Places to see birds

Brueton Park

Solihull is blessed with a number of pleasant parks, the two best being Brueton Park and Elmdon Park. The former, at first glance is a typical urban park, with a lake, open grassed areas and borders, which with the adjacent Malvern Park reaches virtually into the town centre. But there is much more to it than this. Firstly the river which runs through the lake is the Blythe, which is a SSSI and one of the places in Solihull where there is a reasonable chance of spotting kingfisher. In recent times it has proved a good place to see lesser spotted woodpecker. Secondly within the park is Warwickshire Wildlife's Parkridge Centre, which besides being a welcome spot for coffee and cake gives accesss to a small nature reserve with a pool and good numbers of woodland birds. However the main attraction of the park lies to the south of the formal park and is a large wetland of reed, sedge and shrub. Grey heron, reed bunting, kestrel and green woodpeckers are often seen. Warblers including whitethroat are common in spring and summer and snipe are present in winter. Between this area and the Blythe is a good strip of woodland with greater spotted woodpecker, nuthatch, treecreeper,goldcrest and willow tit all present. If you are feeling fit it is possible to walk across fields to the M42 but, of course, the nearer you get to the motorway, the more the traffic noise impinges on the wildlife.