Redditch Birds

A big blank round the Midlands on the BirdGuides map for the last couple of days (you have to subscribe to see it) and general laziness (and my shoulder) are keeping me at home. But the birdy world is still turning. Yesterday on the way back from Tesco I was treated to a juvenile magpie with stubby tail feathers and not flying too well. The swifts are busy hawking; their stay is all too brief. The odd blackbird, robin or wren occasionally breaks into song, as well as one chiffchaff.

Last Thursday Dave and I recorded seven common terns at Arrow Valley - new birds to Redditch for both of us. One sedge warbler sang in the vastly improved reedbed. In fact the whole park has become an order of magnitude more interesting in the ten years I've been away. Someone's doing something right there.