Last Saturday, in conjunction with Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust, Emma and Steve ran a poetry ‘walkshop’ around Fibbersley Nature Reserve in Willenhall, on the western edge of Walsall Borough. The walk was originally meant to take place in January of this year, but heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures then – and a lack of available dates after that – meant it was re-arranged for the end of March.
This turned out to be a blessing. The sun shone, there was blossom on the trees, and much of the reserve’s birdlife was announcing its presence (and claiming breeding territories) in song. Our diverse group of more than twenty writers, birders, walkers took a stroll through the reserve, we took time to pay attention to what we could see and hear, made use of the Merlin and iNaturalist apps to help identify what we were looking at or listening to… and heard blue tits, great tits, jays, chiffchaff, wren, and goldcrest among others. En route we also shared some nature poems, and took the opportunity to write some haiku in our various mother tongues, including Black Country, Japanese, and Persian. These were then written up on leaf-shaped pieces of paper and attached with twine to a poet-tree in the reserve (this was intended to stay up for a week, and we’ll be going along in the next few days to take them all down).
Walk completed, we made our way to Willenhall Memorial Park Pavilion for tea, coffee, and biscuits, learned about local projects aimed at boosting numbers of swifts, had the opportunity to have a go at some more creative activities, chatted with Wildlife Trust officers about how we think nature in Walsall could be boosted, and contributed to a group poem (reproduced below) before heading our separate ways after a wonderfully enjoyable morning.
People attended the ‘walkshop’ from all over Walsall, and some had even taken advantage of Willenhall’s brand-new railway station to come in from Birmingham! Our thanks to Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust for funding the event, and to everyone who came along to take part and enjoy a wander round one of Walsall’s finest nature reserves. If you missed out, try and make time to have a wander over Fibbersley if you’re in the area – it’s a gem of a reserve.
Fibbersley Local Nature Reserve
Fibbersley is bullace blossom ushering in the Spring
it’s forsythia in bloom, and comfrey creeping
it’s hawthorn and blackthorn and alder and beech
Fibbersley’s a pond full of frogspawn just out of reach
Fibbersley is robins and blue tits and bullfinch and wren
it’s the chiffchaff who fly here from Africa when
the days start getting longer and the first leaves appear
it’s the goldcrest and greenfinch you can’t spy but can hear
Fibbersley’s the call of the buzzard high up in the sky
it’s the newts in the ponds as the walkers stroll by
Fibbersley’s the silence of fishermen casting for bream
it’s the meditation of poets who sit here and dream
Fibbersley is rain hitting water, it’s wind in the trees
it’s the barking of foxes, the buzzing of bees
it’s badgers at night, it’s owls hunting for voles
it’s nature reclaiming where men once dug coal
Fibbersley’s open to all, and it’s Willenhall’s gem
come down and enjoy it, and then come back again.
Steve Pottinger 28 March 2026
