I was sitting in the classroom at the SPA yesterday when we were visited by a local celebrity. Local champion fundraiser Blind Dave and his running partner Carl popped their heads round the door to ask for a drink of water. As the temperature outside was in the high 20's, the least I could do was to invite them in for a glass or two.

The term 'Mad Dogs and Englishmen' came to mind when I saw the state of them - dripping…

To anyone who's visited certain parts of London recently, seeing a ring-neck parakeet is nothing out of the norm. Down there are hundreds of them flocking about, squawking and generally doing rather well but did you know we have our own growing population right here in Sandwell Valley?

My brief was to find the nest sites of these rather exotic birds and lead a filmcrew from the BBC to film them. On the face of it…

Good news is that 3 lapwing chicks were spotted amongst the undergrowth on the island towards the end of the month. Also the oystercatcher pair seems to be settled on their nesting site and are regularly changing over sitting duties, they were joined by a third bird for a few days. Other nest sitting birds include, coot, moorhen, Canada geese and mute swan, which is occupying the same very large nest on the corner of…

Today I was found myself at Sandwell again and at lunchtime I made my way to the hide as a break from staring at a computer screen. In the short time I was there I saw the resident oystercatchers and their 3 chicks which came out to the waters edge right in front of the hide. Mom & dad were busily searching for food for them and the young birds were already learning to forage for themselves. Cute!

Next up was the…

Last night I had the great pleasure of guiding a group of guides, or should I say ex-guides, around the reserve. The West Bromwich Trefoil group had requested a personal evening guided walk and what a night it was.

Greeted by 16 enthusiastic ladies, we set off despite the threatening clouds above. My brief was to provide an insight to the wildlife found on the reserve and show off all the improvements we've made over…

Last Thursday was a great day to be out on the reserve. OK it was a bit overcast and wet underfoot but the whole place was just bursting with spring wildlife. The bluebells up the driveway hedge are in full bloom and the hedges themselves look green and thick. Warblers were stacked up in the scrub competing for airtime and the wetlands too were covered with birds. The only bit of the reserve that looked a bit sad was…

The torrential rain and high winds put paid to our planned Dog Walk / Bird Watch around the reserve on Sunday 29th April - my dog Milly refused to leave the comfort of her basket!

So we've re-arranged a date for the walk and that is Sunday 27th May. Again starting at 11am and we will have the promised prizes for waggiest tail etc....  See you then.

We have so many people who exercise dogs around the reserve I thought it only fair they had their own guided walk.

Starting at 11am on Sunday 29th April, my dog Milly and I will be leading off the first organised dog walk/bird watch around the lake. This will be a great chance to learn about the wildlife on the reserve.

I will be taking a light-hearted approach to the walk because Milly, being a puppy, has the patience…

Early summer migrants have arrived at the reserve. The first warblers were chiffchaff (8^th.), blackcap (21st.) and towards the end of the month several singing males of both species could be heard. The hirundines arrived late in the month with sand martin, house martin and finally swallow (31^st.) being seen.

 Other visitors were redshank (14^th.), dunlin (4^th.), a little ringed plover (16^th.) joined later by another and…

2 oystercatcher have returned to the reserve, a male was first recorded on the 7^th. and a female arrive almost 2 weeks later. They are probably the same pair from previous years, as the female can be identified by her damaged foot.

 Other exciting visitors included a red-head female smew (12^th.) that stayed for several days, a rare sight at Sandwell Valley, a male pintail, which was around most of the month, a black-tailed…

You may think that working for the RSPB is heaven for birdwatchers but you'd be wrong. Although our office is on a nature reserve it is rare we have the time to indulge ourselves in our hobby.

Not so today, in need our some fresh air after spending hours cooped up in front of a computer screen, I wandered down to the Lakeside Hide to see what was about. Ably manned by Colin and Alf, the hide was very busy, no doubt…

There have been sightings of a female smew swimming around on Forge Mill Lake. The visitor is clearly seen from our Lakeside Hide. As there are only 100 smew in the UK over winter, we feel a bit special.

