Kingsbury Water Park and Garden Birds

We paid another visit to Kingsbury Water Park yesterday - it was cold and gloomy but I managed to add 15 bird species to the 2018 year list.


A map of the whole Water Park (even if you enlarge the photo I suspect most will be unreadable) but

this is a close-up of the area we concentrated on.

We parked in the small car park by Broomeycroft Pool (which is the quieter area of the park from memory).

There were a lot of Canada Geese and Black-headed Gulls about and many Coot and Mallard on the pools along with some Tufted Duck, Pochard and Shoveler.

Coot

Cliff Pool

A shame about the plastic bag :(

This is the view from Dad's memorial bench - he and mum used to visit the Water Park several times a week.

At this point I suddenly realised that the path we had taken was the same one as last time which led us to the more popular part of the park with playground, train and visitor centre so I managed to persuade the rest of the family to re-trace our steps and take the path to the left which I was sure led to the nature reserve part of the water park.

I was right!! :)

It was quieter in this area and there is a nice circular walk from the car park which goes round Broomey Croft Pool.

I watched several parties of Long-tailed Tits (by this time the rest of the family had shot off ahead and there was no sign of them - even D had disappeared with them as he hadn't taken the other camera and was not prepared to dawdle!) and this pair of Mute Swans.

Fresh growth - Speedwell leaves? - I really am not good at identifying plants from leaves alone.

A lone Great Crested Grebe - still in Winter plumage.

Birmingham and Fazeley Canal - if you turn right here you can follow the canal and it soon reaches RSPB Middleton Lakes NR.

Alder cones and catkins

Hazel Catkins (Lambs' Tails)

Finally, back to the car park where Timothy posed for a photo.

B was waiting for me - D and E had gone ahead to the tea-room. We watched the feeders for a while - plenty of Great and Blue Tits, Dunnocks, Chaffinches, Coot, Moorhen, Dunnock, Greenfinches, Pied Wagtails and a Great Spotted Woodpecker although we didn't see the Nuthatch E had spotted. We did see a Treecreeper though - no photos.


Canada Geese

Off to the Granary Tea Room (somehow managed to chop the top of the roof off!) for

hot chocolate and cake!

List of Species Seen

Magpie
Wood Pigeon
Dunnock
Blackbird
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Chaffinch
Robin
Coot
Mute Swan
Black-headed Gull
Canada Goose
Mallard
Moorhen
Great Crested Grebe
Pochard
Greenfinch
Treecreeper
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Pied Wagtail
Tufted Duck





Garden Birds

So far, 2018 has been very good for garden birds. As well as the more usual and common species, a Grey Heron visited the pond twice last week. The Ring-necked Parakeets were absent for the first week of the New Year but then returned and visited the feeders every day last week.

The two other highlights have been a Fieldfare bathing in the garden pond

and this week a male Blackcap has been visiting the feeders.

Kingsbury Water Park

Kingsbury Water Park, a 600 acre Country Park, comprising 15 lakes and pools plus streams, marshes, woodlands, meadows and the River Tame is part of the Tame Valleys Wetland Project. The Partnership consists of a number of organisations led by Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and the aim is to protect and improve the area creating a wetland living landscape which is rich in wildlife and accessible to people. The wetlands are located between Birmingham and Tamworth, cover 104 square kilometres and the River Tame, floodplain and canals form the core of the region. We do occasionally visit various reserves in the Wetlands such as Ladywalk and Whitacre Heath Nature Reserves, Shustoke Reservoir and RSPB Middleton Lakes but I've only ever been to Kingsbury Water Park once before over 30 years ago! To be honest we parked in the main car park and I think it must have been a bank holiday weekend because it was absolutely heaving with people - not my idea of fun at all! Yesterday we decided to finally make a return visit. The country park contains fishing lakes, a children's farm and playground, a sailing area and a miniature railway but there is a more "wildlife" type area with bird hides so this time we parked in Broomeycroft car park near the reserve part.

Rather controversially, from several people I know who visit the Water Park regularly, 100's of trees have been cut down. I think from memory the reason given for this was to improve visibility of the lakes - to me it looked a bit bleak and barren in places :(

You can just make out some pussy willow in the distance - sadly, couldn't find a tree near enough to get a close up of the catkins.

For some unknown reason instead of exploring the nature reserve part the rest of the family made a bee-line in the direction of the main car park! However, if they hadn't have done that I wouldn't have found a memorial bench mum had erected for my father (she and Dad used to visit Kingsbury all the time). These are the views from the bench.

It was a lovely walk although we did at one point get hopelessly lost but we walked past pools and then through woodland.

At one stage when I had lagged some way behind the others to take photos I could see the family waving at me to hurry up. It turned out they had seen a Peacock butterfly. Of course, by the time I reached them it had disappeared totally from sight so I am still awaiting my first butterfly sighting of the year.


Not quite sure who or what this is but I suspected we were getting closer to the more popular area of the country park and main car park.

Arriving at the main car park. I could kick myself now for not buying a map of the reserve for future use.

I saw a few wild flowers on the walk -


Lesser Celandine

Primroses

Gorse

Wild Arum leaves

Coltsfoot

White Dead-nettle

Blackthorn

Bird species seen included - Magpie, Wood Pigeon, Carrion Crow, Long-tailed Tit, Wren, Robin, Goldcrest, Canada Goose, Mallard, Mute Swan, Coot, Tufted Duck, Grey Heron, Chaffinch and Black-headed Gull.


Rather than risk getting lost again! we walked back to the car via the main road crossing over the M42.

An inquisitive calf

A tea-room and time for

tea and cake (lemon curd).

We will return and next time visit the nature reserve part where we parked. I would also like to walk along the canal to RSPB Middleton Lakes.