baggie_dave
Something Witty
Hi
I thought I should start a thread to cover this little mentioned area of south-west Birmingham which I have decided to adopt as my local patch.
I work the 9-5 in Birmingham and being very much an amateur at this birding lark (no pun intended) I thought I would try and find somewhere close to home where I can regularly visit which has decent size and potential but also somewhere off most people’s radar.
The area I will be working is in excess of 1.4 sq.km and is mainly made up of scrub, fields (grazed) and deciduous woodland. The Bournebrook runs through the entire width of the park but is not big, ducks are unlikely but a Kingfisher or Grey Wagtail is possible. There are a lot of joggers, dogs, kids (being surrounded by urban sprawl) but early mornings are generally quiet. I have put some links below showing the general location and some links for further information.
http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/woodgatecountrypark
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodgate_Valley_Country_Park
As well as the country park I will be looking at a small area known as Quinton Meadows. This is located right next to Junction 3 of the M5 and is bordered by the motorway to the west, the A456 to the south and east with a business park to the north. The area has a nice section of meadow to the south and woodland elsewhere which look useful. The motorway roundabout itself also seems to have a lot of pine trees on which could encourage a passing Crossbill or Goldcrest. It’s also very quiet bar the odd dog-walker so might be as inclined to go here as the country park itself.
Around 80 species of birds have been seen at Woodgate according to a few sources so next time I will go to the visitor centre I’m hoping to see if I can find out what they are. Birdguides gives historical records of Red Kite, Little Egret (can’t see where!) and even Hoopoe!! All in all I don’t expect to uproot any trees here but the amount of joy I would get from seeing something like a Stonechat or Wheatear on my patch would mean as much as seeing a lifer like the Great Grey Shrike in Staffs a few weeks back. Possibly disappointed that waders and wildfowl are unlikely to be seen but I can go elsewhere to see them, and flyovers are always possible with Bartley reservoir only a few miles to the south!!
I will update this thread with my sightings as regularly as I can, first report coming up shortly but would really appreciate any advice or experiences of this site and if anyone else ever decides to visit, i'd like to hear about it.
Cheers
:t:
I thought I should start a thread to cover this little mentioned area of south-west Birmingham which I have decided to adopt as my local patch.
I work the 9-5 in Birmingham and being very much an amateur at this birding lark (no pun intended) I thought I would try and find somewhere close to home where I can regularly visit which has decent size and potential but also somewhere off most people’s radar.
The area I will be working is in excess of 1.4 sq.km and is mainly made up of scrub, fields (grazed) and deciduous woodland. The Bournebrook runs through the entire width of the park but is not big, ducks are unlikely but a Kingfisher or Grey Wagtail is possible. There are a lot of joggers, dogs, kids (being surrounded by urban sprawl) but early mornings are generally quiet. I have put some links below showing the general location and some links for further information.
http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/woodgatecountrypark
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodgate_Valley_Country_Park
As well as the country park I will be looking at a small area known as Quinton Meadows. This is located right next to Junction 3 of the M5 and is bordered by the motorway to the west, the A456 to the south and east with a business park to the north. The area has a nice section of meadow to the south and woodland elsewhere which look useful. The motorway roundabout itself also seems to have a lot of pine trees on which could encourage a passing Crossbill or Goldcrest. It’s also very quiet bar the odd dog-walker so might be as inclined to go here as the country park itself.
Around 80 species of birds have been seen at Woodgate according to a few sources so next time I will go to the visitor centre I’m hoping to see if I can find out what they are. Birdguides gives historical records of Red Kite, Little Egret (can’t see where!) and even Hoopoe!! All in all I don’t expect to uproot any trees here but the amount of joy I would get from seeing something like a Stonechat or Wheatear on my patch would mean as much as seeing a lifer like the Great Grey Shrike in Staffs a few weeks back. Possibly disappointed that waders and wildfowl are unlikely to be seen but I can go elsewhere to see them, and flyovers are always possible with Bartley reservoir only a few miles to the south!!
I will update this thread with my sightings as regularly as I can, first report coming up shortly but would really appreciate any advice or experiences of this site and if anyone else ever decides to visit, i'd like to hear about it.
Cheers
:t: