Monday 6th May - Early evening Farndale to Compton Park
A beautiful sunny Bank Holiday prompted me to walk along the valley after work.
I rarely visit the area of the valley between Lock 16 on the Birmingham Canal and The Lupin Field, so I was pleasantly surprised to see good numbers of House Sparrows among the canal side hedges.
On the Farndale Estate, it looked like around 20 House Martins were busy around nest sites.
Goldfinches were singing at Locks 16,17 and 18 and at the Lupin Field, 3 Common Whitethroat, were noted, apparently in separate territories.
2 Blackcap were singing near Lock 20, with a pair of Greenfinch and a vocal Song Thrush nearby.
Rooks were on 2 nests in the NW corner of Dunstall Park (Private land), and on all 4 near Dunstall Water Bridge. A Chiffchaff was singing and presumably it's mate calling nearby.
The Moorhen was still sitting on the nest platform at The Wildside Activity Centre, and at Hordern Road Bridge an adult was with 2 small chicks on the canal.
At Newbridge Wood the Great Spotted Woodpecker was still drumming and calling along with a singing Chiffchaff.
I hadn't eaten so I grabbed a some Fish & Chips and went up to Geoff's bench at the top of the Barleyfield to scoff them, doing a half-hearted skywatch as I filled my belly!!!
At about 8pm, they arrived. The balmy weather seemed to have made them lazier than usual on passage.
At first they headed straight up the valley from the SW, but then they started climbing and circling, with occasional banking and dives: Swifts, 2 of them. They continued to circle and dive, working their way slowly up the valley till they were out of sight with the naked eye.
I finished my meal, happy that though late, these amazing masters of speed were back. I headed up onto Compton Park and as I got up onto the top pitches, I looked up towards the traditional Swift nesting area at Newbridge. To my Surprise, there were now three birds, tracking backwards and forwards, quite high, between. These were certainly behaving as local birds and may possibly have explained the leisurely behavior of the two birds I had seen earlier....lets see.
2 Grey Wagtail headed NE off the Wetland to roost and 3 Stock Dove were on the wetlands.
N.B On Saturday, whilst playing football with my lad and some mates by S. Peter's School, I noted a pair of crows chasing off Buzzard and Sparrowhawk, from their nest site, an adult Herring Gull flew North (causing me to let in a goal!!) and 2 Stock Dove passed over.
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