Will the sun last?

Hi readers, today was a wonderful day for birding, the sun was out and not a cloud in the sky, car parks were packed and people were wearing shorts and not water proof coats. So we decided to soak up the little bit of lovely weather we have had this year so far and did what we usually do on a Sunday, birding. RSPB Sandwell Valley was as usual the first place we ended up going to. I decided to do a little Twitter searching before heading out and it appeared the 22 Barnacle Geese had returned for another visit to the reserve, on arrival to the hide all of the group were on the main island, as well as this a stunning male Brambling appeared on the feeders near the old center, it offered great views and was something I had never seen on the reserve. As the Barnacles are concerned they are presumably a feral group originating from Edgbaston specifically the University area if I am correct, most of them have rings on their legs apart from one of the birds.

One Ring Necked Parakeet flew over the railway bridge near the temporary center which was another nice thing to see, it also appeared that plenty of Buzzards were making the best of the thermals today as they were around in good numbers as well as a female Sparrowhawk that came in a few times throughout the morning. Here's the main sightings from the visit,

RSPB Sandwell Valley- Barnacle Goose x22, Goosander x2, Oystercatcher x2, Little Grebe x2, Brambling x1, Willow Tit x2, Buzzard 2+, Sparrowhawk x1, Shoveller 5+, Gadwall 5+, Lapwing 10+, Black headed Gull 100+, Ring necked Parakeet x1.

Barnacle geese today at RSPB Sandwell

Male Oystercatcher at RSPB Sandwell 

After Sandwell Valleys success we decided to head over for some Crossbill searching at Cofton Park, reports that 15 birds were at Cofton hill was confusing because if I am correct (which is highly unlikely with my geographical skills) there is no Cofton Hill at the Licky Hills, please correct me in the comments if I am wrong, anyway the place we looked at was actually Cofton Park and it fitted the description with a visitor center with Pine trees behind it. We had a look around but didn't see any however we did get a few Siskin and a few Mistle Thrush. As well as this I got a good year tick i the form of a Tree Creeper.

Mistle Thrush, Cofton Park.

After Cofton park we quickly went over to the woods next to Twatling Road to see if we could get a few Brambling to end the days birding, it appears that the birds have moved on we only got one Brambling overall the rest were Chaffinches. But we did still see one so not a complete failure. And I have to say there was barely any room to park, this sunny day brought a lot of people out of their homes. I also noticed a lot of Butterfly's were out today as I'm sure you all did, the first I saw was this stunning Peacock Butterfly in the picture bellow, I'm not really a Butterfly person and know little about them but I cant deny this one is a stunner. 

Peacock Butterfly today.

So a sunny day and a good few birds seen, who can complain about that eh! There should as usual be a post next week if not before, and as usual I have no real idea where we will be going apart from the usual visit to Sandwell that is likely, so stay tuned for next weeks adventures.

Thanks for reading and have a good week all- WMBB