Anther quiet weekend.

Hi all, another post for you to have a read through, again this week isn't really full of excitement although Sandwell Valley seems to be picking up with breeding birds which is a good sign that the recent changes to the reserve have been a good decision. Plenty of their birds showed up to. 

The Common Terns are doing considerably better than last year with at least two chicks we think from two seperate breeding pairs as there are two pairs around. There are two well grown Oystercatcher chicks now looking to big to be predated now I feel, and the same goes for the Lapwing chicks there is one large almost fully grown chick now likely to be another survivor. Moorhens are doing well with a brood of five chicks but from past experience it's sad to say they are not always successful, the parents do not seem very cautious in bringing the chicks out so this will go against them massively. A single well grown Great crested Grebe chick remains and it appears there are 5 Cygnets on the ramp huddled up together they do look quite young to. 

Plenty if Reed Warblers were around all morning as well as tones of Swift, two Herring Gull also turned up, as well as 2 LRP who are potentially nesting again. A single juvenille Pied Wagtail turned up late morning also. Canada Goose numbers have risen there has to be at least 50 a lot of them are likely to be this years goslings coming into adulthood, Black headed Gulls are also returning. 

A single Stock Dove was also around. The main highlight of the morning was in the for, of a species that from my time in the valley is a little harder to find on the reserve this species is Linnet a seemingly common bird but seen less often in the valley to my knowledge, the birds flew in a showed briefly to the left of the hide before flying off. 

The rest of the day is quite quiet, we visited Bartley Reservoir later in the afternoon to no evail, a few Lesser Black backed and Herring Gulls were around as well as 20+ Canada Goose with a tone of Goslings, a Fox began a hunt aimed at these goslings but was spotted before it got a chance, still around 4 Great crested Grebes around and a single Tufted Duck. People were fishing on the bank so any Herons that may have been around will have been spooked.

There may very well be some postings in the week with a lot of pictures, I will be at Sandwell Valley everyday of the week, I won't be birding all the time but I will be doing some photography and therefore at the same time a little bit of birding, other days I will be working in different areas so won't get any birding done, anything birding I do, do will be blogged on here so look out for those posts, any posts I do will be tweeted about. 

Thanks for reading and have a good week all- WMBB