Sun out, Birds In.

Hi readers, another installment of birding from yesterday for you today. Overall yesterday was a very quiet day although we did go to three different locations nothing to exciting turned up, but the warm weather made up for the lack of birds. As usual we started our day over at Sandwell Valley in the hide, everything as usual seemed quite quiet, we had our eyes glued to the small view we did have of the Oystercatcher nest and thankfully a chick has emerged giving us brief and small views, I have a feeling their is only one chick this year but I'm not sure if any more were reported after we left. There are still three Common Tern about and it looks as if their are two nests, only three Lapwing chicks were seen also. A single Grey Wagtail (juv) turned up late morning a Reed Warbler also showed well jumping low in the reeds. A Kingfisher made a fly by mid morning also. Still plenty of LRPs around whether any are nesting is anyone guess, we shall soon see.

Things were quite quiet there was in my opinion an unconfirmed report of Spoonbill on the marsh probably early morning, the bird was not their past 11am and nor was it there near to 12:30pm when we left. I'm not sure who the reporter was but if the bird was around then it was around very early morning, whats interesting is as I'm writing this I'm reading of a drake Garganey on the main island, please be there this Saturday is all I am saying as it may give me a chance to go and take a look.

The Male Oystercatcher, RSPB Sandwell Valley.

So very quiet overall, not to much to talk about from the hide yesterday but that's the way it often goes in the valley. We decided to head over to Gailey Reservoir we haven't been there since the Great White Egret some months ago. It turned out Gailey was also very quiet, we had a look around for Spotted Flycatchers but no sign of any throughout our visit, plenty of Greylag Geese around and three Oystercatchers showing well 2 of which appeared to be juvenile but were showing at a distance and if they were they were almost fully grown birds. A single Linnet showed well on the power lines also. Plenty of Great crested and Little Grebes all around throughout the visit and nice views of 2 Great spotted Woodpeckers one of which was a juvenile bird. Plenty of Reed Warblers showing well or at least showing a little throughout our walk around. At least 2 Common Terns showing well throughout our visit. That's all from Gailey, a very quiet visit not to much around overall.

To end this very quiet day we decided to take a long awaited visit to Essington Quarry Pool once a regular haunt for us we hadn't been to this place in some months, mainly due to the lack of reports from the place with the website for it closing, but we decided to take a look around for ourselves and check out what we have been missing it turned out to be another quiet walk. Plenty of Buzzard, the odd Whitethroat showing well as well as a couple of Willow Warblers calling around. A couple of Greylags were on the main pool, a single Yellowhammer flew by something I always love seeing, stunning birds. plenty of Swallow were around as well as a single Swift and finally a single Pied Wagtail showed well. Walking round this site is always peaceful, I used to love walking around it especially in the summer, but over the last few months we seemed to have neglected it a little, we shall have to make more time to get over there in the future. But I have to admit it is still very quiet round there, illegal fishing seems to have gotten more serious round there we think we spotted people hiding in the bushes (weird I know) but wasn't to sure, furthermore lets not forget the areas of fencing that have been cut through to make way for fishermen. But the pool is I believe privately owned and I remember me and my mate James reporting a fishermen to the farmers, who didn't really seem that bothered about it, I suppose its up to the landowner on this one, any breeding birds that are around may benefit from more protection against fishermen on the pool.

I used to do a lot of fishing and really did enjoy it, but I used to know where to fish, I always went to places that were specifically made for fishing not reserves, I have seen fishermen fishing at Sandwell Valley of all places, not that I like to complain about things but its not allowed and is often not clamped down on hard enough, at places like Essington its different, I don't think the place is a nature reserve as mentioned its privately owned so its up to landowners to deal with it but over the years I have been birding at Sandwell Valley I have seen fishermen fishing the main lake, it has been reported but little is done about it in the long term. Fishing is a great hobby I used to love it, but people need to be told properly, fish where you are allowed to not on Nature Reserves. Granted most fishermen abide by the rules, in fact more or less all of them, but there are some who still break the rules and this can harm breeding birds success rates.

Anyway that's all for this weeks post next week we are planning to go over to the Wyre Forest for the Wood Warblers and of course the Dipper's and what ever else is around, no Sandwell next week, but a trip to the Wyre should be very productive I always love going there, and now we know better about where to look for certain species around their so we should be able to get some good stuff.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of the week all- WMBB