SUNDAY 23rd DECEMBER

NEWBRIDGE WOOD next to Newbridge playingfield, south of Hordern Road and bordering Staffs & Worcs Canal, 10am to 10.30am.

Cool, bright, WNW breeze, high broken cloud.

A brief walk through a relatively quiet wood, livening up as flocks of Long-tailed Tit (eight-plus seen), Blue Tit, Great Tit and Chaffinch started to feed in trees warmed by the early sun along the eastern edge of the site.  A Nuthatch, calling, joined them, with Wren, Robin and Dunnock heard in ground cover each side of the main path.  Magpies were active over and in the southern end of the wood, with Woodpigeon flying away over the Double Pennant boatyard towards the old railway.  Gruff warning notes from a resident Crow suggested something was about to happen, and sure enough, within seconds there were the unmistakable "cronk" calls as two Raven swept in over the trees, close together and barrelling away towards the north west low over the boatyard towards the Tettenhall Road.

Later, a flock of c.20 Black-headed Gulls circled, dipped and floated low over the cricket square on the playingfield, touching down briefly to snatch bread left for them by a dog-walker, the pure white tails and underwings of the adults lit up in the clear air.  A single Jay perched on the Newbridge wharf fence before dropping down to the canalside feeding station, and two Coal Tits fed from a garden fatholder at the back of a house in Crowther Road bordering the playingfield.

DUNSTALL PARK

10.55am to 11.40am.

Damp conditions are attracting gulls to the site's central grass area, and at least 200 Black-headed Gulls were present initially, with a small number of Lesser Black-backed Gull.  Within minutes of a rough count being made all the birds took off responding to alarm calls from at least two Herring Gull circling overhead.  There was no sign of a raptor, but none of the gulls returned, most leaving towards the NW, others towards the city.  Water levels at the racecourse lake are their highest since late summer downpours, with six Coot present, the birds almost certainly adults and immatures from this summer's two breeding pairs and their offspring.  A first-winter Grey Heron was tucked into shoreline vegetation, and at least six male and two female Teal swam close to the lake island.  Five Snipe stood partially concealed by the edge of the island (with no exposed mud or visible margins, numbers for this species are way down for this stage of the winter).  A Robin sang from lakeside bushes (an unusal location) and c.70 Crow foraged near the lake or perched in the oak copse next to the Staffs & Worcs Canal.  A male and female Bullfinch moved through bushes on the western edge of the site, and a male Great Spotted Woodpecker called from trees by the north west corner near Aldersley canal junction.  A light-plumaged adult Buzzard took off from a wood pile in the same corner, circling low over lock 20 on the Birmingham Canal and flying off towards the railway carriageworks and Oxley.                

(NB  Dunstall Park is a private commercial site. Access is restricted.)