Jacks and Rails...

Since my last post I have made a couple of trips down to the Valley to help out with a couple of volunteer related tasks.

On Sunday I arrived to find the marsh and lake edges frozen and the prospect of standing at the top of the hill on the site of the old centre to facilitate peoples Big Garden Birdwatch less and less appealing! However I wasn't down to do this until the afternoon so I set off towards the South Bank to have a search for snipe before they closed the path for a month for resurfacing works (I say resurfacing, it is probably apt to just call them surfacing works seeing as all there was there previously was mud!). Highlights on this short walk came in the form of a flock of 25 wigeon feeding on the river bend, a siskin circling overhead, a goosander on the river and a great spotted woodpecker.

As I approached the 'bandstand' viewpoint I saw one of the regulars to whom I found myself saying the standard question "much about?". He said he had been having a search for water rails because the frozen lake edges sometimes encourage them out of the reeds (something which had been in the back of my mind too) but after as much searching as he could tolerate in the cold his efforts were fruitless. I carried on up to the South Bank to look back at the small reedbed in front of the 'bandstand' behind which I had just been talking only to see a water rail stood happily preening in almost full view. Alas he was too far away for me to get anything more than a record shot, but here it is.

Water rail - RSPB Sandwell Valley - Jan. 2012 - Mike Ixer

So that was a pleasant surprise and a nice year tick. There was very little else of note from the South Bank other than at least 5 snipe on the Island but unlike the other day when they were moving around feeding, this time they were all bedded down and proving very difficult to spot!

I returned to the top to commence my Big Garden Birdwatch responsibilities and we got some good birds and some good counts around the table. These included at least 15 great tits at one time, 33 greenfinches, chaffinches, 2 willow tits, blackbirds, blue tits, 2 reed bunting, bullfinches, goldfinches, a flock of 12 siskin, sparrowhawk, green and great spotted woodpeckers, dunnocks, robins, 2 jays and a buzzard over. The highlight for me though was when the 20+ woodpigeons which were feeding around the base of the table were sent scattering by a fox which burst through the bushes behind the feeder to try and grab one. At the end of the day a quick trip to the hide was rewarded with good views of an immature male goldeneye and a common gull plus some more snipe. Other additions were shovelers, pochards, tufted ducks, coots, moorhens, gadwall, lapwings and a pied wagtail. The coots are starting to get very aggressive and I was quite happy with this shot of them trying to kill eachother.

Fighting coots - RSPB Sandwell Valley - Jan. 2012 - Mike Ixer

So moving forward a few days today and seeing as I had an afternoon off uni, I offered to lead a snipe count in the marsh. This is done because the snipe is such a difficult species to monitor due to it's amazing camouflage and the only way to discover population trends is to carry out this survey work at important wintering sites. We weren't sure what the numbers would be like because of the work that was carried out in the marsh before Christmas and the freezing conditions which can make it difficult for the birds to feed so they move elsewhere.

On went the wellies and down the hill we went and very quickly some snipe flew up from the front edge of the marsh and we were optimistic of good numbers. By the time we finished flushing and counting we had counted 26 common snipe and 4 jack snipe which, despite being down on previous years (a trend across the country at the moment), was a move in the right direction after the improvement works.

I popped into the hide for a short time after completing the count and one of the flushed jack snipe was located and we all queued up at the telescope to get a good look which was a really nice way to round off the day. Far too far away for a photo though.

Next up a weekend at the Valley leading a guided walk on Saturday and then a reserve work party on Sunday so lets see what we can find then.