Another day at the valley

Hi readers, today I had a free day so decided to get myself out of bed and did some birding round Sandwell valley. Things were very quiet as usual at this time of year round the valley. I first decided to walk towards the marsh where I was presented with a female gadwall with now 4 Ducklings, hat I did notice is another female on the main lake near the hide with 3 ducklings, now whether this is the same female with one lost duckling or not will be found out in the very near future. I did notice other pairs of male and female gadwall throughout the afternoon so lets hope we see some more ducklings.

In terms of coot nests there are still the 3 that were around yesterday and another one I noticed being built by a coot behind the island out of hide view. While looking at this nest mi noticed 2 adult Coots with a chick, the chick appear to be more than a week old as it had developed the white patch on its chest chicks usually do. Lets wish that chick all the best because to be honest the other ones don't have much luck in terms of surviving for a day.

Two Common Tern were still around but I am slowly giving up all hope of common tern chicks this year, one tern has been sitting on the raft constantly but I noticed it is not always sitting in the same place all the time therefore it is more likely that the birds are not sitting on eggs as of yet. I got good views of 1adult oystercatcher feeding with the 2 chicks but I could get many views of the other adult. The Cettis Warbler has been calling off the reserve lately over the other side of the river which in my eyes means it cannot be reported as a bird at Sandwell Valley anymore because to my knowledge it has only been calling near the other side of the river for the past month or so, it could be givi up hope of a mate on the valley which is sad.

Other main sightings nclude a Whitethroat and Herring Gulls. Also we have a mega rarity turning up today and that was a BLACK HEADED GULL. Ok a little bit of sarcasm there but there was o ly one around all day and that's the most we have had for weeks. Not exactly a mega rarity though I must admit.

After my walk around I began my walk back towards the entrance and what did I hear, I hear you ask, I heard the call of a Ring Necked Parakeet, so it was the natural instanct to try and see the bird, I walked towards kingfisher corner where I could hear the birds calling, I first got views of 3 parakeets flying off towards what I would imagine would be the concrete path. But I could still hear them calling, after about 5 minutes of staring at trees I eventually found three parakeets sitting up in a leafless tree, they gave great views and in total there were 4 in the area at one time. The three I mentioned earlier that flew off could add up the total individuals to 7 but I'm didn't see if the 3 that flew off flew back again so there could have just been 4 birds about.

Anyway here's my main counts from the afternoon,

RSPB Sandwell valley- gadwall x4 (4 ducklings poss 7), reed warbler (multiple heard), Canada Goose 20+ (4 goslings), Cettis Warbler x1 (heard), House Marting x2, Swift 20+, Oystercatcher x3, lapwing 5+, Common Tern x2, Whitethroat x1, Lesser black backed gull 10+, Black headed Gull x1, Coot 5+ (1 chick), Herring gull 2+, goldfinch 5+, Buzzard x1, Grey Heron x1, Reed Bunting x1, Ring necked Parakeet x7 (poss 4), Wren x1, Jackdaw 5+.

Thanks for listening to my blabbering on there should be a post this week- end.

Thanks for reading enjoy the rest of the week all- WMBB