Birding today.

Hi readers, as usual Sunday was our day for birding, and where do we go every week? Sandwell Valley that's where. It was great to see returns from Alf and Bob today who have been away for a while great to see you both back in the hide. Todays visit to the reserve got us a surprise species that we didn't expect to see. There were 24 Barnacle Geese swimming around on Forge Mill Lake, which was something I really didn't expect to see. There is that possibility the birds are feral but it is debatable seen as there are feral and wild forms of the bird all across the country it is hard to say if they are or not, one bird did have a ring on its leg but I didn't get an opportunity to read the number on it.

So with the surprise bird visit we continued the birding with little success. As usual there were plenty of Teal, Tufted Duck, and the odd Shoveler. Also a great 7 Goosander were also on the main lake made up of only female birds. Plenty of Redwing were about and in fact I saw my first of the season today which was a nice sight. Two Little Grebes were around throughout the morning, a Grey Wagtail came close to the left side of the Hide also. Lapwing numbers seem to have gone down slightly there had to be only ten or so on the main island. All in all it wasn't a terrible morning, and as I went to sign out at the main centre it seemed the Halloween event was going off a storm with plenty of people joining in.

A quiet but successful morning here's the main sightings from the morning,

RSPB Sandwell Valley- Barnacle Goose x24, Snipe 5+, Gadwall 5+, Great crested Grebe x2, Little Grebe x2, Canada Goose 5+, Grey Heron x1, Cormorant x7, Grey Wagtail x1, Tufted Duck 10+, Coot 10+, Black headed Gull 50+, Pied Wagtail x1, Goosander x7, Jay x1, Starling 5+, Teal 5+, Shoveler x1, Mute Swan x2, Buzzard x1, Moorhen 5+.

So not a bad morning of birding. We also had the afternoon free so decided to continue the birding and head off up to Chasewater in pursuit of some rarer Gulls. I've got to admit it was freezing around the res but we eventually found an area that had very little wind and was a little warmer, that coincidently also offered a great viewing point for a 150 or so larger Gulls. Most were just Lesser Black backed and Herring Gulls. There was no sign of any Caspian or Yellow Legged that we could see. As the roost became a lot bigger we had to leave but before leaving we got a few Greater Black Backed Gulls hanging about which was something a little better for us to see. Here's the main sightings from the visit,

Chasewater res- Greater Black backed Gull 3+, Herring Gull 100+, Black headed Gull 300+, Lesser Black backed Gull 100+, Great crested Grebe 5+ (+3 chicks), Tufted Duck x2, Coot 10+.

So not a terrible evenings birding we may return in a couple of weeks for another look around hopefully we succeed a little more then. Next week should be a visit to Sandwell Valley as usual not sure what else birding wise we are going to be doing but only time can tell. 

Barnacle Goose, RSPB Sandwell Valley

So hope you like the post there should be one next week some time.

Thanks for reading and have a good week all- WMBB