February in with a wimper (albeit a wet one)

Right, straight away, I haven’t seen anything at Shustoke, I have been, but apart from a couple of Grey Wagtail and five Goosander it is dead, to be fair, nearly everywhere else is as well. Granted we have Hume’s Yellow-browed on the doorstep which I have been back a few times for but still haven’t had stunning views.

On Sunday the good lady and I walked from the road at Kingsbury up to Middleton Lakes, where we were thwarted by the flood defences that are being built, this restricted access to to Kingsbury Water Park. We carried on up the canal towpath to RSPB Middleton Lakes, which were so wet that access again was restricted, not this time by flood defences, but actual floods. I think a better name would be RSPB Passchendaele!

Even though this reserve looks very good there were not great numbers of birds. It got me thinking that the number of Goldeneye that we see now in the Tame Valley are very similar to the numbers of Smew that we used to get 10 to 15 years ago. We did however, see two pairs of Stonechat.

This morning I took a walk around Ladywalk, again access was restricted, this time by a bloody great lorry parked in the entrance. The driver didn’t seem to understand where I wanted to go or English for that matter. He just stared at me as I made various gestures to convey what I wanted, in the end “Offski” seemed to work, he moved about 20 yards allowing me to squeeze past.

Bird wise, Willow Tit, Goldeneye and Shelduck were the highlights – god things are bad!

Late January

I have paid a few visits to the reservoir but it has been really, really quiet.

I have been birding, so far this year I have been the Wyre Forest (on the way to walk the Malvern Ridge) and seen two male, and one female Two-barred Crossbill. A week later  saw “The Captain” and Godfrey (think Dads Army) accompanied me on a day in Nottinghamshire where we saw several Parrot Crossbill.

I have also been to Norfolk enjoying a good day out birding, only to hear that a Hume’s Leaf Warbler had turned up on one of my “patches”, namely the Hams Hall Outflow. When the weather eventually cleared on Sunday I managed to get reasonable views. I went back on Monday and the bird was performing much better.

I have seen a lot of finches and buntings in the Moat House/Holly Lane area but it was the first time I had really had a chance to grill them. Viewing is really difficult as of Monday the hedges hadn’t been trimmed back. Anyway to cut a long story short I found a Brambling, there may well have been more there are certainly a lot of birds.

Wednesday 15 January

Managed to squeeze an hour in before dark tonight. I was struck by how low the water levels were, if only they could have been like that during August/September last year. Anyway, there wasn’t much around in fact there were only 23 Pochard. I checked out the woods around the small pool but it was probably just a little too late to make any impact.

Back at the car park I had a quick look and counted 23 Goosander in the roost but as I said little else.

A Quiet Start to the Year

Having check the reservoir several times since the turn of the year it has been rather disappointing with very little about. I think we probably need some cold weather to get the birds moving about a bit.

I had an email from Keith Whitehouse who lost a Garmin GpsMap60 Csx Sat Nav around the reservoir last Saturday, if anyone did pick it up let me know and I will forward his details.

Sunday 5th January

I made my third trip of the year over today seeing very little. There are very few wildfowl with the Pochard numbering a measly 32. There are very few passerines as well. On a normal visit I would expect to see between 40 to 50 species at the moment I am struggling to see 35!

It is probably as much to do with the mild weather as anything sinister but on a whole the Reservoir has been rather poor over the last year.

I walked from Coleshill down the River Tame and home this morning having a little more luck with Siskin, Lesser Redpoll, Treecreeper and the highlight a male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker about 400 yards further down the access road from the Ladywalk entrance by the fishing club, it was showing very well for about 20 minutes.

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone has had a good Xmas, ours has been quiet but enjoyable. The last one as a complete family as my eldest is moving out in the New Year, so it was quiet sad for my wife, I on the other hand will be doing cartwheels!

Anyway after a stunning Xmas lunch we walked to and round the Reservoir, it was remarkably quiet, people and bird wise. Around a dozen Goosander came into roost and there were counts of 26 Pochard, 1 Gadwall, 2 Wigeon, c.60 Mallard, c.70 Tufted Duck. Passerines were noticeable by there absence although there were several Meadow Pipit on the damp meadow at the west end.

Merry Christmas

Sunday 8th December

Finally, I found the time to get over the Reservoir not once but twice. After a day out birding with the Captain in Lancashire – Baikal Teal – where we met some of the Tame Valley’s finest, today it was my regular haunts.

First thing I had a wander around, unfortunately it coincided with the speed boat going out and the wildfowl departing. At first it was really slow but it became apparent that there were a lot of Redwings around. In the trees and fields adjacent to the railway line behind the small pool there were Redpoll, Siskin, Redwing, Fieldfare and Blackbirds. Feeding on the edge of the recently ploughed field were a group of a dozen or so Yellowhammer and over 30 Stock Dove.

The small pool held c.70 Pochard, c.120 Tufted and 2 Gadwall. One of the surprises was that there were only five Great Crested Grebe, whilst numbers peak in late summer I don’t think I have ever counted less than 40 birds in the past!

Later in the day I paid a return trip and saw the same with the addition of Sparrowhawk, c.100 Lapwing flying overhead and a singing Mistle Thrush, I know it was a good day but singing!