A morning round the valley

Hi readers, me and Dad had a good morning round the valley, with a few site and year ticks. We decided to take a walk round the reserve in hope of seeing a few good warbler and luckily we did. Firstly we decided to have another crack at the very elusive Reed Warblers that were on the marsh and as we arrived we got brief views of one Reed Warbler which is a good year tick. We then continued our walk around the reserve and got brief but good views of a Garden Warbler singing near the band stand, which happened to be the same area in which I saw one last year. While looking at the Garden Warbler we heard the Cettis Warbler calling in the same place as last week, we decided it was time for us to go and see the bird properly, as we walked past the band stand the bird was calling quite close to us and at some points literally in front of us, we waited for around ten minutes in hope of getting some views of the bird, after seeing two Whitethroat flying around we noticed the Cettis Warbler flying cross the bushes, we then got very brief but good views of the bird, which really pleased me and Dad in the cold windy morning.

A few wader species that were around included Common Sandpiper, LRP, we also had the first Lapwing chick of the year. Also we were lucky enough to see a female Yellow Wagtail on the island which was lovely to watch and enjoy looking at. Anyway here's our main sightings from the morning,

RSPB Sandwell Valley- Cettis Warbler x1, Swift 30+, Yellow Wagtail x1, Common Tern x2, Little Ringed Plover x1, Garden Warbler x1, House Martin 5+, Common Sandpiper x1 (was two reported), Reed Warbler x1, Canada Goose 20+ (some goslings), Lapwing 10+ (1 chick), Buzzard x1, Willow Warbler x1 (heard), Oystercatcher x2.

It was nice to see so many Hirundines around including Swift. On the way back we heard the Cettis Warbler half way through calling, this prompted a discussion into the possibility of more than one Cettis being around the reserve, and to be honest its not impossible. After a successful look around Sandwell Valley we decided later on in the day to have a look round Bartley Green Reservoir in hope of seeing a few good birds. We decided to have a look round the woods that were next to the reservoir thinking that Wood Warblers could be around, but the rain we were having wasn't helping to keep the birds out in the open, we heard birds such as Chiffchaff, Wren, and saw some Robin but little else. We also had a look at the reservoir and saw only 10+ Swallow and 10+ Lesser Black backed Gulls.

I must say the valley has done well today. I recently read an article referring to Blackhalve Lane (Essington) which is near one of my local birding haunts, the article was quite distressing and referred to a number of dead song birds that have been found hanging in the trees along the road, this is quite serious and the article goes through events that have been happening in the area that involve shots being fired at cars. It is believed that it could be a group of youths but I'm not sure if that is proved,I believe it is sick to do this, I could partially understand if it was a professional hunter making money out of it but the fact that the dead birds are just being left hanging in a tree is frankly a little sick and weird. So if anyone has any information on this report it, there is no need for these birds to be killed for no reason.

Thanks for reading and have a good week all- WMBB