Wintering ducks and other water birds were the main points of interest during the month including counts of 22 gadwall, 71 teal, 40 mallard, 26 wigeon. 51 tufted, 65 pochard, 14 shoveler. Also around the lake were 35 goosander, 3 goldeneye, 2 little grebe, grey heron, 6 mute swan and cormorant.

 About 20 common snipe could be seen in small groups along the south bank of the island or in the marsh and a water rail could…

This week is special for two reasons; it marks the first half term of the calendar year and it's also the National Nest Box Week. Combine the two and you have the perfect family activity.

This weekend and next weekend at our reserve we're inviting visitors to come along and build their own nest box to take away. We will provide the materials, the know-how and advice on where to fix your new nest box.

We're open…

Firstly sorry for the lateness of this...technical (I wanted to throw the computer at the wall, I’m sure you’ve had those occasions too!) problems prevented me from getting this out sooner. Better late than never I hope though.

 Brrr it was a cold one this morning but the sun was shining and it was a perfect winters day, I hope you are well and that January treated you well.

 Reserve update:

 I treated myself…

Greetings to you and I hope you are well and looking forward to spring!

 Reserve update:

Spring is creeping towards us and some of the birds are definitely tuning up for the breeding season. I have heard great tit and dunnock both in song and there is something more urgent about the robins.

 The cold and damp weather though has kept the feeders busy with numerous bullfinches lining up on the hedgerow and willow tits…

The feeding station has been a great attraction with lots of activity including marsh tits joining the resident willow tits on darting runs to the table from the close-by bushes. The marsh tits have seldom been seen in recent years. Also seen there were up to 4 pairs of bullfinch, the red of the males being particularly colourful on these grey winter days, numerous great tits and blue tits, an occasional coal tit,

Happy New Year to you and I hope that you all enjoyed a great Christmas and relished all the festive food and fun.

 Reserve update:

Though it’s been wet and wild on the reserve over the Christmas period the wildlife has still been about and delighting visitors with 18 people attending the New Year walk. They enjoyed views at the feeding station of bullfinches and a willow tit amongst others though the marsh tit was not…

We have just received some great news from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).  They have agreed to support the re-development of our nature centre!  Their grant will cover the cost of drawing up a new, improved, design for our building.  This will include a ground floor extension to create new meeting room for volunteers and local community groups, improvements to our toilets and overall uplift to the appearance of the building…

The reserve office and Lakeside Hide will be closed from Friday 23rd December through to 30th December inclusively. We will be open again on New Year's Eve.

Don't forget our guided walk on New Year's Day, starting at 11am and finishing with warming drinks.

All the staff at RSPB Sandwell Valley wish all our volunteers and readers a Merry Christmas and a healthy New Year.

If you're looking for something a little different to hang on your tree this Christmas, get yourself down to our SPA buidling on Tanhouse Avenue this next Saturday and you may be surprised.

Between 11am and 3pm our staff will be on hand helping you make festive natural decorations to hang on your Christmas tree. This promises to be a lot of fun and a great way to make use of what can be found outdoors at the moment…

Yesterday we welcomed our new Visitor Officers to Sandwell; Hannah Williams and Nicky Willner will be working one day each during the work but more importantly they will be covering the reserve at weekends.

Both of them have extensive experience with meeting and greeting the public and Hannah has previously worked at other RSPB reserves. They are very enthusiastic about their new roles and can't wait until this coming…

The extensive work re-profiling the marsh and creating more spits out into the lake, as well as a channel into the reedbed, has provided new habitat and birds have been quick to occupy it. About 50 lapwing, several snipe, grey heron, moorhen, pied wagtail and a knot (23^rd. for a couple of days) have all been taking advantage of it.

 On the lake a pair of goldeneye has been sighted regularly along with16 goosander, up…

Today's walk around the whole of Forge Mill Lake (which is actually on a bit over a mile) provided loads of different birds to be enjoyed.

Before we had even started walking we were greeted by the sound of an angry Mistle Thrush outside the temporary centre as well as the ever present irritable Magpies. A short walk over the railway bridge and the horse field (which I'm still sure will be good for something one day…