When I don't bring my camera..........

Hi readers, yes today I decided bringing my camera wasn't the thing to do and that turned out to be a stupid decision. Me and Dad started off the quiet birding day with our usual birding site of Sandwell Valley. We started off the birding down Kingfisher corner being drawn by the calls of the Parakeets down there we decided to see if we could see them. We tried but a large number of dogs and people shouting must have scared e birds away. 

However having missed our green parakeet friends we decided to have a brief look down the river and saw a good number of Tufted Duck Ducklings and too our surprise a Kingfisher. I'm not joking when I say it's the first ever time I have seen a Kingfisher at Kingfisher corner, apparently the areas only named that because the birds nested down there once a few years ago. 

Down the hide we got five or six more views of Kingfisher flying past throughput the morning one of which being a stunning view making my decision to not bring a camera a bad one. A couple of Juvenile Little ringed Plovers were around but strangely no adults, 3 Stock Doves visited mid morning. The calls of a Little Grebe were heard throughout the morning but the bird or birds were not seen. 

As you can imagine we had a good number of Canada Geese about throughout the morning, a few Gadwall were about and also some Pochard. We also got good views of a juv Grey Wagtail late into the morning. That's the main highlights really, without the Cettis Warbler calling we have nothing to listen out for and the Common Terns appear to have fully disappeared. Here's our main sightings from the morning, 

RSPB Sandwell Valley- Stock Dove x3, Kingfisher x2, Pochard 5+, House Martin 5+, Canada Goose 20+, Swift 5+, Tufted Duck 5+ (about 14 ducklings), Grey Heron x1, LRP x2 (juvs), Ring necked Parakeets (heard), Lapwing 10+, Reed Warbler x1, Grey Wagtail x1, Great crested Grebe x2, Collard Dove x1, Little Grebe (heard), Gadwall a few about, Herring Gull x3 (1juv), Black Headed Gull 10+, Lesser Black backed Gull 5+. 

So another quiet morning round the valley but a few nice highlights, we came to the conclusion the one Kingfisher flying past the hide was more likely to be a juvenile specimen of the bird. 

Now moving on into the birding day, I am about to sell a site to you that you will be surprised at, Dad sold it to me and I was impressed enough to have a look with him from what he said about it. I'm sure many of you drive and use the motorway often well you may be familiar with the motorway service station (yes I didn't believe it). Near where my Dad lives there is a service station called Frankley services and Dad told me there was a good number of Wagtails, Thrushes and other good species at about 8pm on Saturday night. 

We decided to have a look at the place and see what's about, and literally there was about 4 whole species in the area, some Swallows, a single singing Skylark, Wood pigeon, and a Yellowhammer singing somewhere. Ok it wasn't as good as expected, but I suspect the area may be as good as Dad says every night the birds may use the fields as a sort of roosting site every night so maybe we had a look a bit to early to see anything. 

To end the birding day we decided to have a long awaited look at Barltey green reservoir, little was around as usual a few Lesser Black backed and Herring Gulls, about 5 Canada Geese, and some flyby Black headed Gulls. We expected a Black Tern or two but nothing anywhere near that turned up. So that's it for this weekend folks, in terms of posting anyway, things are still a little quiet but about 4 mega rarities have popped up this week and yesterday a quick visit of a Pectoral Sanpiper at Belvide got me excited but it sadly didn't stay long enough for me to see it. 

Thanks for reading have a good week all- WMBB