So what do you do when you start the year with a plan to explore the local rivers, and have finished them in May? Well obviously, you start again. Talk about a glutton for punishment.
But of course its now summer...quite different. I hope. Anyway I got off to a good start. The Arrow rises north of the Mill Shrub and flows through the Lower Bittell Reservoir emerging as a stream below the dam and trickling passed Alvechurch Fishery.
And it was here that I scanned a promising island and found a sitting Oystercatcher. It seems ridiculous that I missed the species completely last year. I went on to to find its mate too.
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| Sitting among the nettles |
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| The other one. Hard to miss! |
It was unseasonably cold and grey today, so insects weren't going to get a look in. In fact, it could be all down hill from here, quite literally. A pair of Great Crested Grebes were nesting on the same island, and a pair of Black-headed Gulls was also present but not obviously nesting. The rest of the pool contained Coots breeding, Mallards probably trying, and Tufted Ducks no doubt thinking about it.
Lower Bittell was almost devoid of wildfowl. I was left to note a few singing Reed Warblers, Blackcaps feeding young, and all that kind of stuff. If I'm honest, I wasn't fully engaged.
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| A female Green Woodpecker |
Hopefully my spirits will soon rise and the enthusiasm will return.
Midsummer blues already? Think I'm with you on that one!! Where are all the migrants... 😟
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