We are still steady away with the comings and goings of migrants to Middleton. We have added 2 new wader species to the year list – a wood sandpiper stayed around from the 11th-16th and 2 sanderling were running around on Jubilee on the 12th. The 12th saw a bit of wader passage that day, as we had 29+ringed plover, 11+ dunlin + greenshank drop in after heavy rain showers. There are still 20+ ringed plovers using the site, not all these are our breeding birds but birds heading north to higher latitudes to breed. Some of our breeding waders have broods running around now. Oystercatchers and lapwings are protecting their chicks, alarming if a lesser-black backed fly’s over. The most exciting new arrivals are the avocets! We have been monitoring their nest since the end of April and now 3 bundles of long legged fluff are running around while their parents chase off everything that moves. Avocets are very angry parents! It is the first time they have bred at Middleton, and looks like it’s the first breeding record for Staffordshire. Ok, avocets aren’t that unusual now a days but breeding attempts away from the East and South-East England strongholds are locally important and quite unusual. Nationally the population is increasing steadily, up to 1600 pairs (according to the BTO+Rare Breeding Bird Panel) with an expansion west and inland from their eastern coastal hub.
Other notable passing migrants have been arctic terns (8th+9th), little gulls (14th – over on Dosthill ski lake and 16th over jubilee. The garganeys are still about, with the male being seen more frequently than the female. They can pop up on most of the water bodies. A couple of wigeon have been spotted which is an interesting spring record, as are goosander – they may well be breeding near by. A 2nd summer Mediterranean Gull rocked up on the 8th as did an Osprey which was reported flying over that morning.
The spectacle of the swallows, sand martins, swifts and house martins has been brilliant! In low cloud and they come and swoop very low over the reserve and there are bunches of them zipping in front of the Lookout hide and funneled down the riverside path where it’s more sheltered so the flying insects emerge! If you take a walk over the river to Dosthill and walk up the big bunds, you get an eye level view of these areal acrobats as they zoom about. Plus you get a fantastic view over the valley!
I like all wildlife, and find myself championing the less ‘stylish’ and ‘swish’ species. We all notice the bright yellow brimstones as they flutter down the bridleway, but my favourite butterfly at this time of year is the dingy skipper.
Dingy Skipper by Marion Parnell
Known in Germany as Dickkopffalter (thick-headed butterfly) and more elegantly as La Grisette (little grey one) in France, it has some fairly un-inspiring names in more than one language! It is quite a scarce species, and a conservation priority species as the butterflies live in close-knit colonies and fly on the same small sites year after year, so small changes can have large effects on a single colony, often wiping it out completely. They like short vegetation so their primary food plant – birds foot trefoil – can grow without being out competed by other grasses and bare areas to bask themselves on. Our main dingy skipper colony is off the public trail but you can catch their rapid (often moth like) flight near the heronry boardwalk and recently by fisher’s mill. We are hoping they find their way onto the new southern meadow bund which was seeded with birds-foot trefoils in it, with the hope of enticing the skippers to spread!
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 Middleton and other sightings in the valley check out the tame valley birding blog http://tamevalleybirding.blogspot.co.uk/