A Quiet End to June

So for the last post of June, we don't have much to report. A walk around our lock down route around our field and canal produced very little. The canal was empty, not even a Coot, Moorhen or Mallard in sight. Just Magpie, Woodpigeon, Blackbird and Tits in the wood, the only photo of note was a Blackbird perhaps trying to cool down on the path;

The highlight of the walk was an Apache Helicopter with its 30mm Chain Gun at the ready looking for people ignoring lock down rules! Actually it was probably en-route to RAF Cosford judging by the direction it was going.

By Monday the weather had changed temperature dropping from 30+ to just 15 degrees and the wind was a tad fierce, causing havoc in the garden. We had booked a slot at Charlecote Park National Trust for the afternoon, but looking at the weather, I was in two minds if we should go, but we did.

We were disappointed to find only a third of the estate land was open, with the best birding sites closed off, still we braved the wind and cold and walked where we could. The house gate house provided probably the best birding moment;

A young House Martin, probably near fledging, looking for its parents to return with a tasty morsel. There were tons of swifts flying around and the feeders to the side of the house produced just Blue and Great Tit and some Goldfinch.

We were surprised when a Little Egret flew down the river, but then apart from corvids and pigeon, not much else to report.

Belvide Nature Reserve

We decided after some years thinking about it! To join the West Midlands Bird Club, this gives us access to a number of private reserves within a 45 minute drive from home. Once we received our membership details, that contains the codes to access the reserves we took the short hop over to Harborne to check the reserve there out.

The reserve is tiny and is adjacent to the Harborne Walkway, having said that it's a nice place for a shortish walk. There are no hides but quite a few benches which we made good use of for a coffee or two of course. Now that we are getting in to late June the bird activity is a lot less, so not much was seen, the highlight being a family of at least 4 Goldcrest dancing around in the tree canopy above our bench, so getting a photo was nigh on impossible. I do have a blurry one, but I won't put that on here.

The only other photo was of a patrolling Buzzard:

So now on to the title of this post, Belvide NR, this another WMBC reserve not far from J12 of the M6. This reserve is based around the Belvide Reservoir, there are 6 hides, plenty of benches and two toilets (luxury!) To cover all 6 hides the walk from the car park and back is about 3 miles, which on a hot afternoon like yesterday was a bit tiring for us oldies. Also it's always strange sussing out a new place, because you don't know where anything is, luckily at the second hide we visited we had a nice socially distanced chat with a regular he gave us a rough idea of what was where.

So onto the birding bit.
Tufted Duck, of which there were plenty,

 Peacock Butterfly Catepillar,

 Common Terns,

 'Dancing' Lapwing,

 Common Tern,

 Great Crested Grebe,

 Ringed Plover,

 Pochard,

 Carrion Crow,

 Tufties and Coot,

 Reed Bunting going for it,

 I think this is a Buff Ermine Moth Catepillar, but I'm no expert, so sorry if I'm wrong.

 Juvenile Coot,

 Damoiselle,

 Young Tree Sparrow,

 Young Great Tit,

 Tree Sparrow,

 Sedge Warbler

 Red Admiral,

 Long-tailed Tit

 and Pheasants.

We had a lovely 4 hours or so there, taking our year tally up by 3 to 120 and 72 for the month, so not too bad.

Garden Visitor

While making a coffee in the Kitchen, I saw a flurry of activity and something largish and grey shoot up and land on top of the conifers, I knew it wasn't a pigeon, so grabbed the camera and ran upstairs, I managed to get one usable shot before it descended inside the trees.

There was then some activity inside the trees before it burst out again and shot away, flying towards our nearby small wood, with a poor House Sparrow gripped firmly in its talons. I was so amazed I didn't even get a photo as it flew away!

Attingham Park NT

As I said at the end of the last post we managed to book a slot with the National Trust at Attingham Park in Shropshire for Monday just gone. It was pretty well organised when we got there, with a socially distanced check-in. Once in the park it was a one way system around the estate, with various route options, the house itself was of course closed, but we only ever do the house on our first visit to any estate, we go for the walks in the main part.

The first part of the walk past the house, with the bonus of our first House Martins of the year, then out onto the grounds was a bit busy for our liking with a few people not distancing properly, but we soon diverged from the main route and were out on our own. The first wildlife, although not truly wild were the resident Fallow Deer;

Just after these photos, the heavens opened and we took shelter under some Oak Trees, this happened to be a good move as from our shelter we saw, Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Long-tailed Tit and I think a Spotted Flycatcher.

Once the rain stopped we carried on, not seeing much else apart from Crows, Jackdaw and Woodpigeon, then as we turned a corner there was a bird sitting on the end of a bare branch about 80 yards away, a female Redstart, we were over the moon! We then found the male, near a convenient bench, so we settled down and watched. In the end we had two pairs of Redstart hunting and disappearing into the trees and back to the nests.

Just after this we were back in the woods, plenty of birds singing but with the dense foliage, much more difficult to find, although another Spotted Flycatcher did give us a view.

As we headed back towards the house and the car, we took a few opportunities to sit and watch (and rest!) and were rewarded with a nice male Blackcap:

So a lovely day and 3 new species for the year, so we crawl on to 117, way behind this time last year but we had been to Lesvos, so that boosted our 2019 total somewhat.

Who knows what's next!

Going Local!

On Saturday we stayed local, but took a 10 minute drive, if that, and parked at Netherton Reservoir with a view to explore Netherton Hill, which is part of the Saltwells Nature Reserve. Guiltily we have to say that despite living so close, in 30 odd years we have never been!

From the car park at the back of the Water Sports Club, we walked along the canal to the bridge to cross over to the reserve. Along the way we saw Coot and Moorhen on nests;

as well as a Jay showing us his backside, Lesser Black-backed Gulls and plenty of Mallard, including this farmyard duck;

Once over the bridge we heard then saw quite a few Greenfinch, non offered a decent photo though;

We turned left and followed the path parallel to the canal, where we saw that it looks like the management of this part of the reserve is achieved by a few of these fellas;

A bit further down the path we found a good spot to sit and have a coffee and watch the Linnet cavorting on a small copse nearby;

After coffee we walked on, with a Grey Heron giving us a fly by;

From a Flora point of view it was nice to see a few Orchids;

I believe this is a Common Spotted Orchid, but I'm happy to be corrected. Can't always trust the Internet! 😉 Typically after sitting on a little grass bank for coffee, we found a nice bench just a couple of hundred yards further on, hey ho, we'll know for next time.

We then headed up the hill towards the School, Cricket Ground & Church, now seeing plenty of Swifts hawking over the hillside. Once at the top we found a bench but it was occupied, so we found a tucked away corner and got the tint stools out that we sometimes take with us when going into uncharted territory and finished our coffee off, while watching the swifts.

As we went down the hill back to the canal, we hadn't gone far when guess what we found? Another bench, you live and learn. Along and around the canal are various bits of interesting information, so I'll just share a couple with you and digress from the wildlife a bit.

St Andrews Church, Netherton at the top of the Hill

and Brewins Tunnel.

On the walk back to the car, probably the same Jay mentioned earlier as it was in exactly the same place, was a bit more cooperative;

So a lovely couple of hours, we'll definitely be back. Since then we have been to Attingham NT, we managed to book a slot, but I'll cover that in the next post.