Shard End Lake.

Had a very quick visit to Shard End Lake today while passing through the area and not being able to do anymore birding until next week, too many people having birthdays lately. The primary reason for the visit was too see if there were any new arrivals and I wasn't disappointed with a new family of seven Goslings and a single Coot chick which was about a month old. Birds spotted were House Martin, House Sparrow, Starling, Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Great Crested Grebe, Tufted Duck, Coot, Mallard and Canada Goose. There was also some spectacular large Yellow Bracket funghi (Leatiporus sulphureus) on a living deciduous tree, which is always great to see, especially when your not expecting to see any. As like last year the House Martins have set up nests in the eaves of the new houses in Shard End, it's great seeing and hearing them fly above the shops and houses even more so because most people are oblivious to there presence. I've also had Dunnock chicks in the garden in the past couple of days, I was actually getting a bit worried because hadn't seen many Dunnocks in the garden for about a month, but they was obviously busy raising their young. Also, if you disagree with DEFRA's proposed plans to spend up to £375,000 of taxpayers' money to trial Buzzard control methods for Pheasant shooting estates then you can download a protest letter here via this article in Birdwatch.