Saturday 1 June 2013

Blithfield Reservoir

Why have I never visited this place before? It's huge, excellent birding and I can access private areas of the reservoir and ancient woodland as part of my West Midlands Bird Club membership.

I will be making regular visits here.

 

 

It was a bit daunting trying to figure out where to start, but to be honest, everywhere looked interesting. It's far too big to cover well in a single day. So I decided to start off in the two bays. Tad and Blithe bay.

A map of the reservoir showing the causeway road running across the centre of it.

I started here.

To be honest, just this end of the reservoir has too much to cover in a day. I made a start though. It was a quiet morning for waders. There were a lot of fishermen about the shorelines in boats, so that may have been an issue. I did get a Garden Warbler though, near one of the WMBC hides.

Later in the afternoon, a report came through of a Turnstone on the Causeway bank. I set off from Stansley Wood on the shore of Tad Bay to check it out.

The Causeway.

Initially, I couldn't locate the Turnstone, but while looking I did find some other interesting Waders.

Dunlin (Taken with iPhone through Scope)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dunlin video taken with Canon SX40 (watch in HD)

 

 

Ringed Plover (iscoped)

 

Little Ringed Plover (iscoped)

I spent a good while watching these birds on a small area of shoreline. There were 8 Ringed Plover, 2 Little Ringed Plover and 4 Dunlin. I'm glad I hung around, as the Turnstone decided to join the waders I was watching.

Dunlin, Turnstone and Ringed Plover. (Canon SX40)

I did eventually manage to get some better pictures of the Turnstone.

Turnstone. (Canon SX40)

Blithfield will see me on its banks again in the very near future.

 

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