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Chirp & Chat
Welcome to the West Midland Bird Club community forum
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Hello! Im a new member and looking forward to visiting the reserves, out of curiosity is there an for want of a better phrase "opening" time, obivously I know with bird watching earlier tends to be better, but Im not one to cross any lines, I couldnt see anything on the belvide page about times or when i was reading through codes of conduct
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Compiled from daily sightings – Belvide Reservoir, May 2026. With thanks to Steve Nuttall for collating the Belvide Bird Blog.
May 2026 was an exceptional month at Belvide Reservoir, producing a remarkable mix of scarce migrants, breeding successes and record-breaking sightings. Here are the highlights:
Major Rarities
Great Reed Warbler (8–10 May)
Only the second record for Belvide and fourth for Staffordshire.
Bonaparte's Gull (11–21 May)
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Thank you to all of the WMBC for expressing interest and showing support to the LadyBirders! Whenever we're out and about we often get approached by WMBC members asking how we're getting on so here's a round up of some of the things we go up to in May: We had 9 scheduled walks and we visited places such as Earlswood Lakes, RSPB Sandwell Valley, Wyre Forest, multiple trips to the wonderful Belvide reserve for photography workshops with fellow LadyBirder Kerry France and we also visited our other the fantastic Ladywalk and Blithfield reserves. We also met up with one another for ad-hoc walks in local areas and reserves then a handful of us joined the WMBC coach trips to Minsmere and Ynys-Hir!We had a really exciting opportunity to be joined by ITV at Ladywalk for an interview that was aired on the local news (https://www.itv.com/watch/news/women-only-birdwatching-group-surges-in-popularity/82lp288) , we had a stal…
Excellent write up Becky and what wonderful photos all, Kerry has definitely worked wonders in her photography workshops.
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A couple of photos from recent visit to Grimley lakes.
Reed warbler & kestrel seen while walking along road back to car.
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Are the hides at Blithfield owned/maintained by the Club? If so, are there any work parties scheduled? Some of the hides are the worse for wear and need some tlc.
Dave Brown
Hi Dave - thanks for your post - the terms of the license we have with SSW means that SSW are responsible for doing any major maintenance (H&S, working from height / chainsaw type work and WMBC pays for the materials - I guess the question might be to do with the reroofing of the Forward and SW hides - we bought the materials some time ago and we have been promised that the work would be completed several times - including this week. As there are multiple small jobs - locks / latches, wood treatment that it is unlikely that SSW won’t get round to them we now have 3 volunteers - room for a fourth if you fancy. I’ll be meeting SSW shortly with other trustees to apply what pressure we can to get the major works completed. Feel free to give me a call if you want to discuss further with best regards Mark
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Please see attached sightings at Blithfield for May. Many thanks as always to Peter Betts for collating with best regards Mark
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See the blog page for a PDF download of the full report.
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See the blog page for a PDF download of the full report.
Be aware that some of the lanes are narrow and some nasty potholes. But it’s a nice reserve .