A visitor has asked us about water bird numbers in the various pools and lakes.

The wetland trail is divided into three compartments: Fishers Mill Pool and the New Reedbed, Central Grasslands and the Northern Lakes.

These are the numbers from last months WeBS counts for your interest.  New counts will come out in the forthcoming third week.

September numbers .....

Fishers Mill/New Reedbed – Coot (137), Gadwall…

I've just been around the reserve for the first time in ages and seen the results of all the wet weather we've endured over the past few months.

Mud! Mounds of it! But hey! Not a reason to postpone your visit if you've got children who fancy a squelching time.

Put their wellies on, rain jacket and hat and make your way to the little meadow between our Woodland Trail and the canal - there you'll find mud…

The great spotted woodpecker and the lesser spotted woodpecker  were seen briefly on the old oak tree this morning (8am).  

Lesser spottie was there first – just happily 'pip, pip pipping' to itself.  Then great spottie flew in. For a brief moment,  there was turmoil.  Then both decided it was time for a fly off.    

They'll be back later.

There were large and small white splodges about.  Lots of mute swans (100+). Then  smaller patches – a couple of little egrets.

So what was that smaller one in the trees – ok - just a white plastic bag.

Then there's that even smaller white spot by the river. Getting closer it was the sky's reflection in the mirror of a  contractor's vehicle.  

You don't have to go the north pools or the south meadows for a taste of wildlife.

Leaning  over the railings, looking over FM pool,  we had the cooting of coot, the gaddying of gadwall and the milling of mallard.

 Also the twirling of tufted duck, the whistling of wigeon and the shrieking of chasing herring gull.  

Then there was the pairing of mute swan and mutterings of wren.

We heard visitors say 'those c…

Representatives from Viridor Credits Environmental Company visited RSPB Middleton Lakes Nature Reserve this week to see the site of the Lifeline for Lapwings restoration project.  The project aims to restore more than 20 hectares of floodplain grazing marsh habitat to bring back significant numbers of breeding waders such as the lapwing, redshank and snipe.  This project has received £406k funding from Viridor Credits Environmental…

We were looking at a male great spotted woodpecker (red at the back of the head) in the  old tree by the farm.

 It was digging into a branch looking for grubs. Then it looked up turned its head to the left and to the right.

It was all clear so it then slid down the branch and started again.

Dig, look up, look left and right, and then slide down. This was repeated several times before it reached too low on the branch…

Over the last few days, in this middle of autumn, visitors and our VWs (Voluntary Wardens) have been seeing a wide range of birds, butterflies and dragonflies (just a few autumn species), here in our 'not-far from Tamworth or Fazeley'  reserve.

The wetlands had black-headed gull, canada goose, coot, cormorant, curlew (flying over or a quick stop-over), dunlin (did not stay long), gadwall, goldeneye, great crested…

It's good to see more people on the reserve now that the River Tame level has fallen.

Visitors have reported flocks of long-tailed tit, goldfinch and groups of green woodpecker.

Waders have found some muddy areas - there have been dunlin, little egret, redshank and snipe on the north lake.

Look out for cormorant on the old tree by the river and a kingfisher flying across the pools.

Buzzard and kestrel have been seen…

Wildlife sightings for September 2012

The month started warm and dry with some wind, a few heavy rain and warm days. Then the heavy rains came back, with the river and pools flooding.

A quiet month with water birds waiting out the eclipse period when their old feathers are replaced by new grown autumn-winter feathers. Other birds are resting after the breeding period.

Heronry news:

A few herons were seen and few shrieks…

The site has not been re-opened after the recent rainfall and flooding but it is possible to come and park.  Then walk with wellington boots - it's ankle deep in places - to the fishers mill bridge canal entrance.

A visitor told us about a juvenile fox which was trotting along the canal path. Walkers were approaching from the north and the south.

True to its name, foxy darted into the nearest hedge, eyes wide open…

It was fine weather when our hardy, clear-eyed winter WeBS surveyors  counted, mid-month,  (including RSPB Dosthill):  black-headed gull (11), buzzard (2), canada goose (123), common tern (1), coot (361), cormorant (22), gadwall (119), great crested grebe (22), grey heron (4),  greylag goose (11), hobby (2), kestrel (1), kingfisher (2), lapwing (46), lesser black-backed gull (1), little grebe (7), mallard (148), moorhen

We've had buzzard, hobby (up to 4 seen, a family group feeding along the river and over the north-end), sparrowhawk, kestrel and peregrine.

