Tag: Ladywalk

Middleton, Ladywalk & Belvide

Last week has been my first foray into the world of Birding Photography with a DSLR. Phone scoping is all well and good but it takes a while to setup I’ve found, so I’ve gone and grabbed a cheap cannon EOS 1000d and a semi-decent 70-300mm zoom lens and went out.

I’m not a professional photographer by any stretch of the imagination but talking this out learning along the way I don’t think I have done all too badly.

My first visit last week was to the West Midlands Bird Club Belvide Reserve as 6am and got my first ever Crane, apparently the first one to land and spend time after a number of years.

Crane @ Belvide.

At Belvide apart from my lifer in the form of a common crane I had a total of 54 species including Whimbrel, Yellow Wagtail, Hobby, Lesser Whitethroat & Common Tern. Here are a few more images from that day…

Goldfinch @ Belvide.
Gadwall with Mallards @ Belvide.
Whimbrel @ Belvide.

Next up it was the turn of the brilliant RSPB Middleton Lakes reserve. It was playing host to a Savi’s Warbler that week and even though I was there for it on this particular morning it never materialised for yours truly.

Never mind, I still had a total of 65 species I could count on including… Bittern, Common Sandpiper, Common Tern, Great White Egret, Greenshank, Lesser Whitethroat, Ring and Little Ring Plover, Redshank and the usual Red Breasted Goose.

Here are a few images took in my visit…

Red Breasted Goose takeoff.
Red Breasted Goose @ Middleton Lakes.
Red Breasted Goose @ Middleton Lakes.
Femail Tufted @ Middleton Lakes.
Male Tufted @ Middleton Lakes.
Greenshank @ Middleton Lakes.
Takeoff Red Breasted Goose again.

Finally I paid a visit on the late afternoon after my trip to Belvide to my local patch of Ladywalk where I recorded a total of 50 species including Redshank, Little Egret plenty of Warblers and a Barn Owl. Some images from that visit…

Blackbird @ Ladywalk

I had tried to get the yellow bill of this blackbird but unfortunately it moved its head just before taking off.

Little Egret @ Ladywalk.
We have plenty of these all over Ladywalk.

That’s about everything I have for you now. But I think my Bird and Nature photography is slightly Improving. I did find this Link to a few blog posts by Mike Atkinson about Bird Photography. So let’s see what this week brings.

Thank you for indulging me again.

Phillip

Getting Serious

5.45am @ Belvide Reserve the start of a 14+ Hour birding session. Not my WMBC hoodie.

I must admit that I have seriously neglected this blog of mine for some time now and now that I have installed the jetpack app on my phone I now have no excuse to post regular on here.

I’ve come to realise that most people consume content and blog posts on mobile now so writing these posts on an app makes sense to me.

I cannot remember when exactly but I think I first started Birding aged 11 onwards way back in the 1980s and back then my local patch was Plants Brook Nature Reserve. Weirdly I now live less than a mile away from that place. For Christmas my parents got me this book…

As well as a pair of Bins to gain skills as a Birder.

Fast forward some thirty six years later to January 2023 and I pass my driving test. Yes it took me thirty years to pass but it had to be done as I’m also a full-time carer for my beautiful wife Louise.

One of the first things I did after passing was to join the West Midlands Bird Club. I then went to Amazon and spent less than a hundred quid on some bins, a cheap scope and a tripod.

As 2023 progressed I noticed that I was getting more and more obsessed with my new found hobby, any spare time I’d jump in the car and goto my local patch of Ladywalk NR. I also started using the BirdTrack app but not very seriously as shown in the below screenshot…

As the year progressed I became a regular at Ladywalk, Belvide and RSPBMiddleton Lakes. Things are getting serious for me now and I start using the BirdTrack app properly with complete lists.

A third of the way into 2024 and I consider myself a more than proficient and regular Birder. As you can see from  this screenshot I have already surpassed my 2023 figures…

My only real regret apart from not passing my driving test thirty years ago is that I no longer have my notebooks from when I was a young whippersnapper of a Birder in the 1980s as I could have added those historical lists, dates, places, times and of course species into BirdTrack.

Incidentally I remember the first time I ever went to Ladywalk on my BMX mountain bike aged 13 back in 1989 and seeing the huge hams hall power station. My overwhelming memory of that day was seeing all of the huge quantities of wading birds and my first ever Ruddy Duck. How times have changed.

Ladywalk back in the 1980s

Still at least I now have some time to continue my Birding passion when time dictates as my first priority is obviously my gorgeous wife Louise.

You can see from these screenshots below the difference between my Birding years of 2023 and this year…

2023 in blue, you will notice the small bars till July of that year and my current records so far this year in Orange.

I have a goal to hit 200 species this year and I think I’m well on my way. If this does not happen then so be it.

My life list so far.

Well that’s it people for now. What can you expect from my blog over time is hopefully some decent images and musings of my Birding adventures over the coming months and years.

Thank you for indulging me friends and feel free to share this across your social media channels. You can also find my on these channels by searching @BrummyBirder

Cheerio for now.

Phillip

Hello birding world!

Welcome to my new Blog on Birding. This is me and my wife Louise enjoying the sunshine at our local in Sutton Coldfield (notice the shirt I am wearing, its full of Linnets). 

I have been an on and off birder since the age of 13 (some thirty five years at the time of writing this) and having passed my driving test back in January of this year it opened up so many other reserves for me. Including my local patch of Ladywalk Nature Reserve

Which is a private nature reserve of the West Midlands Bird Club, A club that I highly recommend midlands based Birders and nature lovers join up too.

One Amazing Looking Oak Tree, this is at Ladywalk reserve

What can you expect from my blog then dear reader? Well for a start I will be including a few snaps that I take on my birding exploits both here at Ladywalk and further afield.

Redshank at Ladywalk

Redshank at Ladywalk, snapped on 19th July 2023

Like, Belvide, Blithfield, Upton Warren and Middleton Lakes RSPB Reserve.

Avocet at Upton Warren

Currently I am saving my pennies to purchase my first ever DSLR Camera and so the images will eventually improve on here once I have one. In the meantime I will just have to include birds I have snapped on my mobile.

This is obviously my very first post but it will give you a small flavour as to what to expect from yours truly.

thank you for taking the time out to read this and I would love for you too leave me a comment below.

Happy spotting Pilgrim.

Phillip