Smestow Valley Birding

Is this still spring, or are we now in summer?  Hard to say in this strange year of confused seasons, the soft new green covering the trees tells us one thing, the relative quiet along the valley, the lack of  bird song, the cold conditions and the comparative absence of migrant species suggests another.  Anyway, down at Dunstall Park lake one species has carried on regardless through those long weeks of cold easterlies and high pressure silences, our old friends (not everyone would use that word) the Canada Geese have sat through it all, patient on their down-lined nests around the shoreline and on the island, and their fortitude has been rewarded . . . the goslings are here.  One pair of adults has two in tow, another pair has five.  Cream-yellow, cute, the youngsters follow their parents up the banks to graze inside the perimeter fence, their heads bobbing above the grass.  It's hard to believe that these engaging feathered toys will grow into the intrusive, noisy and quarrelsome birds that are now an often unwelcome feature at town park lakes, estuary margins, gravel pits and rural nature reserves across the UK.  As more broods hatch, the youngsters will graze together in creche groups, foraging on the open grass in the centre of the racecourse shepherded by their parents and non-breeding adults.  Not all will fledge, some will fall prey to foxes, but in most years the majority will fly, eventually helping to form the impressive skeins of this feral species which honk their way over the valley to and from their late-summer and autumn feeding grounds.  It's not just the geese that have done the nesting thing at Dunstall.  Up-ending amid the spiked aquatic grass are a pair of Eurasian Coot, industrious and attentive, never further than a metre or so from their offspring, three spikey ginger-red headed chicks totally reliant on their parents for sustenance, finding safety amidst the vegetation.  Another three adult pairs are still sitting on eggs, so the numbers of youngsters on the lake should soon increase.  Ever present in the last few weeks have been adult and immature Lesser Black-backed Gulls, flying low over the water or perched on the floodlight pylons, a constant threat to Mallard youngsters.  A fortnight ago there were at least 17 small ducklings, now no more than two are to be seen, still watched by their mother as they feed amongst the spiked grass around the lake edges.  It seems that the gulls, which now breed within the city boundaries, know they're on to a meal ticket, and the ducklings have been their target.  It's better news near the grandstand, where at least two pairs of Barn Swallow are collecting nest material from the exercise ring and carrying it to the open stables where thay have nested for the last six years.  A last look towards the tractor sheds, and a small white-rumped bird flies up from the mown grass to perch on the roof, a male Northern Wheatear, the first of the species to be recorded here this year.  The species is an annual migrant visitor to the racecourse, and in this lean year, it's the first record for the site.  In 1992 a total of 69 birds were reported here on passage, and in 2004 the valley total for spring migrants was at least 78 birds ( 31 were seen at Dunstall Park on April 17th, a day which saw a total of 35 recorded along the valley, equalling the most seen at one time at any West Midland site up until that date).  This year?  Well one bird, I guess, is better than none . . .