Tag: watermead

May 18th – On the way home, I checked out the Watermead swan family, still with 9 healthy cygnets, enjoying the sun near the canal overflow opposite Silver Street.

They all seem in good health, and the parents are very attentive. I think they’re too large now to be of interest to the local herons, but I hope mum and dad are vigilant for brer fox. 

We usually lose one or two – let’s hope we don’t this year. Such a fine family.

May 13th – Returning to Brownhills, I noted the new families are arriving thick and fast. At Catshill junction, a pair of proud Canada geese with a huge brood of 13 goslings, all seeming in good health. At Silver Street, the Watermead swans have 9 cygnets – all busy little balls of grey fluff.

I love to see the waterfowl breeding, and the antics of the chicks.

April 2nd – Elsewhere around Clayhanger and Brownhills on this golden afternoon, momma swan was still giving me the evil eye from her nest on the canalside by the Watermead estate, but she did pause to stand and turn her eggs. The crested grebe still seems happy pottering on the canal near Walsall Wood, and continuing the mad, unsynchronised spring Spanish bluebells are flowering in a hedgerow at Clayhanger Common.

Spring is well underway, it’s warming up at last and everything is starting. Fantastic!

March 26th – Ah, spring’s escapement lurches, and the wheels of the season click forward a notch – the swans are nesting again at the Watermead Estate in Brownhills.

They seem to be in the same spot as last year, which is pretty well protected from vermin and out of reach of all but the most determined threat; I can’t be sure it’s the same birds, but it seems likely as a pair have nested here near the houses and canoe club for a good few years now. 

Last year’s brood was large and successful – let’s hope for the same this year, and mum seems to be sitting already!

September 14th – Also prolific at the moment are the squirrels, who are eating for winter. Near the Watermead estate on the towpath by the hazel  hedge, the way is littered with expertly nibbled shells, harvested for their fatty, milky goodness by the grey, furry nut-bandits.

There’s a real feeling at the moment of nature preparing to shut down for winter.

August 19 – Some folk, of course, don’t even notice the rain and carry on regardless. After all, when you live on the water, what difference does a drop more make?

This cygnet – one of the Watermead family, still apparently in rude health – was just getting some greens as I splashed past near Silver Street.

I love the way these shoots are constantly cropped by the swans – it’s like their own little grazing patch.

July 13th – I haven’t seen these guys for a while , and my goodness, they’ve grown! These are the Watermead swan family from Brownhills, and they came over to see if I had any food as I passed Clayhanger Bridge.

I was glad to see they still number five, and interesting to see the very beginnings of adult plumage forming on the growing cygnets.

Here’s to another successful year!

June 13th – So, the Watermead cygnets are down to five – this is definitely the family, spotted today near their nest. They started with seven and have lost two, which isn’t too bad – most likely to predators of some sort. The youngsters are growing well and seemed happy and healthy (as far as I could tell, anyway).

It’s so good to watch the local wildlife mature like this. You almost develop an attachment to the birds as they get older.

May 24th – The Watermead swan family in Brownhills are doing just fine, after the loss of a single cygnet soon after hatching. The remaining six are looking healthy and growing well when I saw them in the evening. Mum and dad are clearly protective, but aren’t shy to show off their charges, either!

Meanwhile, on the canal towards Aldridge, a small but perfectly formed mallard mum with four cute little ducklings.

A joy to see all these young birds at the moment.