Today's Outing

Hi readers, another round up of Sunday birding for you to read through. As usual we began our day by visiting RSPB Sandwell Valley and it turned out there was quite a bit to see there today, firstly on arrival a nice year tick for me in the form of a Common Sandpiper was residing on the main island throughout the morning, at least 3 Little Ringed Plover were also around and a repeat of last week Sand and House Martins were also around along with some Swallow. What's also strange is that Goosander numbers are increasing with 5 on Forge Mill Lake today, surely they should be decreasing. A single Pochard still seems to be staying with the Tufted Duck flock we believe it really thinks it's a Tufted Duck.

Two Great Crested Grebes were also showing in front of the hide and are showing interest in a Coot nesting location so you never know if we get Grebes in front of the hide, it also looks as if the Oystercatchers are nesting on the island and are swapping over regularly, also a single Snipe was on the far bank another bird that should be leaving round about now. 

So not a bad morning overall a good few species seen, the LRPs were mating on the main island so fingers crossed we are seeing the beginning of a successful year for them. I have to say Sandwell is really picking up now soon the Common Terns will be making a return and hopefully we will have some success with them as well. We may be having some success with birds of prey also at least two Sparrowhawks were seen today so hopefully they are pairing up as well. For me however today's star bird was a stunning Kingfisher that treated us to a fly past mid morning. A Jay also flew by a couple of times. 

So with the success from Sandwell Valley we decided to have a quick look at Uffmoor Wood to see if the Yellow Brow was visible, we arrived and were told that the bird was showing, however after an hour or so of looking we only had one sighting and it wasn't me who saw it, this was a little annoying however we are planning to have another look at some point and the previous views we got of the bird were more than enough it was right in front of us last time we came to see the bird, however we did see a couple of good warblers in the form if a Blackcap and Willow Warbler so the vi was a complete dip. 

That's all for this week, not a bad weekend overall, and not a bad week of birding overall either, with the Slav Grebe at Belvide too, there shall as usual be a post next weekend if not before so keep an eye out for that one. Bellow are a few pics from Sandwell this morning for you to scroll through.

Great Crested grebe, RSPB Sandwell Valley.

Little Ringed Plover. 

The Drake Pochard.

Pied Wagtail.

One of only 3 Lapwing today. 

Another one of the Drake Pochard. 

Hope you like the pictures, plenty of them as you can see, I want to start taking more photos on my travels so there should be more shots popping up on the blog in future posts. Anyway as I said there will be a post next weekend so keep your eyes on the blog and Twitter for that one.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the week all- WMBB