Sutton Park N.N.R.

Wednesday 18th August 2010

I visited Sutton Park for a couple of hours today. It is an area of great natural beauty on the edge of the urban sprawl of Birmingham. The park is a mixture of woodland and Heath with the potential to support a wide variety of species of wildlife. The park is well used by the local population for walking, cycling and excercising dogs but there are still quieter areas where a number of migrants species can be found at this time of the year.
The walk around started well with a male Whinchat near the car parking area. Moving on 2 Spotted Flycatchers,the first of 6 in the area, were very active. A pair of Raven flew over and a Sparrowhawk was also seen. It took me some time to track down a single juv/female Common Redstart. There seemed to be relatively low numbers of Willow warblers and Chiffchaffs with only the odd Blackcap and Whitethroat. Finches too seemed to be more scarce than usual. I met Chris Cook with his go anywhere, fold-away bicycle who was also on migrant watch, but obviously aiming to cover alot more ground than I was.