The Valley and the Marsh.

Hi readers, time for another post it seems, last week I decided not to post, as a whole the post would t have been to exciting if I had of done so I just decided not to do one. This week it was another quiet one as a whole we took a look round some of the regular places seen as the rest of the Midlands is pretty much dead at the moment. So take a wild guess where we went first, it's a valley in Sandwell if you put Sandwell before the word Valley then you have its name. Yes Sandwell Valley we spent the morning in the hide today and things turned out quite well.

We had a welcomed return of 16 Goosander most were females but there were it appeared a few males who still have red heads they should be in full plumage soon. The two Pintail were also still around Pete "the snipe" Carless reckons they have stayed the longest any Pintail has stayed before so it looks promising that they will stick around for a while now. Plenty of Pochard were around and we had nice views of a Kestrel probably the same one twice. A few Teal were also around as well as 30+ Lapwing. The Black Headed Gull gathering is still the same size with 50+ birds, no sign of the Med today however. A single Snipe flew through early on in our visit but due to the ploughed field look the area to the left of the hide has, as soon as these birds land they are out of view instantly. A single Kingfisher also flew through and a single Buzzard flew by to. Also a couple of Jays flew by. 

Before we got to the hide we took a look in the horses field just after the main railway bridge, we noticed a stunning couple of foxes in the field, we realised that the fields owner a lady often speak to was standing right next to these Foxes , it was amazing to see how inviting they are and how friendly they were towards her, a third fox arrived also, but we were told there were all together 8 Foxes which is a great number, keep your eyes on this field, you will get great views of these lovely animals. 

One of three friendly Foxes.

Overall the valley did well today, a good variety of species, I do think the valley is picking up latlely, often there were times when we had nothing to look at from the hide and we were left waiting for something to flyby but today we had a few species to enjoy watching so it's good to see the valley picking up in recent times, a lot of its down to the coverage of the site to a lot more birders are around lately. 

Anyway let's dig further into the day, we decided to go over to one of our old haunts that we haven't been visiting to often in the last few months Clayhanger Marsh. We used to enjoy quiet walks around the place, it always reminds me of the Wild West for some reason, all the long grassy fields and horses around. So to start if we had a couple of nice Linnet flying through, always a nice bird to see. Up to five Buzzard were flying and soaring up high during our walk I'm guessing a few young ones are taking a good look around the area. A single Swan also showed 20 or so Black Headed Gulls. Two Wigeons were also around and I still love how they look at this time of year even in eclipse plumage they are stunning examples of wildfowl. A few Lapwings were dotted around as well as a few Lesser Blacked Backed Gulls. Up to 4 Little Grebes were also dotted around Ryders Mere as well as three Great crested Grebe. On the way back through the marsh we had 5+ Teal and a single Kestrel. We also heard a Water Rail calling somewhere in the reeds but as usual we could get any views of it. 

Nice View from the mineral line path. 

Nice juv Mute Swan. 

With a good visit to Clayhanger we decided to take a quick look over Chasewater, things were pretty quiet and it turns out the smaller pool by the innovation centre has been drained so we did t get any views of any "plastic ducks" on there. The gull roost is increasing but is very distant, and seen as I managed to snap my new tripod it was pretty difficult with the scope! Although I did spot a single Greater Black backed Gull out with the gulls, in addition we had all the usuals really Little and Great crested Grebes, a tone of Coot, Swan and Canada Goose. Overall a nice quiet visit, soon we will be standing in the freezing cold sorting through Gulls ah the wonders of gulling! 

So now I've gone through our birding day I want to talk to you about a new addition to the blog that I hope to get going soon, I want to do regular posts titled "Topic Talk" essentially this will be me talking about a recent news topic in the birding or natural world and offering my opinion on the matter, I think it's a good idea because it will allow me to spice the blog up a bit and get my opinions across which was one of the reasons I initially started the blog. So these posts will usually be within the week, so I will see if they do well. And any discussion after I do one of these posts is important, it would be great to get alternative views to my viewpoint on a topic. So look out for the "Topic Talk" posts, I will tweet when they're out on the blog so you will know when they are up. Again there should be a post soon, but with this new addition to the blog it could be sooner than usual. 

Thanks for reading and enjoy the week all- WMBB