Hi readers, yes today I decided to get down to Sandwell Valley as I have been doing a lot recently. I intended to volunteer in the hide for a couple of hours but it couldn't be opened this afternoon due to a shortage of volunteers today. So in spite of this I decided to do some birding as I would off either way. I have to say the summer really has kicked in, things were very, very quiet and all that was about was the usual birds.
As usual the Cettis Warbler was calling but again it was off the reserve on the other side of the river. There was plenty of Swift about along with a few House Martin but no sign of any Sand Martin. There was in total three Common Tern around but again they were mostly flying so nesting is unlikely. As I was watching g the Terns two of them appeared to be dive bombing another one in what appeared to be an attempt to get it off the raft. Not sure exactly why but it could just have been an invader that was just dropping in and our two regular Terns just didn't like its presence most likely for territorial reasons.
Two Little Ringed Plovers were around but were not apparently about for the majority of the day. I got views of a single Oystercatcher on the North island but I'm sure there is likely to still be two adults and a chick knocking about. The Goosander that was around on Sunday seems to have disappeared, I has a brief look along the river but still no luck with finding the bird, the likely hood is that it was a juvenile bird that just decided to migrate a little to early it will likely turn up again at some point soon.
The numbers in Black headed Gulls has risen and there was about ten about including a juvenile bird which was I retesting to look at, it appeared to be one of this years young that has come along with the other black heads this year.
Other than that things were very quiet today, I couldn't get any views of Kingfisher, but did see three cormorants hanging around, one was a particularly well groomed and nicely coloured bird that is likely to be a summer linage male specimen that is either Looking for a mate although it is a little late for that really.
Anyway here's my main sightings from the afternoon,
RSPB Sandwell Valley- LRP x2, Common Tern x3, Cormorant x3, Black headed Gull 10+, Cettis Warbler (heard), Canada Goose 10+, Carrion Crow 5+, Grey Heron x2, Tufted Duck 5+, Mallard 5+, Reed Warbler (heard), Goldfinch 5+, Greenfinch x1, Blackcap x1, Swift 10+, Swallow x1, House Martin 3-4x, Oystercatcher x1, Bullfinch x1, Dunnock x1, Wren x1, Chiffchaff (heard).
Thanks for reading there should be an update on the weekend- WMBB
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