The cormorants are back, together with lapwing, snipe, shoveler, canada geese, at  the north-end. 

Pied wagtails flicked about between the snipe and lapwings.

 Many visitors saw the garganey, immature or eclipse, which was occasionally at the top end.

Wren, robin and blackbird

Thanks  to John Harris for this picture of a kingfisher recently caught during a Middleton Lakes bird ringing session. It was released shortly afterwards. 

Contact Stefan Bodnar, our warden,  for more details about bird ringing at Middleton.

Wildlife sightings for August 2012
The month started warm, windy and some drizzle, followed by sunshine and heavy showers. Then a week of sunshine, followed by more warm showers and finally a blue sky day. It was wet  but we did have some  visitors who walked from the car park, down the bridleway to the reserve  and back, without a dash of mud on their brightly coloured shoes. The woodland trail became a no-go area (slow…

The Great Scarecrow Day held here at Middleton Lakes on August Bank Holiday was once again one of the most enjoyable events of the year. Despite a weather forecast which threatened heavy rain all day - we were wrong to assume we'd be washed out. The rain kept away and over 150 visitors made 30 brilliant scarecrows!

All the poor weather over the summer has had a very bad effect on some of our trails and paths. In particular our Woodland Trail has taken a real pounding, so much so that we have had to take the decision to temporarily close the Woodland Trail from the bridleway through to the Robin bridge.

We have done this to help the woodland wildlife recover and we hope it will be quickly opened again.

We apologise if this measure…

The month started muggy and wet, as heavy rain continued. The visitors still came . The occasional fine days brought out our enthusiastic, 'can't keep away' visitors. They said 'we'll find a way' – some did get to the wetlands. People were saying – 'it's my first time here and it's fantastic – you have all done a great job'. Our volunteers created a dry bypass track from the canal meadow to the Fishers Mill bridge track…

You can imagine my delight when I discovered this spiky creature munching away on our nettles:

Thanks to the handy UK Butterflies website, I was able to track him down and find out he's the caterpillar of the peacock butterfly - one of my favourites because of their beautiful spots.

I don't think I've come across a peacock caterpillar before so that was a real treat.

Even better, I'm going to be getting…

My first walk on to the reserve this week and I managed to remember my camera to take a few photographs of the reserve following all the recent rain.

Despite almost 2" of rain falling last week, the water levels have dropped to reasonable levels, however the reserve is still extremely wet and remains under water in a number of places.

The entrance to the Woodland Trail off the bridleway - wellies ready?

It's now 3.30pm on Friday afternoon and it has rained non-stop all day, not just light rain or drizzle but the stuff which made Noah take up carpentry long ago.

As many of you know the reserve is already waterlogged and passage along the Woodland Trail is impossible.

The Wetland Trail is also submerged and advice from the Warden is to take extreme caution if venturing on to this side of the reserve.

The Meadow…

The following information is supplied by Kim Lacey who is one of our volunteer wardens, however the weather today (Friday 6th July) is again atrocious so please keep that in mind if planning a visit to the reserve.

The reserve paths are not too bad at the moment – just make sure you wear your wellies!

Kim said he saw a hobby on the reserve and also a ‘big and slient’ short eared owl which he witnessed…

Wildlife sightings for June 2012

The month started muggy, cloudy and damp. Then a few sunny days and the wellie weather came with heavy rain. The paths became 10 inch deep narrow pools. It was a wet month with a few sunny spell and a few hours of intense rain.

Families were saying – we will go as far as we can. A day out is a day out. It was still fun as the bridleway silt pool became a meeting place for nature lovers…

Another Saturday and another wet weekend looming. I went for an early pitch inspection this morning and in footballing terms - it'll take a stud!

The Woodland Trail has turned into a Mudland Trail and is flooded beyond the depth of ordinary wellington boots - when we said there would be plenty of waders to see, we didn't intend that to be the rubberized variety.

The bridleway is only just passable but the linking…

We are due to host a special event here at Middleton Lakes today but it seems the weather has conspired to thwart our efforts. The recent wet weather has continued and yesterday we were subjected to particulalry grim conditions - hail, stair-rod rain, high winds, thunder & lightning - you name it and nature threw it at us. I have to keep telling myself that this is the middle of flaming June - flaming June indeed!…