Bitten at Middleton!

Sorry, not a Bittern, just bitten to death by midges and mossies as we walked through the trees up to the main part of the reserve. Now two days later our arms are covered in lumps and bumps that itch like ......... (add your own word here)

But hey ho, that's what you get for going birding in the summer!

It's over a year since we have been to RSPB Middleton, we just find it such a pain to get to from where we live, the M6/M42 is always a nightmare, but otherwise we would have to go through Birmingham also not a fun prospect.

But go we did, but was it worth it? Well shall we say it was a lovely walk... The walk from the car park through the woods was very quiet, although we did see our first Swallows for ages around the farm and if you like rats then the feeders by the boardwalk are excellent. Am I painting a grim picture, I don't mean too but that's what you get for visiting in August.

Once we arrived at the main part of the reserve over the canal bridge,

the mossies didn't bother us as much, we chose to walk anti-clockwise around the lagoons up along the river, but the same as our last visit the reserve seems very overgrown and despite there being lots of benches and places to sit the views are across the reserve are non-existent, even the path has been diverted away from the river, so not much to see.

Eventually we got to the hide with only seeing Mallard, Gadwall, Swan, Coot, Moorhen and Starlings on the way, plus a few butterflies and lots of Damselfly and Dragonfly. Oh and a ton of Canada Geese on the river.

Sorry I forgot the RSPB want us to call the hide 'The Lookout', not a hide. Here we had more success, with Green Sandpiper and Snipe showing well, along with a Little Egret, Teal, tons of Gadwall, Lapwing, Great Crested Grebe and Mute Swans. There was no sign of the reported Garganey, although on twitter today there are now 5!
3 Snipe,

 Little Egret

 and Green Sandpiper.

We stayed a while in the hide, sorry lookout, this added a Great White Egret that flew along in the distance, which we caught up with at the screen at the Jubilee Wetlands.

So not much else to add other than some distant Egyptian Geese and a Rabbit!

We won't rush back to Middleton, its 23 miles of arduous driving, even tried a different route back, ignoring the satnav, which was better, but still not great. I think we will leave it until the winter when the vegetation has died down and the winter waterfowl hopefully turn up. Might even see a mini murmuration.

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!

A Wednesday at RSPB Middleton

So Wednesday saw us introduce our good friends Tim and Wendy who we met in Sri Lanka to Middleton Lakes we met up at midday had a coffee and a catch up at the Craft Centre then set off around the Wetlands walk.

On arrival we were told by the volunteers that there was a Glossy Ibis about and showing well, bonus!! A potential first. We set off from the Car Park, unluckily there was nothing on the feeders as they were be re-stocked, so no birds just an RSPB Volunteers backside! Plenty of Herons in the Heronry though.

As we walked through to the reserve we picked up a Chiffchaff although it just wouldn't stay still for a photo, (the same happened on the way back) We decided to walk anti-clockwise around the Wetlands, where very quickly we hear our first Cuckoo of the year, but sadly not seen! We saw plenty of people about all looking for the Ibis which was proving elusive. We stopped for lunch at the picnic bench by the river hoping to see a Kingfisher, but also a no show! After lunch we went to the hide or should I say 'look out', still no sign of the Ibis. Did pick up some Ringed Plover and of course Great Crested Grebe:

Some Redshank were showing as well as Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Cormorant and Mute Swan. As we were leaving a chap entered who said the Ibis was now showing back along the way we had come, so we went and had a look and there it was our first ever Glossy Ibis a good distance away but showing well. Unluckily for photography it was straight into the Sun, so the photos are very silhouettey!

So that brings our UK bird list up to 204! Feeling very chuffed we carried on with our walk and found a Mediterranean Gull amongst some unhappy BHGs, another year first:

We followed this with another year first a camera shy Blackcap.
So another grand day out, made all the better when shared with friends!

Just one final photo that I liked though of a blue tit on the rushes:

RSPB Middleton Lakes - Starlings

We popped along to Middleton on Sunday afternoon primarily to see the starlings at dusk, so we arrived with just enough time to do the wetlands circular walk, including a couple of coffee stops. What we didn't allow for was the mud slowing us down.

We took a few photos from the hide, nothing spectacular but nice just the same:

So as the sun was setting we headed back for the Starlings, however they started a bit early and didn't murmurate (is that a verb?) for long before dropping down into the reeds. Someone needs to tell them that a murmuration should last at least 30 minutes. Thankfully I did get a couple of distance shots:

After they had settled we did see a couple of Sparrowhawks but the Starlings weren't bothered and refused to pop back up. So off back through the mud and to the car park pretty much in the dark.

Another Stroll, this time Middleton Lakes...

