It's a small little world when you are a ladybird

Before I attempt to start writing a blog I would like to say that it probably won’t be grammatically correct, my sentences will probably be too long (who needs to breath whilst reading anyway?), my photographs won’t be great (you might need to use a little imagination to work out what is in the photo) and I must confess that I am still trying to work out all this blogging technology stuff, I thought Twerking was something related to Twitter!.

I would be grateful if just one person spends a bit of their time reading my ramblings because (Cliché alert) all that matters to me is my message getting across. I want to get rid of the view that ‘There is no wildlife in Birmingham and the Black Country’ because Birmingham and the Black Country (B&BC) are truly wonderful places for seeing wildlife and I can prove it.


This weekend I went for a walk around RSPB Sandwell Valley reserve, it is not far from where I live and is part of the wider Sandwell Valley. I love Sandwell Valley. It is like my second home I am always surprised by the wildlife I see there. In the past I have seen a Great Spotted Woodpecker feeding chicks in its nest in a hole in a tree, a Skylark singing above grassland, juvenile Grey Herons in a Heronry, a Great Northern diver on Swan Pool and this weekend I managed to see a ladybird laying its eggs. I forgot to mention that the M5 goes straight through the middle of the Valley and you can see the BT tower in Birmingham from the RSPB reserve yet wildlife is plentiful here despite the urban landscape.  I can’t go a couple of weeks without a visit to Sandwell Valley and RSPB Sandwell Valley reserve yet five years ago I didn’t even realise that the RSPB reserve existed.

These are the ladybird eggs - they were better viewed close up

I am quite ashamed to admit that I have not always had an interest in birds and other wildlife. People who know me may be surprised by this because now I spend my weekend’s bird watching, I record the birds that visit my garden, volunteer with RSPB Sandwell Valley and recently became a trainee with the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country.

I wish that I could say that my interest in wildlife stemmed from my childhood if reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar and loving listening to Mallard ducks pecking on the side of my grandparent’s narrow boat counts then it probably did but I was the child that always ran away screaming when I came across a spider (I have sort of got better with age).

At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter when you start getting into wildlife and believe me it does become an obsession. I know that it is not just me that is crazy about the wildlife in B&BC because there are a lot of committed wildlife enthusiasts and ‘birders’ around the midlands some that helped with my knowledge of birds and started my addiction.

 I can’t just go for a quick walk because when you realise the wildlife that is on your doorstep, in your Local Nature reserve or park you start to see everything and wonder what is was that you just saw out of the corner of your eye.  I sometimes find myself having to reassure my friend that I am listening to what they are saying but I am sure I have just heard a Buzzard calling. Oh and then there are the sleepless nights because I have seen something that I can’t identify and google can’t tell me what that brownish finch or was it sparrow shaped bird was or I can’t remember the name of the rare beetle that was on the TV (I remembered it was a Tansy Beetle Phew!).

I just want to share my love for wildlife and hope that I can help people find their place where they can get close to nature because being obsessed with wildlife is so enriching. There is always something to look forward to like the return of swallows and swifts in the Spring/Summer and the emergence of butterflies and dragonflies to flocks of red wing in Autumn/Winter. Plus you don’t need to be an expert and be able to put a common and/or Latin name to the wildlife you see it can just remain a white- yellowish plant, you see once you enter the natural world you will never want to come back.