May 31st – Spotted purely by chance negotiating the new gate off the canal at Chase Road, Brownhills, a pair of bees apparently mating.
I did wonder at their size and apparerntly different species but no, they are most likely tree bumblebees making more tree bumblebees, bless them.
I left them in peace, the bees need all the chance to multipoly they can get.
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August 13th – I went up to Freda’s Grave via Chase Road, and noticed that near the shale parking area, someone had been feeding the birds on an old tree stump. Sat with the camera, me and a companion took loads of pictures as a variety of songbirds swooped in and out.
Photographing these busy little birds is actually hard – they’re so fast, it’s hard to focus and get a decent picture and better reactions than mine are clearly required.
A more willing subject was found at the the deserted picnic area near Birches Valley, where Mrs. Squirrel was hoovering up the day’s dropped morsels and helpfully giving some good camera face.
Not a bad entry for the seven days of wildlife challenge…
December 14th – Sadly, it seems myxomatosis has found the rabbit warren by the canal, just off Chase Road in Brownhills. This elderly rabbit can’t see and wasn’t aware of my presence, only moving when a couple of dogs came close.
This awful disease sweeps through rabbit populations in waves; the last cases I saw were in Chorley, near Burntwood in 2011. The rabbit populations up there seem healthy and normal again.
It’s sad, but outbreaks like this are causing a gradual immunity to be selected in the rabbit population. In the meantime, I recommend anyone keeping pet rabbits in the locality makes sure they cannot come into contact with their wild brethren.
Let’s hope it passes soon.
May 5th – one of the flattest, smoothest stretches of tarmac in the UK. Gorgeous, and lovely to ride, too (I rode the length of it the M6 Toll the night before it opened), mainly because few use this white-elephant toll motorway. Crossing it on Chase Road last night, I counted 4 cars in a ten minute period. At 8pm on a Saturday.
An utterly misguided project, making money hand over fist for it’s operators, who don’t want the cost of maintaining it, so have consequently priced it beyond use. Bizarre.
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