ONE ROLLER-COASTING BUZZARD

AND THE COOTS WHO LOVE COKE

This morning (Saturday 19th)  it's a north easterly wind at Aldersley/Oxley, the grass slopes next to the bottom end of the Birmingham Canal's 21-lock flight are dull, cold and quiet, bird song is scattered and subdued, and there's very little in the air, save a small group of Lesser Black-backed Gulls making their noisy way towards the city.  The racecourse too is quiet, only the briefest of Little Grebe calls from the lake, and a Nuthatch trilling near its nest tree.  Earlier in the week things were warmer and livelier . . . 

Aldersley/Oxley,  Monday April 14th

Bright and cool, a good day to watch from the top of the rough grass fields between the railway carriageworks and the Birmingham Canal.  A male Sparrowhawk angles low over the railway viaduct at Jones Road, five Chiffchaff and three Blackcap are singing,  the tinkling notes of at least four Goldfinch come from towpath bushes and trees, a Grey Heron makes its laboured way up the flight of locks, while to the south over the city at least 30 Lesser Black-backed Gulls circle over their nests sites.  To the west, low over Aldersley Stadium, a grey shape circles, gaining height, stocky, powerful, broad-based wings outlined against the whisps of white cloud, moving effortlessly against the wind, within minutes towering over the racecourse,  turning and climbing even higher, then slanting away to the south west, a Peregrine, master of the elements, soon returning at speed and, with scarcely a wingbeat, turning and taking up its position again over the city, eventually lost to view, disappearing into  the bright blue bowl of the sky.

 

Aldersley/Oxley/Newbridge,  Wednesday April 16th

 

The wind has died and it's hot, conditions perfect for late-morning raptors.  Bang on cue two Buzzards float up from behind the railway carriageworks at Oxley, the northernmost of three pairs nesting along the Smestow Valley, circling together and displaying before separating, one moving low towards Jones Road, the other disappearing northwards behind the railway bank trees.  Later, mid-afternoon, perhaps one of the same birds calls as it circles over Newbridge playingfield, wing patches lit by the sun as it turns.  Always best to check above the circling bird, and sure enough there's another, very high, moving slowly south westwards, very probably a stranger, possibly sounding out a new territory.  The Newbridge bird gains height and then plunge dives, wings folded, before climbing again as if on a roller coaster, repeating the performance to tell  all who need to know that this is its kingdom.

 

Aldersley/Oxley/Dunstall Park,  Thursday April 17th

 

Dull and a cool breeze again, but calm and slightly warmer alongside the last five canal locks as they descend to Aldersley junction.  A beautiful pink-red chested male Bullfinch feeds in the willows, "tac tac" calls from a male Blackcap suggests the females are beginning to arrive, Chiffchaff have already paired up, and the clear repeated notes of a Song Thrush sound from a traditional nesting area.  A familiar shape hangs and flutters over the rough grass slope, a male Kestrel, the first I've seen here for some time, a species that until recently nested annually at the racecourse, but is now the least regularly seen local raptor.  Later, one of the area's nesting Buzzards hovers over the same area, hanging gently and effortlessly against the breeze, its lack of wing action in sharp contrast to the trembling movements of the smaller species.

Down on Dunstall Park a Swallow flits over the stables and then diasappears (the ground staff say the first arrivals were two on April 10th),  and at least five House Martin and four Sand Martin skim low over the lake.  Soon it'll be summer . . .

 

 

PS.  A pair of Coot are proudly sitting on a nest completed in the last few days on the edge of the Birmingham Canal. They have woven into this impressive structure not only reeds and sticks but mad-made materials including a supermarket carrier bag, string, a plastic Coke bottle and a tobacco packet telling us that UK duty has been paid.  They've covered everything.

 

 

NB.  Dunstall Park is a closed commercial site.  Access is strictly controlled.