Birding today

Hi all, this Sunday was spent like it usually is for us by bird watching. And our usual haunt of Sandwell Valley was in need of a visit this morning. On walking outside I felt the cold wind in the air so right away knew the hide windows were going to be shut for the morning. Things seem to have picked up a little today with a few nice birds around. 

We opened up the hide and I began looking around to see what was around, and amazingly 13 cormorants were on the wooden beams this morning which is a good number for the lake as usually there is at most only 5 birds about. There was also at most 3 Snipe around on the island which is something we should be seeing a lot off for the next few months. So after getting an good idea of what was about I noticed that all the Black headed Gulls had resided over the far side if the lake near the concrete ramp. So like I have been for the last few weeks I decided to scan through them. And luck would have it the Med Gull had returned for another morning, the bird see,ed to disappear later on in the morning so I have no idea if it returned in the afternoon. Along with that Pete noticed a Goosander also on the  main lake which also disappeared later on in the morning. 

Atilla the Swan was also around still along with another ringed swan with an Orange ring with the number 23F on it. I can't quite remember perfectly but I think the ring was on the right leg but I am not completely sure if that's right. If anyone knows of this particular swan please don't hesitate to comment in the post. 

Here's the main sightings from the visit, 

RSPB Sandwell Valley- Med Gull x1, Goosander x1, Black Headed Gull 50+, Coot 20+, Moorhen 5+, Shoveler 5+, Pochard x8, Teal 5+, Lapwing x65, Lesser black backed Gull 5+, Cormorant x13, Sand Martin x1, House Martin 10+, Swallow 10+, Snipe x3, Mute Swan x2, Mallard 5+, Grey Heron x2, Wood pigeon 5+, Goldfinch x1. 

Also got a little bit of site management news form Sandwell Valley for you all. I'm not completely sure when it will take place but the main island will soon be worked on and re designed quite a lot to attract more waders and to make it easier for birders to see the birds on the island. I will tell you more when I get it. 

Anyway moving onto the birding, we decided to take a long awaited visit to Bartley Green Reservoir which turned out to be quite unproductive really. Things were very quiet and there was little around. The best birds was a single Cormorant, and a Great crested Grebe, yes it was quiet. Although late afternoon a very large flock if Canada Geese dropped in to roost which in future could bring other geese species in. Here's our main sightings, 

Black headed Gull 5+, Herring Gull x1, Canada Goose 50+, Grey Heron x5, Mallard 10+, Great crested Grebe x1, Cormorant x1. 

Yep very quiet round the reservoir this afternoon. I wanted to post a photo of Atilla the the Swan also but for some reason my computer doesn't want me to post at all, it just tells me I have logged out of somewhere else and do I want to log in again, I have looked it up and it is a common error not a hack, it's just very annoying, if I can I will post it either on Twitter or on here in the week. There should also be a birding post next week as usual. 

Thanks for reading have a good week all- WMBB