Monday 2nd January 2012 - Eymore Wood & Trimpley Reservoir

Today, Bev and I, popped out for our first walk of the New Year.  After the early morning rain the weather went rather nice with blue skies and sunshine, making the thought of a walk more appealing.  I tried to get her to do a walk around Shenstone but that was met with 'the look' ...so instead we headed a few miles up the road to Eymore Wood.

On arriving at the upper parking area we started checking the tops of the Larches for Crossbill.  There was no sign but there were a small number of Siskin and Goldfinch feeding in them.

We then took the footpath through the wood down to the Trimpley reservoirs.  There were a fair number of birds on the Settling Pool including 65 Tufted Duck, 1 Great-Crested Grebe, 44 Black-Headed Gulls, 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull and many Mallards.   Of note on the main Reservoir there were 4 Great Crested Grebe, 3 Cormorant and 27 Coot.

From the Reservoir we then walked along the adjacent River Severn.  Here we had the highlight of the day in the shape of 10 Mandarin Duck (5♂) that we watched for a while.  This stretch of the river and the reservoirs is a known wintering area for them and there are usually considerably bigger numbers here.  Perhaps the lack of a real cold snap has delayed them from flocking together en masse.

The walk back through Eymore Wood past Huntsfield Farm was fairly uneventful with only a Coal Tit, Nuthatch and a Great-spotted Woodpecker of note.

Still it was a pleasant walk even with the bank holiday masses seemingly everywhere.

Mandarin Duck (female)

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Mandarin Ducks

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