I was thinking of doing some jobs around the house Saturday, but what the heck the sun was shining, so a snap decision was made and we thought we'd head over to Middleton for a couple hours on the afternoon, as we hadn't been since June and wanted to see what it was like now that the hide is done and the new screens are in place.

No wardens about so it was a good job I had made a note of the code to get in the new hide, but more about that later.

The feeders just past the Car Park were very quiet, ie nothing as we went past, most disappointing (people with noisy children and dogs about!) We saw and heard very little on the way to the reserve, just a Robin and a Great Tit that was it! We stopped for our first coffee at the platform off the path to the reserve, but apart from Mallard and Coot there was nothing much about apart from loads of splendid dragonflies:

Then a couple of Butterflies:

Once over the canal and out onto the reserve it perked up a bit; Mallard, Swan, Little Egret, Coot, Moorhen, Lapwing, Shoveler, some Gadwall. We decided to walk around anti clockwise and headed over to the old screen (looking decidedly tatty now) As we walked on we were slightly disappointed as to how high the grass and reeds were as being both fairly short we couldn't see a thing over the lakes, so headed over to the river which was deserted.

We then headed down to the first new screen (some sign post would be nice as there are 2 tracks we took the second and ended up in the roped off area adjacent to the screen) The screen gives good views and will be good a bit later in the winter I think. So onward, we went for Coffee number 2 at the picnic bench by the river view. All we added at this point was a Blue Tit! Was hoping for the Kingfisher that we saw here last time, but no luck.

So down to the hide, we let ourselves in and were immediately surprised by the size of it, you could have a party in there! The views are good and I think in the spring it will be excellent. So what about birds, well in addition to what we had already seen, we added Grey Heron, Cormorant, Greylag and Canada Geese, Great Crested Grebe, Shelduck, Wigeon and a Pintail (I think). We scanned for waders but couldn't find one! I did see one fly across but it landed behind some scrub never to be seen again! So as we were pushed for time (aren't we always) we carried on and were immediately rewarded with an obliging Wheatear:

These photo's bring me to another gripe about the revamped Middleton, the new fences, shocking if you'll pardon the pun. They are just plain unsightly and they are everywhere, not bird watcher friendly at all. I will go as strong to say as we hate them, surely there's a better option.

We headed back for a final stop at the screen overlooking the Jubilee Wetlands, again we searched for waders but with no luck, we had been hoping for Ruff, Sandpipers (especially Curlew Sandies) but despite being patient we couldn't find any. All we added were 10 Pheasants! 

So in summary we still feel that Middleton is very much a work in progress with lots of promise. We will see, probably pop over again in November.

Some record shots:

RSPB Middleton Lakes

We used to be regular visitors to Middleton, but had decided to give it a miss since our only visit this year back in February, as it wasn't possible to do the Wetlands Walk and there was too much construction activity going on. But we thought as it was lovely day Sunday we would give it a shot and see how it's progressing.

Firstly the bad news we timed our visit with a Craft Fayre at the Hall, so it seems that everyone was adding a walk (with dogs!) to the reserve and even around it. So with dogs yapping and noisy people nothing stayed in the hedgerows, although we did hear plenty! Even the feeders were empty!

So what about the reserve, well the water levels were quite high, so no waders at all! In fact unless you were looking for Black Headed Gulls, Tufted Duck or Mute Swans, you were pretty much out of luck!

So we went as far as we could along the river to a picnic bench overlooking the river and sat and had a coffee and a chill, hoping that the people would disperse a bit.  We had our first bit of luck as we spotted a Kingfisher zooming along the river, took us completely by surprise as we were too busy watching the dragonflies, took a photo of a dragonfly just for the record, almost the same colour as the Kingfisher:

Sorry not being a dragonfly person, don't know what sort it is!

So coffee drunk (for now!) we headed back to continue the circular walk in peace and quiet and were rewarded with a Sedge Warbler in song:

We then added a Reed Bunting and pair of Gadwall, which was nice. There were plenty of Greylags and Canada Geese about, a  colony of Lesser Black Backed Gulls, but after that there were only the Herons to cheers us up!

Having said all that we did enjoy the walk, even though the grass is so high in places you can't see a thing across the lakes.
The works are still in progress (thankfully Sunday was a day off, so we could do the full circular walk) there are a couple of new Screens, although I'm not sure how you are supposed to get to the one there doesn't seem to be a path to it. The new hide is nowhere near completion, hopefully it will be finished for the winter as it looks to be in a good spot for over wintering waterfowl.

So whilst we still enjoyed it, a rather dismal afternoon on the birding front, 29 species in 3 hours! (Including corvids and pigeons and finally some Finches on the feeders as we left)

So we will leave Middleton again until at least November we think.