Thursday 8th July will go down as an auspicious date in the records of Sandwell Valley. It was that day the 3 common tern chicks were first seen taking their initial flights over the lake. Their parents have done an excellent job raising the youngsters despite the close attention of hungry lesser black backed gulls! Watching the fledglings try out their newly developed wings was very entertaining.
The recent dry weather has caused us a headache on site. Whilst the level of water in the main lake has dropped to worrying levels, the marsh pool has almost completely dried up. This corresponded with the arrival of about 100 black headed gulls making lots of noise. To help we used our pump for a couple of days but this hardly made a difference. As I write this, the rain is lashing down on my conservatory roof so I hope the marsh pool benefits.
See you on the reserves,
Best regards,
Chris Edwards