Back at Ladywalk NR

 Paid our third visit to Ladywalk this week, very quiet, although we did see some Egyptian Geese, haven't seen any of those since February in Norfolk, those lovely days before Covid.

See here are a few photos:

The aforementioned Egyptian Geese, seen from hide A,

Gadwall,

Goosander on the river,

As usual plenty of Herons.

Two of the three Little Egrets seen,

Yes it's a hide, in fact it's hide B!

Shoveler,

yet another Heron,

a Muntjac,

a Great Crested Grebe with youngster.

The sun came out so this Cormorant took the opportunity to dry those wings, bad design!

And finally one of the four Green Sandpipers seen foraging in the shallows.

As usual a lovely walk, our favourite at the moment, might spice it up next time and go clockwise 😄

Ladywalk NR - Our second visit

So after being away in Scotland, not birding (much!) we decided to pay our second visit to Ladywalk NR part of the Teme Valley Valley Wetlands area. With not being able to visit Upton Warren our regular haunt for the last 10 years, this is fast becoming our favourite reserve. It's just a beautiful and peaceful place, despite being virtually next door to a massive Sainsbury's Distribution Centre.

I guess because it is a members only reserve and everyone that we encountered is sticking to the Covid advice, the hides can stay open, the WMBC trusts its members, Unlike Worcestershire Wildlife Trust.

Anyway I'll move on! As you would expect for August from a birding standpoint the reserve seems very quiet, although there were quite a few people about. Birdsong has almost gone completely with the majority of birds conserving their energy and building themselves back up for migration or the winter to come. Having said that there was plenty to see, not terribly exciting, but still good nonetheless with a total of 44 species seen.

There were of course plenty of butterflies about, I'll start with a few snaps of those:

A Small White,

Comma

and Peacock

there were of course others but butterflies like birds don't always sit still!

We had some mammals too;

A distant Muntjac from the first hide

and a Rabbit.

So on to the birds, as usual (well for a second visit!) the feeders at the first hide were busy, mainly with Blue and Great Tits, the youngsters particularly getting stuck in. The other main visitors were what seemed to be a family of Greenfinch, otherwise there was a quick visit by a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a Nuthatch and two male Pheasant, one a juvenile.

Moving on we had a coffee in the second hide, but there wasn't much going on, so we carried on to the Riverside Walk Hide, where the waterfowl were much easier to see.

A family of Little Grebe with the adults feeding their Grebelets.

There were tons of Cormorant about with the majority chilling out on the scrapes.

A Female Tufted Duck was busy looking after her ducklings.

Other birds of note were a couple of fly by's by Little Egret, plenty of Lapwing and distant Sandpipers, which I guessed at the time were Green Sandpiper. One of the bushes to the right of the hide held plenty of Linnet and a few Starlings.

We carried on to the Bittern Hide for lunch (late as usual!), stopping at a bench overlooking the river on the way, where we had a lovely Kingfisher shoot by and watched the Canada Geese having a paddle;

At the Bittern Hide I managed some decent shots of the Green Sandpipers;

and a young Lapwing:

I couldn't resist another Cormorant shot;

The cute factor was supplied by a Gadwall with 7 ducklings:

Another youngster being looked after was a Great-crested Grebe although they refused to come close enough for a good photo;

So that's about it the walk around also produced some Reed Bunting, Juvenile Blackcap and a Willow Warbler, the end walk through the woods back to the car was very quiet, in fact we didn't see anything!

But 44 species and a lovely almost normal day out apart from the anti-bacterial gel and a great walk was well worth the 40 minute drive.

Ladywalk NR

As I've mentioned previously we have recently joined the West Midland Bird Club, so yesterday took us an another trip of exploration and we visited Ladywalk NR, one of a number of reserves in the Tame Valley Wetlands. We had a fabulous afternoon, once we mastered the combination lock to the car park, that took us a while! We went on the circular walk talking in all the hides, the weather was great if a little blowy, but the sun stayed out for the most part.

We had some great sightings, especially of a couple of cuckoos that we of course heard before we found them. But I'll start at the beginning or the imaginatively called 'Hide A'. At this hide there were a number of feeders attracting Greenfinch, Reed Bunting, Blue and Great Tits and this wonderful pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers:

We walked from Hide A to the Rudd hide, hearing Cuckoo's along the way and catching a brief glimpse in a large Oak Tree behind the hide. But as we left and headed for the River Walk Hide, one flew past a couple of hundred yards away, and landed behind a bush. We could see it, but it was partially obscured by the bush, I took a few photo's trying to get a focus through the foliage, but to no avail, then a big gust of wind swung the leaves out the way and I managed a couple of shots, one not completely out of focus or obscured:

As we walked on there were butterflies and dragonflies everywhere, absolutely fantatstic, I managed a few photos, that I'll share:
This could be a female Red-eyed Damselfly, but then it might not!!

 On safer ground this is a Comma Butterfly,

 a Gatekeeper Butterfly,

 the Comma again,

 a Red Admiral, if anyone wants to identify the insect flying in feel free!

 A Small White Butterfly,

and a Peacock.

We were having a great time with all the activity, we also saw Grey Wagtail along the river and a pair of Linnet on the pebbles:

The River Walk hide was fantastic with great views over the reserve, we added Green Sandpiper again only visible when the wind blew the reeds out the way. Little Egret, Black-tailed Godwit, a female Mandarin (on the left), sitting alongside a couple of Grey Heron;

There were Cormorants eveywhere;

a few female Teal were about, at least one female Gadwall, Grebes, House Martins skimming through, Lapwing, Moorhen, Coot, Mute Swan, Canada Geese, the list goes on!

We finally carried on to the Bittern hide where we had a very late lunch.We carried on to Hide B then back to the car, with of course a few more photos in between.
Little Egret,

 a Small Tortoiseshell Buuterfly,

 another Little Egret and

 a nice view of a Great Crested Grebe.

We loved it!
In the past we have always gone to the RSPB reserve (Middleton) just a few miles along the river, but this was much more enjoyable, so unless something 'special' turns up at Middleton, Ladywalk is the place that we will be visiting in the future.