjoyed playing with my new camera once again; here are some of the results:

A Coot enjoying Alf's apple core.

Lapwings.

A Coot reflecting.

Due most likely to the pleasant weather, the hide was very busy so I sadly didn't have much time for drawing. Here's what I produced; I think it's probably my best attempt yet at a Snipe (previous efforts have been pretty terrible!):

Snipe and aborted Gadwall sketches.

Finally, back in the centre, I picked up a copy of the new RSPB Sandwell Valley Flora produced by SandNats. Looking forward to getting stuck into this!

Essential reading for Sandwell Valley fans.

Lake District 2015 - flora

Last week I was on holiday in the Lake District with my partner Chris and his parents. We go there pretty much every year and always have a great time, walking in the hills and valleys and enjoying the wildlife. As always I was on the look out for new plants to try and identify, and although autumn was in the air we were still able to find plenty. Chris's mum Dawn is a wildflower fan also so we had fun trying to identify what we'd found!

I spotted the most new plants on the very first walk we did, which was from our cottage in Stonethwaite over to Watendlath and back again. It had been raining heavily in the morning but luckily by the afternoon it had pretty much stopped, although was still rather grey.

Looking down to Watendlath.

As well as new plants, I enjoyed trying out my camera on some old favourites. I'm a big fan of the heather triumvirate!

Bell Heather (Erica cinerea).

Cross-leaved Heath (Erica tetralix).

Heather (Calluna vulgaris).

 

Lots of lovely heather on this walk.

And also the cute buds of Devil's-bit Scabious:

Devil's-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis).

On to the new ones....I hope I got the identifications correct for these:

Bog Myrtle (Myrica gale). Lots of this growing on certain parts of the hills between Dock Tarn and the path down to Watendlath.

Grass-of-Parnassus (Parnassia palustris). Nearly missed this hiding away in undergrowth beside the path.

Bog Asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum). I'd seen lots of the orange seed pods on walks around the same time last year, but hadn't found any still in flower until now.

We also found a patch of orchids, but we found another much bigger and better patch of orchids on another walk, coming down a valley towards Seathwaite after descending Great Gable. I think they were all Heath-spotted Orchids, but I'm not very sure!
 

Heading down the valley.

Heath-spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata), possibly.

Heath-spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata), possibly.

Heath-spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata), possibly.

Next up, a blog post about the Lake District fauna we encountered :o)

Birthday fun on Cannock Chase

On Saturday it was my birthday, hurrah! I celebrated, as I often do, by ambling around some heathland.  Chris drove us to Cannock Chase where we spent a marvellous afternoon walking in the Sherbrook Valley area. The weather was hot and clammy but the heathland was looking great blanketed in purple heather.

Cannock Chase.

Cannock Chase.

As expected for the time of year it was fairly quiet bird-wise, the best thing we saw was a large family of Stonechats catching flies and repeatedly dropping down onto the path in front of us, presumably to feed on some insects there. We also saw Whitethroat, Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers and lots of Jays, and heard Raven and Blackcap. At one point we saw a Carrion Crow perched at the top of a tree, panting in the heat! I also spotted some interesting plants including a couple that were new to me. In the car park were Fairy Flax and Common Centaury:

Fairy Flax (Linum catharticum).

Common Centaury (Centaurium erythraea).

Then on the heath, as well as all the more familiar plants, I found two I hadn't seen before:

This one looks like Climbing Corydalis (Ceratocapnos claviculata). Apparently it is an ancient woodland indicator too.

We found one large patch of this. I think it is the hybrid between Bilberry and Cowberry, Vaccinium x intermedium, which is known to grow on Cannock Chase. Exciting!

On top of all the nature fun I was having, Chris also got a bonus history fix, as we briefly checked out the German war cemetery and Katyn memorial. Cannock Chase has something for everyone! ;oD After an excellent afternoon we headed back home to continue the birthday fun (which mainly involved eating too much and watching Shaun the Sheep: The Movie). Good times!

Cannock Chase.

Cannock Chase.