Newbridge,   June 6^th  2015

Sharp as sunlight, 

Swifts scream in

 

 It’s the beginning of June, yet only days ago the trees were bending in the face of unseasonably fierce blasts from the west.  The gales and driving rain at the start of the week have passed, and we’re into calmer, warmer days, but May was a stop-start month with no real run of settled weather. After an initial influx of early birds at the end of April migrants have been harder to monitor, with some up to a fortnight late arriving at their breeding grounds.  Resident species seem to be doing OK, and everything now depends on favourable conditions giving fledglings a chance to reach adulthood, and allowing new arrivals to catch up with the task of nesting . . .

 

A bright, high-pressure afternoon at Newbridge on May 11^th, a stiff cool breeze typical of strange and unsettling weather as spring neared its end.  High in a cloudless sky there was the briefest gleam of sunlight on stiff brown wings, and the faintest of screaming calls as perhaps the most charismatic of our African migrants slanted away into the blue.  We are blessed with two pairs of Common Swift nesting in our road, and these birds were at least ten days late in appearing over the edge of the city.  Over the last couple of weeks they have been seen sporadically over their breeding site, appearing only when conditions allowed them to feed and pair up.  Adverse weather has perhaps forced them to find aerial insects elsewhere, and birds have been known to travel a hundred miles or more away from their nest sites in their quest for food.  Their stay in the UK is relatively short, and adults and youngsters will have normally departed by the end of August, so it’s important that our birds’ breeding cycle starts soon.
It’s the same late-arrival story this year for our other Newbridge eaves nesters, a single pair of House Martin first heard and seen on the evening of May 19^th.  Just as the Swifts, they seem to have waited for warmer, calmer conditions in which to build or repair their gable-end nest.  At least two pairs are setting up at Dunstall Park, and birds have been seen over their nesting colony site at the nearby Farndale housing estate.  Resident species at Newbridge are already feeding fledged youngsters, with juvenile Robin, Long-tailed Tit and Starling seen, Blue Tit and Great Tit busy collecting caterpillars and other food from trees now heavy with leaves, and Goldcrest song from playingfield, garden and roadside conifers strongly suggesting breeding.  Nuthatch were feeding youngsters in a woodland tree hole at the end of May, glimpses of Treecreeper suggested breeding, but hopes of Green Woodpecker nesting have faded.  A male calling in the wood from early spring was seen excavating a nest hole in late March, two birds were calling at the site on March 25^th, but the last contact was made in mid-April.  Great Spotted Woodpecker sightings have been few recently, but it’s more than likely that reports of red-headed youngsters will soon confirm local breeding.

Further north locally it’s been a bumper year for two migrant warbler species, with Chiffchaff and Blackcap nesting in numbers.  At least eight Blackcap were singing at Aldersley/Oxley on April 26^th, and reports from elsewhere along the Smestow Valley suggest it may be a record year for the “northern Nightingale” (two fighting males were seen locked together falling from a branch by the old railway on April 21^st).  Inclement weather meant Common Whitethroat were at least a week late in arriving, but numbers slowly increased at their Aldersley/Oxley stronghold.  At least nine were present on May 7^th, but it has been another disappointing year for spring passage Sedge Warbler, with the only record two birds singing near the Birmingham Canal locks at Aldersley/ Oxley on May 5^th.  A male Pheasant was seen at Aldersley/Oxley on April 23^rd, four Common Buzzard circled over the Oxley railway carriageworks on May 11^th, displaying Sparrowhawks were noted over Newbridge in late spring, and a female Kestrel hunted over the sloped grass fields just north of Dunstall Park in late April and early May.  At least two pairs of Linnet were seen regularly at Aldersley/Oxley in late April, and with birds seen carrying nest material, there is the possibility the species has bred in the valley for the first time since the early 1990s.

DUNSTALL PARK  passage records have been disappointingly restricted to a couple of female Wheatear on the central grass on April 29^th (there was the unusual record of bird flying from the top of a tree on the northern canal boundary in galeforce winds on May 5^th), single adult Little Ringed Plovers at the lake on May 24^th and June 1^st, and three Sand Martin flying low northwards over the nearby railway carriageworks at Aldersley/Oxley on April April 16^th.  Canada Geese have failed to breed at the lake, and only three Coot chicks were visible there on June 1^st...Their siblings may well have been taken by Lesser Black-backed Gulls, up to 15 of which have been visiting the lake regularly.  Around 30 of these city-nesting gulls, mostly adults, were on grass near the lake on May 5^th.  Herring Gull have been thin on the ground and in the air, but three adults were over the site on April 12^th and a first-winter bird was over the lake on May 24^th.  The lake highlight this year has been the appearance of five Mute Swan cygnets, first seen around May 21^st.  Their parents are the first of their species to attempt breeding at the site since 2010 when a pair built a nest but abandoned it soon afterwards.  The last successful nesting was in 2005 when only two cygnets of the six that hatched successfully fledged.  Little Grebe breeding is still in doubt, despite an adult-sized youngster being seen on May 19^th.  Three adults were disputing lake territory on May 24^th, and there is a good chance this highly secretive water bird may yet produce young.  The lake vigil by a lone Lapwing has come to nothing, despite the bird nest-scraping and displaying to another on the island on April 27^th. 

Other lake records include a shoreline Snipe on May 5^th, a male Teal and a male Shoveler on April 21^st, a male Tufted Duck on May 24^th, a brief reappearance by the Gadwall pair on May 11^th, single adult Grey Herons on May 24^th and June 1^st, two Greylag flying south westwards on May 5^th, and a male Reed Bunting on June 1^st.  Two juvenile Grey Wagtails foraging on the shoreline on June 1^st may have been fledglings from a Smestow brook nest further down the valley.  Young Starlings are now preening and resting with adults on lake island brambles, and House Sparrows have been foraging in lakeside sallows and taking food and building material to their nests on the Farndale housing estate.
Elsewhere on the racecourse at least two Barn Swallow pairs are nesting in the stables area of the racecourse, with two birds showing an interest in the Smestow brook culvert pipe by the lake, regular Pied Wagtail sightings around the hotel strongly suggest a pair is nesting there, and adult Rook are foraging with juveniles on the central grass after successfully breeding in the canalside oak copse on the north western edge of the site.

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

Clever corvid’s on call . . .

On April 27^th three Jay flew together low along the Staffs & Worcs Canal boundary at Dunstall Park, one of them making what can only be described as a “subdued Greylag” call.  This unusual record ties in with this colourful species’ proven ability as a mimic.  If you hear a Buzzard calling in spring, and there’s no sign of a flying raptor, check the bushes and trees nearby.  You may well have been fooled by this intelligent corvid.

PS   The valley’s second Cuckoo record for 2015 came on May 31st when a bird heard calling in Peasley Wood, Wightwick, was seen flying off towards the east.    A Tawny Owl was heard in the same wood early on June 4^th.
PPS   Not a local record, but former Smestow Valley birder Frank Dickson glanced up as he took his dog for a walk near his home on the morning of May 29^th and saw a Red Kite moving gently south eastwards over the centre of Bilston.  Who knows, a few minutes earlier the bird may have flown over our valley  . . .