Took a day off for half-term only to find everyone else had plans. One daughter pizza with primary school friends then shopping/chatting/playing all afternoon; the other had a friend round for the afternoon. So off I went to pastures new; Boddington Reservoir and WWT Ufton Fields.
Boddington Reservoir turned out to be a pleasant walk round an expansive piece of water; the fishermen were very friendly and all willing to chat - it may have been that the fishing was slow of course. Not much there of any consequence though, but it was nice to see a significant number of goosander amongst the black-backed and herring gulls on the water. Unfortunately no display from the great crested grebes; I heard that they were a couple of days ago at RSPB Sandwell Valley from their tweet.
The visit was capped by a beautiful pair of bullfinches who hung around for a considerable time in the carpark while I packed my stuff back into the car.
Then onto Ufton Fields. In fact my expectations were not high - I expected the ground to be very muddy, there to be little formal paths and little facilities; how wrong could I be! It was a great little reserve although, having forgotten my walking boots, it was still muddy enough. Two hides, good paths, a nice circular walk and an hour of beautiful birdsong ... I'll will make this a regular on my list.
So to the list. This time a total of 21, including: blue tit, great tit, bullfinch, long-tailed tit, crow, rook,
magpie, mallard, goosander, black-headed gull, herring gull, blackbird, great crested grebe, woodpigeon, buzzard, coot, treecreeper, great spotted woodpecker, canada goose, little grebe, chaffinch and green woodpecker.
The photo of the day has to go to my visitor in the Boddington Reservoir carpark.
Boddington Reservoir turned out to be a pleasant walk round an expansive piece of water; the fishermen were very friendly and all willing to chat - it may have been that the fishing was slow of course. Not much there of any consequence though, but it was nice to see a significant number of goosander amongst the black-backed and herring gulls on the water. Unfortunately no display from the great crested grebes; I heard that they were a couple of days ago at RSPB Sandwell Valley from their tweet.
The visit was capped by a beautiful pair of bullfinches who hung around for a considerable time in the carpark while I packed my stuff back into the car.
Then onto Ufton Fields. In fact my expectations were not high - I expected the ground to be very muddy, there to be little formal paths and little facilities; how wrong could I be! It was a great little reserve although, having forgotten my walking boots, it was still muddy enough. Two hides, good paths, a nice circular walk and an hour of beautiful birdsong ... I'll will make this a regular on my list.
So to the list. This time a total of 21, including: blue tit, great tit, bullfinch, long-tailed tit, crow, rook,
magpie, mallard, goosander, black-headed gull, herring gull, blackbird, great crested grebe, woodpigeon, buzzard, coot, treecreeper, great spotted woodpecker, canada goose, little grebe, chaffinch and green woodpecker.The photo of the day has to go to my visitor in the Boddington Reservoir carpark.
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