A sunny Sunday

Hi readers, as you may already know today has been a very warm and sunny day, so me and Dad decided to do some bird watching, today was my first official day as a Hide guide volunteer at Sandwell Valley today so it was a special day for me, but it went as usual really with a few nice little surprises. On our way down to the hide we heard the call of a Cettis Warbler whilst watching a Whitethroat and Reed Bunting it seems that there is ever two Cettis warblers (which is highly likely) or that there is one male doing a circuit round the reserve, there must be a female in the area because the bird would not have stayed for a year if there wasn't. A lot of the usual birds were on the lake today including now 4 Common Terns, 2 Little Ringed Plovers, and the Oystercatchers. As we arrived Bob gave us news that he had caught site of an Oystercatcher chick on the island, eventually when we got good views of the chick we noticed a second was also around. We also got brief views of 2 Lapwing Chicks also on the main island out in the open! Other than that there was little else around today but it was a nice sunny morning and the birding was enjoyable. Here's our main sightings,

RSPB Sandwell Valley- Oystercatcher x2 (+2 chicks), Lapwing 10+ (+2 chicks), Swallow x1, Little Ringed Plover x2, Cettis Warbler x1 (heard), Willow Warbler (multiple heard), Chiffchaff x1 (heard), Buzzard x1, Whitethroat x1, Reed Bunting x2, Sedge Warbler x1, Reed Warbler (multiple heard).

We had heard of a number of Cuckoo's being reported at Clayhanger today so decided seen as we hadn't seen any this year it would be good to go and try and get some. We first got good views of 7-8 Common Terns flying around along with a singing Willow Warbler and a few Whitethroat. Looking on the Clayhanger blog I noticed this week has been a particularly good one for the site with a possible Woodchat Shrike being reported but we didn't get any views of that bird. As we proceeded to walk along the marsh we heard the call of the bird we were looking for Cuckoo we then began to proceed to where the bird was calling from and then a bombshell dropped, a group of shouting people (perfect description) turned up and the bird stopped calling. We didn't hear it again for the rest of our time in the area. Here's our main sightings,

Clayhanger- Cuckoo x1 (heard), Common Tern x7-8, Willow Warbler x1, Buzzard x1, Reed Warbler (multiple heard), Swift x1, Swallow 5+, House Sparrow x2, Mute Swan x2, House Martin x1, Lapwing x1, Reed Bunting x1.

After looking around Clayhanger we decided to end our birding day by visiting Chasewater, we knew things were going to be quiet around there, we mainly decided to go to Chasewater because a Black Tern had been reported in the week. However the Tern wasn't to be seen and the best bird we saw was a Lapwing things were just to quiet round Chasewater. Here's the sightings we got,

Chasewater- Lapwing x1, Mute Swan 10+, Coot x1, Black headed Gull 5+, Lesser Black backed Gull 5+.

Yes that really is all that was about. Its been a quiet day but its nice to see a number of chicks around the Valley, I think things are going to begin to slow down a little now but there is still the chance of a surprise popping up.

Thanks for reading have a good week all- WMBB