'Walk It Off' New Year Guided Walk - Bird Watching for All

Despite the thundering rain right through the wee hours of this morning, we had a cracking turnout for our first monthly guided walk of the year. And thankfully the weather decided to be kind.

Expert volunteers Colin Sedgwick and Alastair Hughes-Roden guided us, whilst I happily tagged along with the visitors. We set off through the wildlife garden, seeing only a dunnock, a few woodpigeons and hearing a robin. We weren't to know the reserve had plenty more in store for us.

Teal (Andy Hay www.rspb-images.com)

We walked along the Tame, keeping keen eyes on both the river and Forge Mill Lake, and quickly the birds obliged. We had helpful hints from Colin on how to tell our teal from our shoveller and our gadwall from our goosander, with glimpses of great crested grebe and a sparrowhawk along the way. The lapwings were pretty and plentiful, as always, and we played 'Where's Wally?' with the snipe on the bank of the island. We also discovered that the rumours about Stumpy the one footed oystercatcher returning to Sandwell early this year, were true.

Oystercatcher (Tom Marshall www.rspb-images.com)

After a fantastic close up of a goosander making it's way downstream, we headed to the hide to hang out with the cormorants, being serenaded by a song thrush along the way. Along with those who'd already obliged our binoculared gaze, we were treated to a dancing grey wagtail and a kingfisher flying along the bank, most helpfully, in line with the lake's numbered posts. Not to mention, an important looking grey heron.

Kingfisher (Mike Richards www.rspb-images.com)

On returning to the visitor centre, we sipped our hot chocolate and took a seat to enjoy the bird feeder show. Great tits and blue tits, goldfinches and greenfinches, long tailed tits and coal tits, reed bunting and jays, bullfinches and chaffinches. All topped off with perhaps the cutest of them all, a willow tit.

Snipe (Tom Marshall www.rspb-images.com)

For anyone new to starting a 'bird list' for 2016 (such as myself), it was a pretty brilliant start to the year. And the knowledge and enthusiasm Colin and Alastair have is infectious, making bird watching exciting and enjoyable for adults, experts, children and even for amateurs like me.

In total, we saw 45 different species of bird along the way. Here is a list of every single one of them...

Dunnock
Robin
Magpie
Woodpigeon
Carrion crow
Black headed gull
Shoveller duck
Teal
Greenfinch
Coot
Moorhen
Gadwall
Great tit
Blue Tit
Cormorant
Grey heron
Lesser black backed gull
Great crested grebe
Sparrowhawk
Mallard
Lapwing
Oystercatcher
Goosander
Pochard
Wren
Grey wagtail
Wigeon
Snipe
Tufted duck
Canada geese
Mute swan
Muscovy duck
Pied wagtail
Starling
Kingfisher
Reed bunting
Bullfinch
House sparrow
Song thrush
Chaffinch
Long tailed tit
Coal tit
Jay
Goldfinch
Willow tit

If you like to get outside and fancy knowing a bit more about the winged creatures you might see and hear, our monthly guided walks are a brilliant introduction to birds and the local area. They run from Nature's Reach visitor centre on the first Saturday of every month, starting at 10 am. It's just £3 for RSPB members and £5 if you're not a member.

Blue tit (Ben Hall www.rspb-images.com)

Our next walk, Winterwatch Walk, is coming up on Saturday 6 Feburary and you can find more details out about it HERE. 

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog and we hope to see you at Sandwell Valley soon.

Jenny Stevens (Connecting People and Nature Intern)

Location, location, location

As it's 'national nest box week' I thought I would take a moment to write a quick blog about the breeding season which is quickly creeping up on us. You might be thinking that it's a bit early to be taking about nest boxes and breeding birds, but it's not, I promise. This is a great time of year to put boxes up, birds are already setting up territories and looking for the best real estate to set up home for the spring and summer. It's all about location, location, location, birds are looking for the best places to raise their families and you have to start early to secure the best spot. This weekend we have a nest box building event from 10-2pm, and there's no need to book, just drop in. You will be able to build your own box to take home.

Here are some boxes I made with the local youth club a couple of weeks ago:

Perfect for blue tits

We all live by our watches and calendars and timetables, and often remark when seasons change, almost over night. I have found myself saying things like 'I cant believe its autumn already', sometimes it's as though you wake up one morning and the landscape has changed magically over night.

So what am I getting at?.....Well actually we can avoid this 'magic season change phenomenon' if we take the time to look and listen and even smell the world around us. You will find your senses become more sensitive to seasonal cues, and comments like 'oh wow it's spring already, how did that happen?!!!' will be a thing of the past.

If you go for a walk around Sandwell valley this weekend, you will find that spring is here already, and here are some signs:

A song thrush is singing in the first car park first thing in the morning at the moment. Singing means 'I'm setting up a territory' and 'Let's see if the ladies can resist this tune'.... It's a great time of year to listen to birds because the trees are still bare so it's easy to spot who the singers are. Birds generally don't bother singing in winter, it's a waste of valuable energy and they need to be looking for food in the colder months.

Another thing to look out for are the buds growing on the trees and shrubs, they're planning for the spring sunshine and know that the longer days are coming. A nice thing to spot in February are the catkins on the hazel tree, I just popped out of the office to get this picture to show you:

Hazel catkins

Catkins are basically the flowering part of this tree; other trees produce catkins too, like the willow.

Not convinced? Well as I sit here and write this blog, the office door propped open and I can hear an ice cream van making it's way along tanhouse avenue. Surely that's enough to convince any 'spring skeptics'?

Come down and see u if you can, or take a short walk around any green space near where you live and look for the different trees coming into bud and listen for singing birds. I guarantee it will put a smile of your face.