Tag: Walsall Wood

May 14th – Marking the seasons in a journal like this is always about firsts; first daft, first bluebells, first conkers etc. – and it’s always nice to spot the first bird’s foot trefoil of the summer. I adore these dainty little flowers that brighten up meadows, fields, verges and margins pretty much all summer. This patch at Walsall Wood I spotted in rain, and they’d been left straggly by the mower, but still a bright flash of joy on a dull day.

May 11th – This evening when I passed Jockey Meadows, the cattle were obligingly close to the field gate – and what handsome fellows they are. I think there are ten in total, and it looks like they’e been having a paddle in the mud. The work they do is essential – cropping fast growing species, churning the ground up and spreading the poo love. 

They are collected in the evening, and I wondered if they were waiting for their lift, which raises again my occasionally mused question that they must regard this as work, and knock off at a set time. 

Coos are more intelligent than we give them credit for, I feel.

Meanwhile, at the far side of the meadow, a small group of deer were loafing in the reeds. This place really is alive right now.

May 10th – Just in the Walsall Wood border country, a new leisure centre is being built at Oak Park, on the playing field of the earlier 1970s one. 

In the middle of a huge building site, I realise that now the election is over, that must be what they did with Ed Miliband’s block of stone.

Curious, but nice to know it’s not going to waste…

May 10th – On the canal in Walsall Wood, the obligatory heron was sourcing supper. Intently focussed on the water, it took no notice of me whatsoever. Such was the determination, I wondered if it had a young mouth or two to feed.

Despite waiting an age, the bird never struck, just kept on mesmerising it’s prey.

I hope it bagged some supper in the end.

May 8th – Coming along the canal past Grange Farm in Walsall Wood (just between Black Cock Bridge and Clayhanger Bridge) I noticed the small group of deer in the coppice belt between the towpath and fields. Sheltering from the rain, they hung around and although skittish, allowed me to take photos.

One of the deer (not pictured) appeared to have a nasty sore on her snout, which was sad. They appeared to be healthy otherwise, though.

May 8th – On the canal at Walsall Wood in steady rain, an interesting group of mallard crossbreed ducks, which I think are fed and loosely tended by a household near the water. I notice there’s mallard in there, of  course, but also white ducks and the one with the grey/blue bill suggests a ruddy duck is somewhere in that one’s genes.

That’s the thing about ducks, they’ll freely interbreed…

May 7th – I notice that on Jockey Meadows, the pasture field that’s genuinely a water meadow is now staffed by a heard of beef cattle again. About 10 or 12 large animals are browsing the scrub in an effort to maintain it – the cows eat the fast growing plants, and give the slow-growers chance. They also spread the fertile love in the form of cowpats.

Every time I passed them this week, the coos have been far over the other side. Only did I notice when I’d zoomed in that a passing heron was doing his bit too.

April 30th – I returned the same way, but the deer had moved on. This wee fellow though, was busy watching the ducks on the canal at the back of Barrow Close in Walsall Wood. I’m pretty much convinced it’s the same cat I spotted recently sheltering in the lee of a plant pot in the same area. He’s a fine lad with great whiskers and a collar with a bell – so clearly a bit of a hunter. But I think he was a bit ambitious with the mallards, to be honest…

April 27th – he was leaping after bugs in a field gateway in Green Lane, Shelfield. He was a bit peeved I spotted him, as he’s clearly a cat of some gravitas who doesn’t do that sort of thing. 

He glared at me just long enough for me to take this quick picture, then shot off over the fields. He looks like an adorable chap.