Recently D and I went a walk around a local nature reserve at Castle Bromwich Historic Parkland. Historically the parkland was part of the Earl of Bradford's estate and is part of the Castle Bromwich Conservation Area.
The last resident of the Bradford family at Castle Bromwich Hall was Lady Ida Bradford (1848-1936) who was the widow of George Bridgeman, 4th Earl of Bradford.
The parkland is known locally as "Lady Bradford's". Much restoration work has been carried out there recently under the "Love Your River Cole" project and access to the site and paths has been improved. Its a lovely area for a walk as you will see and you could be anywhere if it wasn't for the sound of traffic on the M6 not far away and planes taking off or landing at Birmingham airport!
Cow Parsley, Campion and Horse Chestnuts are flowering.
Pignut this is a good site for Chimney Sweeper moths in June and July and their caterpillars feed on Pignut. I really must try and go back then to look for them as I said to David we really had ought to try and visit this reserve at least once a month to see the changes through the seasons.
An area of acid grassland.
Then into the wetland and woodland area.
Hawthorn is still flowering well.
We then wandered over the grassland area.
Why do people dump rubbish?This makes me so angry. They must have parked in a bus layby on a nearby A road then clambered over a fence and walked to dump this. There is a council tip about half a mile away!!!
Back into the woodland
Then the return route back through the acid grassland.
The highlight of the visit was a pair of Small Copper butterflies.
Back at home all eight of the Blue Tit chicks fledged on the 25th and 26th May. Rubbish photo of the three chicks which were last to leave the nest box.
First damselflies of the year in the garden. There were two pairs of Large Red Damselflies mating.
All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera. I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one I would be grateful for an email first - thanks.
9 comments:
What a nice place (rubbish dumping aside) and like you said it would be interesting to see this develop and change over the seasons if it is close enough for repeat visits. I'm struggling to identify that owl in the tree though ;-)
The Wessex Reiver - Thanks Andrews. Its not too far to travel to. lol re: owl.
The Wessex Reiver - Thanks Andrews. Its not too far to travel to. lol re: owl.
I am so pleased for you, Caroline, that you and David got to visit here, and thank you for sharing what is quite a magical and special area. I do think you should make an effort to visit as often as you can to record the changes as the year turns. Congratulations on the fledglings! That should go a ways to bolstering numbers.
It looks a wonderful reserve with much to offer the visitor. Cow Parsley and Hawthorne have been wonderful this year. I like the bird sculptures. The whole place looks well cared for so it is sad that someone has decided to leave rubbish there. So much of it about nowadays and flytipping is rife. Like you it makes me despair of people who do this, so selfish and uncaring. So glad the blue tits fledged. We have had a damselfly on our pond over the last day or two but always on its own:)
Rustic Pumpkin - Thanks so much Debbie. It is a relaxing little reserve. I will try and return as would like to see the chimney sweeper moths :) We were so pleased about the young Blue Tits as I have seen tweets that many parent blue tits are not finding enough food for the young.
Rosie - Thanks so much. I think there was at least one other bird sculpture but it was either vandalised or stolen :( Fly tippers make me so angry too - sometimes in middle of nowhere you see it dumped in a lane. Why drive so far when surely a council tip would be closer?!
Looks like a nice place to spend an afternoon and yes, you should go there more often! I don't understand people dumping rubbish like that either - it makes no sense!
Hoorah to all of the tits fledging. At least they are (relatively) safe in a nest box compared to in the wild - yes I've been watching Springwatch, which is so sad at times.
Millymollymandy - Thanks so much Mandy. Its a nice spot for a quick walk if you haven't got time to travel too far.
Really pleased the Blue Tits fledged so well this year after the horror stories in the last few years.
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