Babbs Mill Lake in the Kingfisher Country Park

A Christmas Day morning walk on Friday 25th December 2020 around Babbs Mill Lake. Located in Kingshurst, Solihull within Babbs Mill Jubilee Park. Which is now a satellite park of the Kingfisher Country Park, which stretches from East Birmingham into North Solihull. The lake and park was named after the nearby Babbs Mill, which dates to the 18th Century.

Babbs Mill Lake

Heading towards Kingshurst in Solihull on Christmas Day, 25th December 2020, for a walk past Babbs Mill Lake. The lake is man-made and is near the River Cole. It is located within the Kingfisher Country Park. But the local park it is within is now called the Babbs Mill Jubilee Park, which was formed in 1977 during the Queen's Silver Jubilee year. It was designated a Local Nature Reserve in 2002. The Kingfisher Country Park was declared in 2004, and was a joint venture between Birmingham and Solihull.

 

Babbs Mill Lake is named after Babbs Mill, which still survives to this day. It is a Grade II listed building dating to the 18th Century. It was named after the miller, John Babb, who died in 1651.

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First views of Babbs Mill Lake. We started the walk from the car park near Fordbridge Road.

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Island in the middle of the lake, seems like a lot of birds goes there.

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First view of the morning winter sun. This was not a sunrise or sunset, but the sun was pretty low in the sky.

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A ramp going off into the lake towards the geese and swans.

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At the end of the ramp was quite a lot of Canada geese. With the bright morning sunshine making it a bit dark here.

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Too the right was a lot of gulls on the railing. This was close to some picnic benches, where I saw pigeons on them as well.

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More of the morning sunburst off centre to the right.

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Then off centre to the left.

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A line of four trees making nice shadows with the sun behind to the left.

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A newly laid footpath curves around the lake to the right.

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The path doesn't seem quite finished. Plus was another section with unfinished tarmac. But saw the odd graffiti tag that will need removing by the local Council.

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Can't get enough of that sunburst! Wow!

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Sunburst to the left of the lake.

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Sunburst to the right.

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We only went around two sides of the lake. Was a muddy path after this.

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The lake from the muddy path.

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We turned back, and instead headed up the path towards Shard End (leading to Packington Avenue). The Birmingham / Solihull border is somewhere to the left of here.

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Later walking back to the car park, got a few more shots, including the sunburst again.

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The sun was now directly behind that line of trees, making incredible shadows!

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Coming back saw a couple of Domestic geese near the lake, got this shot of one on the grass.

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I didn't see any herons around Babbs Mill Lake, but later saw one coming into land near the Cole Valley Route in the Kingfisher Country Park. Not far from Packington Avenue in Shard End. This area is probably part of the Norman Chamberlain Local Nature Reserve.

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I only managed to get two photos of it, this second zoom in came out a bit better. But would have been nice to see it near the lake.

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Photos taken by Elliott Brown. Can be found on Twitter: ellrbrown