The Valley Produces Again - Quality and Quantity!!

Wednesday 3rd April 2013

Dry, freezing cold still. Heavy overnight frost but overcast for an hour after dawn. Light NE, increasing to moderate/strong.

Mid Section of reserve: Compton to Newbridge including Barleyfield and Compton Park

Every so often nature has a habit of producing something to take your breath away. Today was perfection in terms of the number, variety and quality of the birds. Truly one to remember and arguably the best morning I have had in the Valley.

38 Magpie around the Winter roost area at Compton Park, was significant for this late date.

I arrived at the top of the Barleyfield to start my sky watch with a Song thrush singing it’s heart out, behind geoff’s bench, to keep me company.

The fact that the light wind was blowing perfectly down the valley made me quietly optimistic. Smestow Valley runs from the brook’s source at fallings Park, South-west to Wightwick, meaning that birds are channelled along it on migration. This is emphasised by the fact that Wolverhampton lies at the West end of the West Midlands Conurbation. Birds don’t like flying over built up areas so in a similar way to Lutley Wedge, birds fly around the edge of the conurbation, and hence numbers passing through tend to swell. However the belief that birds simply fly North and South each year on migration is too simplistic. Birds also utilise the winds and so will fly across rather than along the valley, when the winds run in such directions.

Another odd fact is that a lot of birds prefer to fly into the wind, rather than with it. This is due to the design of the wing, and appears to be especially important to smaller species. (numbers of Wood Pigeon heading South last Autumn peaked when they actually had North winds pushing behind them. Nature has very few set rules.)

Anyway enough of the Science and Geography……the next two hours (06:30-08:30) produced a superb range of birds, including what I believe to be a first for the Barleyfield:

Canada goose- 5SW

Black-headed gull – 23 SW

Lesser Black-backed Gull – 2SW

Stock Dove – 1 North

Wood Pigeon – 62 East to North

Skylark – 3 North

Meadow Pipit – 66 NE to North

Grey Wagtail – presumably a local bird heading North along the line of the canal.

WAXWING – 5 birds flew low NE over the Barleyfield at 07:00aring over Compton Park, heading straight at St Judes Church, showing beautifully in the emerging sunlight.

Redwing – 14 North, 2 NE and 2 East

Mistle Thrush – 2 NW, 2 East and 1 West

Fieldfare – 10 NE, 4 North and 1 SW

Rook – a single flew East over.

Brambling – a single NE over at 07:30

Greenfinch – 10 East

Siskin – 1 South

I then had a text from Geoff to say that he had found a Chiffchaff in the station Paddock. As if by magic a Chiffchaff started singing in the South-west corner of the Barleyfield. At last they have arrived!!! I rang Geoff and shared the news. In traditional fashion though the bird was slowly making it’s way North along the railway line, but it was replaced by another bird that started singing in the Barleyfield Annex. This was confirmed when both birds were heard singing at the same time, the first having reached Graisley Culvert by this time. This again shows the importance of Wolverhampton’s linear Nature Reserve. Birds not only fly over the valley in significant numbers, they also move along it, feeding and replacing valuable energy along the way.

Having had such a good start to the day, I decided to cover the patch and see how many species I could Knock up. In addition to the sky watch, I had already added Grey Heron, 2 Green Woodpecker, 4 Great Spotted Woodpeckers (3 chasing each other on the eastern Border whilst a female sat watching the affair from the top of the barleyfield), Long-tailed Tit, Jay and 4+ Bullfinch to the day’s list.

At Compton Lock, the Goldcrest was picked up, with 2 Long-tailed Tits. A Coal Tit was calling as it moved along the tree tops at Prefab Weir.

The area just North of Meccano Bridge has been productive lately (where Ian had the first Chiffchaff of the year). A Little Grebe was present on the canal and a Treecreeper was making it’s way up one of the Alders. 2 long-tailed Tits were calling and 7 Siskin were calling and passing between the trees on both sides of the canal by the south end of the Paddocks.

At Newbridge, House Sparrow was added to the day’s list. I was conscious of time so I forfeited the search for the chiffchaff that Geoff had found at the old station, so I retraced my steps along the canal.

Everything was performing for me today, and the moment I got to the border between the Tennis Club and The Academy, the resident Nuthatch started singing. I had commented to Geoff that I could do with Cormorant and Goosander today, and I nearly fell in the canal when an adult and immature Cormorant passed West overhead. Everything was on cue!!

I started to try and guess how many species I had seen and became aware that I hadn’t had a bird of prey. So it was over to Compton Park at the North end of the Barleyfield to play the waiting game.

Mother Nature was really playing with me today. No sooner had I got myself positioned with a good view of the sky by Eddy’s Alders, when a pair of Linnet flew out of the hawthorn, only my second sighting of the year.....amazing. I spent 10 minutes watching and waiting, during which time, 3 more single Meadow Pipits, fighting against the now strong wind, headed North, being forced to fly just metres above the ground.

This prompted me to reflect on Kevin Clements’s posting at the weekend. I have this theory that might explain why the autumn migration appears to involve masses of birds, compared to much smaller numbers on the spring return….hormones!!!

In Autumn, most species tend to join feeding flocks, which I suppose has the added advantage of protecting the youngsters through safety in numbers. So when the birds do take to the air, their numbers are impressive. In Spring however, if you use say Little Grebe as a good example (for hormones, rather than migration), we see through both the plumage and leaving dates, that birds get the urge to move at different times. Only in the past few weeks, we have had full Winter-plumaged birds that have no intention of thinking of breeding along-side splendid full Summer-plumaged birds that were ready to jump on anything!!!! Black-headed gulls also demonstrate this variation, showing the various stages that their dark hoods are in.

Spring birds aren’t held back or needing to protect young either in Spring, so they are quite literally free as a bird to fly off to breeding grounds as soon as they get the urge. In Autumn it seems that by 9am it’s virtually a waste of time looking to the skies for moving birds, as most have shifted in the first hour and a half after dawn.

In Spring However I have seen Meadow Pipits, Wood Pigeons and Winter thrushes on the move at any time of day, although granted it still peaks about an hour after dawn.

I don’t really have time to read books on bird behaviour and migration much as a single working parent with my own business to run so please understand, these are only my thoughts. I am sure someone out there has the answers, so if you have, then please, please share. The best way to learn is through sharing and making mistakes!!!

Food for thought??…………more to the point!! How great is our Valley?? Within a mile of the City centre, and here I was, just about to tick off my last three birds that meant a grand total of 50 for the morning, and all wrapped up by 9:30 (and all seen within a linear section of the reserve, less than one mile long).

Just as I was about to give up, a  male Sparrowhawk flew into the lower Alders, and after a few minutes I decided I was happy without having to wait for a Buzzard to turn up so I headed off home across Compton park. A male Pied Wagtail was feeding under the foot-bridge at the wetland and after almost tripping over through looking back for a Buzzard as I walked, one kindly obliged, drifting up from the South and then circling overhead to make sure I had seen it!!!

Governments continue to ignore global warming, favouring profits, and vast swathes of the planet continue to vanish beneath the bulldozer, but for all those people who have profiled, created, managed, protected and enjoyed Smestow Valley, please please feel proud when you read these words. For Mother Nature was dancing this morning and showing her beauty up and down, on and over the jewel that is…..Wolverhampton’s only Local Nature reserve…..Smestow valley.

Mother Nature is powerful….but she can’t do it all now that there are billions of us around. She needs YOU!!!!!

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