The Wondering Birder: Sandwell Valley

Hi readers, this weeks post title really reflects what that post is about this week, all I have to post about is Sandwell Valley, I have spent six days of this week on the reserve doing work experience, three of which were spent in the hide bird watching so I have a lot of stuff to right about. I have to say I had a great week around the reserve I worked with various different areas of the reserve such as the work party and the school groups so I got a well rounded experience of how things work around the reserve a lot of good experience gained.

The first time I got to the hide to bird watch was Wednesday, it was very quiet, with the normal birds showing up still 4 Common Tern showing well LRP (around 2), and two Oystercatcher with their two chicks. Other than that it was actually a quite quiet Wednesday. What's more volunteers out numbered visitors by a mile on this day.

The next time I got into the hide was on Friday and I spent most of the day in their working as a hide guide like I do on Sundays, Friday proved more eventful overall there were three species of Geese showing on the reserve Canada Goose, Greylag Goose, and Barnacle Goose the one I was most surprised about was the Greylag, yes it is a common species seen all over the place but at Sandwell there has always been a noticeable lack of this species on the reserve they only every really turn up in small numbers of 1 or 2 birds so it was nice to see it turn up, and the Barnacle goose was likely to have been from the Edgebaston flock that have been flying around for a while now. Five Common Terns were around the extra intruder was fought off aggressively, two LRP and the two Oystercatcher with two Chicks showed well. I have to give thanks to Andy in the hide for allowing me to use his camera lens which is considerably bigger than mine, I got some good shots of birds from the hide.

My week of work experience ended I have to say Thank you to everyone I met over the week, I really enjoyed it as a whole and gained a lot of experience about the reserve from it, what's more. I got to meet some great people who work around the reserve so overall the week was very good.

So I relaxed on Saturday, and then Sunday popped along, take a guess where I was this morning bird watching, go on, take a wild guess. I will give you a clue it starts with an S and ends with a Y two words. Another sixth visit to Sandwell Valley was in order, if I miss a week I will probably get withdrawal symptoms so I had to go, in actual fact I am really growing attached to the place as. I have been for a few years now so naturally I wouldn't mind spending six days a week there.

Before going to the hide we had a walk around the reserve. Which turned out to be a very hot walk around the reserve, the temperature in the morning was real high and we were feeling it, we had a 2 Pochard and as the day went on around 4 showed all together, a single Snipe showed well an very early snipe and something I will write down on some sort of record to make sure it is fully recorded that a Snipe has returned this early. Plenty of Blackcaps were calling all the way round as well as and Willow and Reed Warblers other than that it was quiet other wise, apparently there are now three Common Tern chicks all together which is further good news. A Kingfisher flew by twice and while in the hide showed very close to us, if my camera was out who knows what shot I may have for from that fly past.

We spent a lovely morning in the hide and had three of the Lapwing chicks overall looking very well grown like the two Oystercatcher chicks. The Greylag goose still remained today but there was no sign of the Barnacle. Late Into the morning I noticed something land on the main island, it looked yellow which got me somewhat excited, I looked through my bins and saw a stunning bright yellow YELLOW WAGTAIL a stunning summer bird, it showed well for about five or ten minutes before flying off.

The LRPs are looking as if they are nesting but I just don't feel to favorable about their success anymore, they seem to not be swapping over nest duties and instead both spend a lot of off the potential nesting site, whether they are just continually trying and failing I am not sure but they have had no chicks as of yet, there are in total four Cygnets on forge mill lake and the Great chested Grebe chicks remains and is more or less fully independent now.

What was funny to see today or rather worrying it that someone was riding a HORSE AND CART with 2 horses on the paths around Sandwell Valley, if any of you have been there you will know how narrow the paths are, you have to move out of the way for cyclists let alone a massive horse and cart with 2 horses pulling it, luckily we were tucked away in the hide watching the horse and cart go by on the other side if the lake, but really sometimes I get a little annoyed at cyclists who don't say Thank you for you moving out of their way but a horse and cart is just taking the biscuit!

That it all for this week, a great week spent around my favourite reserve and and lively Sunday indeed, there should be a post next week as usual and it's likely to be at the same place as this week post, if not then who knows where we will end up. Enjoy the pictures I have added underneath this post they are all from this week.