A quiet Sunday

Hi readers, today as usual was our day of the week for birding and I have to say it was looking very quiet everywhere we went. Firstly our usual haunt Sandwell Valley was on the agenda and our visit gave me a chance to decide my opinion on the island and the work that has been done on it, I have to say it has been well designed and overall hasn't made a difference to how many birds are on the island I was worried about the Lapwings and Snipe rejecting the island but it seems they have not. Goldfinches were looking a little confused and were searching for Teasel on the island but they will soon find it on the marsh. Overall I think the island will make a big difference to the birds that appear on the reserve, it does look a little messy at the moment but the layout of the island is perfect for birders and for wading birds so lets hope we see a bigger variety of species on the main island very soon.

The new island at RSPB Sandwell Valley.

Work was also done on the marsh and a entirely new part of the marsh is now viewable, it is also very promising for close views of Water Rail. Although at the start I was unsure of the work I now think it has gone very well and should make a positive difference to the reserve. Anyway enough of my rambling lets talk birds. Things seemed very quiet the main birds of note were Common Gull, Snipe, and  Goosander. Things were very quiet and I was surprised how low the amount of Winter ducks has got on the reserve, only Goosander and Teal were around, there has been no sign of any Goldeneye or widgeon for quite a while now and I remember big numbers of these species being around just last year. Some good views of House Sparrows were had but this was off the RSPB part of the reserve, today the hide was closed so I had a long awaited walk around the reserve it gave me a chance to see a few more parts of the place that I haven't been to in a while. Anyway here's all the main sightings we had from the visit,

RSPB Sandwell Valley- Snipe x7, Goosander 5+, Canada Goose 10+, Mute Swan x2, Grey Heron x2, Gadwall 10+, Black headed Gull 20+, Lesser Black backed Gull 5+, Common Gull x1, Pochard 20+, Tufted Duck 20+, Coot 10+, Moorhen x1, Teal 5+, Redwing 20+, Reed Bunting x1, Great Tit 5+, Bullfinch 5+, Mallard 10+, House Sparrow 10+, Dunnock x3, Wren x3, Sparrow Hawk x1.

Things were very quiet today, but I suppose that is to be expected at this time of the year. Moving on now today we took our usual visit to Bartley Reservoir, I had been keeping a eye on this weeks news coming from the place and Iceland Gull was a frequent appearance on Twitter. So seen as the bird had literally been seen everyday of the week we thought this would be an easy one, all in all we didn't see the bird so it proved to be not so easy after all, although we did get the two Scaup again this time nearer to the dam they offered much better views than the first time we had seen them so we didn't leave the reservoir totally unsuccessful. I haven't as of yet seen any news regarding the Iceland Gull but we certainly didn't see it, although as the sun began to set the light from the Dam became very bad and most of the gulls were very silhouetted, by the time we were leaving lots of Gulls were still flying in so there is a chance the bird flew in a little later in the evening. Anyway here's the main sightings from the visit,

Bartley Reservoir- Scaup x2, Tufted Duck 5+, Mallard 5+, Herring Gull (100s), Lesser Black backed Gull (100s), Greater Black backed Gull 10+, Black headed Gull (1000s).

So not a wide variety of species but a massive number of birds, the roost at the reservoir is quickly expanding and becoming bigger and bigger as time goes on I have to say tonight's roost was especially impressive. Bellow are a couple of shots of one of the Scaup at Bartley Res tonight,

Scaup at Bartley Res.



Scaup at Bartley res.

So not the worst of days for birding, next week I know we will be off to Sandwell Valley but I'm not to sure where else we will be going afterwards, it all depends on what birds are about to we shall see next weekend where the my birding travels take me next.

Thanks for reading and have a good week all- WMBB