The great spotted woodpecker drumming is a common sound here, it’s loud and resonates around the woods. But at the moment, it isn’t the only woodpecker tapping out there. There is a rapid but weaker drumming sound which seems to stop suddenly rather than peter out. This is the lesser-spotted woodpecker. And last week, just as we finished our breeding bird survey, this quieter, abrupt drumming sound coupled with a kestrel like pi-pi-pi call came from the oaks opposite the car park where we watched the male lesser-spot go about his woodpecker business! Fantastic! I have tried for ages to come across this diminutive tree dweller, and I was rewarded with the most amazing view. Lesser spots can have a large territory and pinning them down can be a game of luck and patience. The oaks opposite the car park are a good first point to scan for it. Also scanning and listening from the heronry view point can be productive. While scanning here, check out the heronry, which is a hive of noise as the parent birds fly backwards and forwards feeding their small chicks and re-building parts of their nests.
Walking down the bridleway, through the woodland is really rewarding at the moment. There has been a big emergence of brimstone, peacocks and small tortoiseshells, coupled with a lesser number of comma, orange tip and green veined whites, making the most of the warm spring sunshine and feeding on the blackthorn blossoms and dandelions. Plus, whether it’s just my own quirky sense of observation, but I swear the brimstones are really pugnacious, chasing off anything that dares venture in it’s flight path!
Brimstone by Colin Sedgewick
As well as butterflies and the carpet of flowers emerging in the woodland, this area is really ramping up the bird song volume. Chiffchaffs (seem to be) everywhere, with a few blackcaps now singing from the ivy and the first willow warblers have arrived at the time of writing. It seems they are a bit later in reaching our reserve this year. Stock doves are prospecting tree holes, treecreepers are investigating the peeling bark for suitable nesting sites and the ash tree near the robin bridge is yet again the scene of a nuthatch property war! Seems this ash tree is prime real estate with a couple of pairs vying for the same nest hole.
Out on the wetlands, the birds just keep arriving! Swallows and sand martins are increasing in number. On Wednesday night, 200 sand martins roosted in Fisher’s Mill reedbed which was an unexpected and pleasant sight. It will be interesting to see if this was a one off or if it will increase in number. Other migrants passing through have been a couple of wheatears and common terns, with the best places to look for these being jubilee or the north pit. The gull colonies are getting down on nests now – both on Fisher’s Mill and Dosthill. The two Mediterranean gulls are still around, calling loudly to each other, a call which can be heard at various places around the site. It seems to cut trough the black-head gull noise.
We have added new waders to the year list with 3 avocets and whimbrel visiting the reserve this week. Along with the usual ringed plovers, little-ringed plovers, dunlin, curlew, black-tailed godwit, green sandpiper, snipe, lapwing, redshank and oystercatchers. Patient scanning of the wetlands, both jubilee and north pit can produce all the usual waders. Sometimes you can scan once and see very little, then scan again and see all sorts! The way the wetlands are designed gives maximum feeding edge for hungry probing beaks, so there are many places, sometimes out of view, where the birds will choose to be. As waders tend to be busy little things, they work there way around the edges and eventually into view!
We will endeavor to keep this blog updated on a weekly basis, but to keep your finger on the Middleton Lakes pulse check out our RSPB Birmingham, Black Country and Warwickshire facebook page and follow us on Twitter @RSPBMiddleton. If you enjoy taking photos, we would love for you to add them to our Community page. To keep up to date with other sightings in the valley check out the tame valley birding blog http://tamevalleybirding.blogspot.co.uk/