Saturday 21st January 2012 - Shenstone

A party of five 1st winter Mute Swans and a Great Crested Grebe were new arrivals at Captains Pool today (TS)

I decided to do a quick tour of the patch this afternoon.  I started at Witch Lane which seemed unbelievably quiet until I reached the cricket ground at the top of the lane.  At the ground, which never gets mentioned as there is very rarely anything there, there were 31 Redwing and 7 Blackbirds on the deck.  In the adjacent hedgerow were a small number of Goldfinch.  A Common Buzzard was also noted along Witch Lane, as were small numbers of Snowdrops that were coming into flower.

Heath Lane paddock was bird less, as was the model aircraft field, so I decided to head down to Stanklyn Lane.

At Stanklyn Lane paddocks there were 37 Fieldfare, c.60 Starling and 2 Green Woodpeckers present.  I then walked the footpath from Stanklyn to Captains Pool. In the hedgerow at the back of the 'carrot field' were 8 Corn Buntings and a ♂ Linnet.  Further down the footpath a flock of 12 Chaffinch were noted.  

At Captains Pool there were 4 Siskin and 2 Goldfinch in one of the alders near the dam.  On the pool the Great Crested Grebe was still showing but the Mute Swans were no longer present.

♂ Chaffinch - Shenstone
(photo from the archive)