This article first appeared in the Annual Report of the Birmingham (latterly West Midlands) Bird Club for 1949. Bird names/ spellings were used as given:
MINWORTH SEWAGE WORKS.
The above works, which is one of several operated by the Birmingham Tame and Rea District Drainage Board, lies some eight miles north-east of the centre of Birmingham.
It covers an area of approximately one and a half square miles and is bounded by the villages of Minworth, Cudworth and Water Orton.
The main treatment plant comprises 43 acres of percolating filters well surrounded by trees and shrubs. Within the works' boundaries are also some abandoned gravel workings containing some reed pools.
All this vegetation and the presence of an abundant insect population encourages the annual visits of the usual summer migrants as well as supporting a good resident population.
A large area of marshy ground, known locally as the " Duckfield," was formerly an excellent site for observing waders and wild- fowl, but this was drained in 1944 and is now a dried-up field devoid of birdlife.
A special feature of the works in the summer is the presence of numerous Swifts, Swallows, House and Sand-Martins "hawking" for the small flies which breed in the filters and emerge in favourable conditions. The number of these flies has been drastically controlled in recent years by the application of insecticides to the filters, but so far the bird population does not seem to have diminished in consequence.
Over the last ten years some ninety birds have been logged, mostly in the summer months. The best time to visit the works is undoubtedly in April, May and June, when the summer migrants are in full song.
Permission to visit the works must first be obtained by writing to the Engineer to the Board, Rookery Park, Erdington, Birmingham, 24.
C.E.W.