Newbridge, June 6th 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 11th, 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 19th. 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 25th,
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 26th, 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 21st). 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 7th,
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 5th.
A male Pheasant was seen at Aldersley/Oxley on April 23rd, four Common Buzzard circled over the Oxley railway
carriageworks on May 11th, 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 29th (there was the unusual record of bird
flying from the top of a tree on the northern canal boundary in galeforce winds
on May 5th), single adult Little
Ringed Plovers at the lake on May 24th
and June 1st, and three Sand
Martin flying low northwards over the nearby railway carriageworks at
Aldersley/Oxley on April April 16th.
Canada Geese have
failed to breed at the lake, and only three
Coot chicks were visible there on June 1st...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 5th. Herring
Gull have been thin on the ground and in the air, but three adults were
over the site on April 12th and a first-winter bird was over the lake
on May 24th. The lake highlight
this year has been the appearance of five Mute
Swan cygnets, first seen around May 21st. 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 19th. Three
adults were disputing lake territory on May 24th, 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 27th.
Other lake records include a
shoreline Snipe on May 5th,
a male Teal and a male Shoveler on April 21st, a male
Tufted Duck on May 24th, a
brief reappearance by the Gadwall pair
on May 11th, single adult Grey
Herons on May 24th and June 1st, two Greylag flying south westwards on May 5th,
and a male Reed Bunting on June 1st. Two juvenile Grey Wagtails foraging on the shoreline on June 1st 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 27th 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 4th.
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 29th 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 . . .
