Is winter here to stay?

We’ve had the proper first frost of the year. Made official by Nadia needing to use her credit card to scrape away the frost on her car. This cold spell has also drawn in the less urban birds into Sandwell to feed on the fruit that is abundant here. It didn’t take me long to stop as I headed out for my fortnightly wildlife walk in Sandwell. Just over the railway bridge the trees were alive with birdsong. Flitting between the trees was an array of small brown jobbies that wouldn’t settle long enough for me to look at. Eventually I heard the wonderfully chirpy cheeps of long tailed tits. I love these little birds; to me they are a ball of fluff on the end of a lollipop stick and they flutter around in their family groups. Redwings are also quite abundant in the trees here, looking thinner than I remember, but it has been over a year since I’ve seen one. My Mum questioned the other day, ‘what are those birds with the red under their wing?’, this is the aspect of redwing that makes them quite easy to remember  once you’ve seen one.

Red campion

A ‘di-didi-di-didi’ song was also frequenting the wooded area, a song I couldn’t identify until I spotted it. There in the branches sat (only for a brief moment as nothing ever sits still) one of the loveliest treasures you might spot in the woodlands. There sat a tiny, round bodied punk with a gold streak on its head, and weighing less than a wee grape, a goldcrest, and not just one. 

Cotoneaster

Another lovely sight this morning was red campion, one of the few plants still flowering at this time of year. Red campion isn’t really red; it’s pink, small and rather common. I often see it flowering all year round, I’ve been told this is probably due to our often mild climate. It was looking rather frosty, poor red campion, this morning. 

Finally, after years of not knowing this plant has been identified for me. We have one in our front garden and as I was growing up I would always admire the bright red berries almost swamping the branches of this small scrub. Cotoneaster is a medium evergreen shrub, is part of the rose family and has finally been identified for my by the trusty RSPB office staff.

The winter makes the valley such a gem in the mornings, with that frosty touch and morning sunlight catching the dew on the grass. The part I really love is seeing the water vapour rise off the River Tame, Forge Mill Lake and even the bench in Kingfisher Corner this morning. 

The building site

BUILDING WORK UPDATE: The old centre is down and the site is looking rather bare, waiting for the extra foundations to be laid ready for the new centre to be erected.

Jazz