Fens pool- House Martin 5+, Tufted Duck x2, Grey Heron x1, Coot 5+, Mute Swan x3.
After a quick look at the Fens Pool we decided to get over to the Wyre Forest. We were specifically going to the Dowles Brook area of the forest. We were unsure of exactly how to get there so in the week I mentioned it to John Holian and he nicely gave me directions of how to get to the best areas for specifically seeing Wood Warbler and Dipper so thank you to John for the help. Also thanks to Midlands birder for his instructions of where the best areas are to see certain species were.
We arrived at Lodge Hill farm car park and decided to begin our walk, I was told by John our best bet was to walk down a old disused railway track which has now become a footpath, as we walked down the path we decided to do a little bit of exploring seen as the area was new to us, we noticed a left turning cycle path that went along what had to be a cut off stream from the main Dowles Brook. As we walked down the cycle path I heard the call I had been studying all week, and that was the call of the Wood Warbler. We stood around for about 10 to 15 minutes listening to the bird and eventually got short glimpses of the bird as it flew around the wood.
After getting short glimpses at a Wood Warbler we decided to continue our walk and got nice views of a Grey Wagtail on the stream. We got I would say half way up the stream before I heard another Wood Warbler calling and this time we got great views of the bird, and quite close to us. I have to say for the first time I had seen the species I was very happy with the great views we got of it. The photo bellow shows the bird we were looking at.
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| Wood Warbler, Wyre forest by me. |
After getting good views of Wood Warbler we saw nothing much else along the stream apart from more Grey Wagtails ,Tree creeper, and a Great Spotted Woodpecker. After feeling the success of getting one of the birds we came to see we decided to continue our walk down the old railway track, we eventually arrived at the pathway leading to Dowles Brook where hopefully we would get my first ever Dipper. We began walking down the brook and first decided to stand on a bridge and look at opposite ends of the bridge in hope of getting a Dipper flying by. After a while things were beginning to look unsuccessful in terms of seeing a Dipper today, but while taking one last look at a particular area on the brook we saw something fly from a log. The bird was black and a similar size to that of a Dipper which got us excited.
We then got back on to the footpath which eventually led us to another footpath that also led to the area in which the possible Dipper flew. After about two minutes of walking down this footpath a Grey Wagtail flew up and along with a Dipper. The bird appeared to be a juvenile but I wasn't complaining about it, I loved watching it. At first the bird sat on a broken tree and we watched it for about 5 minutes, it eventually flew to the other side of the broken tree where I got amazingly close views of the bird, it didn't seem alarmed by my presence and flew of its own accord after about two minutes, I was so happy to see the bird, both Wood Warbler and Dipper have been birds I have wanted to see for a very long while and it was great to see them both today. Here's our main couts from the day.
Wyre Forest (Dowles Brook area)- Wood Warbler x2, Goldcrest x1, Willow Warbler x3, Tree Creeper x1, Grey Wagtail x4, Dipper x1, Jay x1, Buzzard x2, Wren 5+.
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| Dipper (juv), Wyre Forest Dowles Brook by me. |
I shall leave you with that lovely image of the Dipper today, there should be a post next week and it should be about our usual haunt Sandwell Valley.
Thanks for reading and enjoy the week all- WMBB
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