RSPB Middleton Lakes

We took a trip up over Birmingham to Middleton lakes on Thursday. It's been a a long while since we have been and on the way home we remembered why! But more of that later.

It was a surprisingly lovely day weather wise, the sun stayed out most of the afternoon. As I said it's been a while since we have been and it was nice to see the work done on the paths, in past visits we could have done with waders, but hopefully with the work done not any more.

So onto some birding....

The walk through the woodlands out to the lakes was lovely with the star being a Nuthatch collecting seed from posts and railings that someone had put out;

Chaffinch and Robin, plus Coal, Blue, Great and Lon-tailed Tit also turned up.
Couldn't resist a picture of a Tree Rat...

as it was being quite 'cute'.

We continued out over the canal to the lakes and walked around anti-clockwise, deciding not to cross the bridge to Dosthill. So up to the hide or as the RSPB insist on calling it 'The Lookout'. There was plenty of Coot, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Mute Swan, Moorhen, Cormorant and Canada Geese about.

From the hide, we added Wigeon, Teal, Little Egret, Little Grebe, Great White Egret, Grey Heron, Pheasant, a solitary Goosander, Shoveler,

plenty of Black-headed Gulls,

and a large flock of Linnet swooping around.

 The highlight was a Scaup that showed in a channel with some Tufties, before disappearing behind a bank, sadly I wasn't quick enough to get my camera on it.

After a late lunch in the hide we proceeded around to the Jubilee Wetlands where we saw a Shelduck to add to our list and had great fun watching the Greylag Geese coming in to roost:
Final approach, undercarriage down,

 landing aborted going around again,

 trying again,

 then the next lot doing a circuit.

After waiting in the fading light to see if any starlings showed up for a mini murmuration, (about 30 did turn up briefly) we brought our afternoons tally up to 42 with a Collared Dove.

So back to the car as it got dark, then for the supposedly 35 minute ride home that ended up taking 2 hours!! Now we remembered why we don't go to Middleton in the winter!

Haden Hill

Popped out yesterday for a brief walk in between the rain for a walk along the river in the Corngreaves NR section of the park, up to the main pool.

Nothing much to report other than a first for the park for us a Cormorant fishing on the main pool, I didn't take the camera as it was so dull, so no photos to go with the post.

On the way back down to the lower car park we did see a Goldcrest, sheltering, as the rain had started again, so we made a hasty retreat back to the car.

Kinver Canal

We took the opportunity to go for a walk from Kinver (The Vine) for an amble along the canal, with the canal on our left and the River Stour on our right, there are plenty of benches along the route, so we made use of these for our obligatory coffee stops and open air hides.

Probably due to the mornings murky weather it was very quiet, birding wise, but there was some decent afternoon sunshine making it a very pleasant walk,

with the promise of a really good Beef & Horseradish Baguette and a pint of Enville Ale (and a fruit based drink for the lady, to borrow a catch phrase from a certain comedian) at the Vine on our return.

This time I had charged the battery for my camera, however due to the lack of birds, photo opportunities were few and far between. I did manage a couple of shots:
Long-tailed Tit,

 a well camouflaged Grey Wagtail

 and a young Heron.

There were plenty of Jays about today, but none stayed still long enough for a photo. The area were we usually see Treecreeper and Nuthatch were empty, so really apart from the above it was only common birds including a very distant sighting of a Buzzard.

Even the sewage works was quiet, with just a Robin and Blue Tits about. We did manage 19 species in all, plus the baguette was excellent!