Newbridge, July 28th 2015
Chat show at lake
as city show exits
The tents are packed away, the fairground rides are
gone, the giant screens have vanished, the music stage has been dismantled and
there’s now no trace of what for two days turned Dunstall Park into a cross
between Alton Towers and Brighton pier. The
annual City Show, moved this year for
the first time from West Park to the racecourse, was rightly a weekend fun time
for many (not, as it transpired, for as many as the organisers had hoped for) but
a worry for those who care about the wildlife living on and around one of
Wolverhampton’s largest green spaces. But,
credit to Arena Leisure who run the site, within 24 hours the whole area was spick
and span, cleared of clutter and litter and ready for a race meeting on the very
next day. So as we move into the second
half of summer, for birds, animals, insects and plants it’s business as usual .
. .
Mid-summer
highlights at the racecourse have involved two birds not seen at the
site for some years. For looks alone it
was no contest, a superb male Whinchat
by the lake on July 15th. Return
passage has started for this migrant species leaving its scattered breeding
sites in the West Midlands for wintering grounds in sub-Saharan Africa. Regional nesting numbers dropped sharply in
the 1980s, and nesting is now largely confined to northern moorlands. Local records have been few in recent years,
but an astonishing total of 17 were found along the Smestow Valley on May 14th
2007 after an overnight “fall” of migrant birds, including unprecedented
numbers of Wheatears and Sedge Warblers (the number of Whinchat recorded for
that year was 25). Less striking but
just as welcome at the racecourse this summer was a Reed Warbler, heard and seen intermittently in lakeside vegetation
in dull and blustery conditions on June 28th. Its visit constituted only the second record
for the site, the first being a bird singing there, again in inclement weather,
on June 10th 2010. Breeding
records for the lake have been boosted by the success of two pairs of Little Grebe, with at least two
adult-sized youngsters seen in recent weeks.
At least two pairs of Coot
have produced young, and two small Moorhen
chicks seen with their parents at the lake on July 25th were proof
of nesting.
It seems sadly that 2015 is
turning out to be another year of failed Mute
Swan breeding at the racecourse. Of the five hatched cygnets only one was
present at the end of last week, and the body of one its siblings in the lake
and the disappearance of the adults and third surviving youngster suggested a
sudden and calamitous intervention by a predator, possibly a fox. Small numbers of adult and young Grey Heron, almost certainly from the
Pendeford Mill nature reserve breeding colony, are visiting the lake, where up
to 24 Mallard have been resting as
adults go into moult. Two Shoveler were on the lake on July 19th,
a male Tufted Duck was present on
July 7th, a single Teal
was seen on July 27th, foraging Canada
Geese totalled 38 on July 25th, the same day as a Greylag left the lake towards the
north west, a Reed Bunting sang in
lakeside bushes on July 3rd and House
Sparrow and Starling have been
using the lake island as a bathing/preening station. Two juvenile Grey Wagtail fed along the shoreline on June 21st and 30th,
and single Chiffchaff were singing
in lakeside bushes on July 15th and 21st.
Wader passage is under way, with
birds able to feed and preen along the lake shoreline. Three Little
Ringed Plover adults were present on June 21st and 28th,
two Green Sandpiper were seen on
July 15th and 19th, and the first Common Sandpiper seen at the lake since 2011 was noted on July 21st. Lapwing
are arriving to rest and feed on the central grass area, with 57 counted on
July 25th, alongside an increasing number of gulls: around 70 Black-headed Gull, including three juveniles, on July 19th
and nine Lesser Black-backed Gull
(including four juveniles) on July 27th.
Elsewhere on the racecourse, four
juvenile Linnet foraging with adults
in a drainage ditch near the grandstand on June 10th were proof of
successful nesting at the top of the sloped grass fields below the nearby
railway carriageworks at Oxley. A Pied Wagtail pair have again nested in
the hotel precinct, and House Martin
and Barn Swallow youngsters have
fledged in the hotel/stables area. Raptor
presence has been intermittent, but Common
Buzzard adults, some now increasingly ragged in appearance as the summer
progresses, are starting to call up their young, a female Kestrel hovered over the bottom of the Birmingham Canal locks on
July 19th before perching on a racecourse floodlight pylon, and a
female Sparrowhawk tried for and
missed a small bird low over the lake on July 15th.
Reports from elsewhere along the valley include four Raven circling together over
Aldersley/Oxley on July 19th at the same time as a fifth flew low
towards the north west. Twelve Swift were screaming over their
Newbridge nest site at dusk on June 26th, while 12 or more House Martin hawked over the same area late
on July 25th. At least one
juvenile Coal Tit was with a group
of ten-plus adult and juvenile Long-tailed
Tits in a garden by Newbridge playingfield on July 17th. At least one juvenile Robin has been a daily visitor to the
same garden, where young Dunnock and
House Sparrow have been fed by
adults, and a Collared Dove was seen
perched on July 19th and 21st.
A singing Goldcrest was heard
in a playingfield conifer next to the same garden on July 1st and 2nd.
PS. Worst fears over the
racecourse swans have been realised. A
check yesterday found no trace of the third cygnet on or near the lake, so it
seems the first breeding attempt at the site for five years has failed (a pair built
a nest in 2010 but abandoned it before eggs were laid). Successful nesting took place annually from
2001 to 2005 with a total of 16 cygnets fledged. In 2006 a nest was abandoned after seven eggs
were laid, and in 2007 three cygnets died after being abandoned by their
parents.
(NB.
Dunstall Park is a closed commercial site. Access is strictly controlled).
