A very quiet Sunday.

Hi readers, as you can tell from the post title things were very quiet today, we first visited RSPB Sandwell Valley where things were quiet but resonable ok this week. The Oystercatcher pair were back again and walking around on the main islands, as well a plenty of Snipe being on the islands to A nice surprise of a Little Grebe was probably the best bird from the visit, something I haven't seen to much this year so it was nice to see. Plenty of Ducks were around with what I feel increased numbers of Tufted Duck and 10+ Goosander being on the main lake, as well as Shoveller and Gadwall. no sign of any Wigeon today which is somewhat surprising. As usual plenty of Pochard to, as well as tens of Black headed Gulls along with the odd Lesser black Backed and Herring Gull.

Another surprise was the number of Lapwing on the island, it was around ten today and compared to recent months that is very low, I do remember myself saying this last year so it may just be something they do every year, where ever they go they do seem to return more towards spring for breeding I can only guess. The Oystercatchers were mating today which shows they are again most likely going to breed when spring comes along for I think a third or fourth year breeding on the reserve. 

After the hide we also went up to the feeders and had a tone of Bullfinch and Chaffinch and a lovely Willow Tit on the feeder to which was nice to see. So a relatively normal and quiet morning round the Valley, however the tea machine made a strong return today making things a lot warmer in the windy hide. So moving on now to a place  my Dad advised us to go, he had seen Stonechat yesterday over at Coombs Warf near Halesowen, and being a species I haven't seen in a while we both decided to go over and have a good look to see if there were any around, sadly there were no Stonechats today, the wind really wasn't on our side either so we didn't hold much hope in seeing any. 

So to end the days birding we decided to get over to Bartley Green Reservoir, and with the main road around the place being closed due to what I can only imagine was flooding we parked the car at the side of the road and embarked on foot. There was no real success with the Gulls but we did get nice views of two Green Sandpiper sheltering from the wind as well as a good group of around 8 Goldeneye. Obviously we tried to look through the gulls but the reservoir was very choppy when we were around to any Gull that looked interesting disapeared under a wave as you got on to them, there was not sign of any sea birds around either. 

I did manage to fall on my back side while at the reservoir, and I quickly stood up unharmed only to realise that I had snapped off part of my scope tripod, so I may need a new one of those soon because it is quite broken. And what's worse is even after looking in my garden and all around the areas we have been to today I still haven't seen a Wren, I still haven't seen a Wren, just thought I would repeat that one, I really need to get one simply because it's bugging me I not give up. There should be a post next weekend if not before, not sure where we will be going next week but only time will tell ehh. 

Look at my poor broken tripod in the pic above, it's been a good friend and shall be missed, I will shed a tear soon. 

Thanks for reading and have a good week all- WMBB