Shustoke Reservoir.

A trip out to Shustoke Reservoir was the order of the day today. It was overcast and blustery, then bright and sunny and then reverted back to being overcast and blustery again. I had a walk around the reservoir, then along the river, then around the open grassland, then along the train tracks, then a short walk around the newly found Colin Teall Wood (which is now down for a future explore) then back the the reservoir, then a walk around the Fly Fishing Pool and then finally around the woodlands and the farmers fields and obviously ending back at the reservoir. All birds spotted were, Kestrel (a pair hunting in the same field) Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Bullfinch, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Redwing, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Robin, House Sparrow, Pheasant (Cock) Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Teal, Pochard, Wigeon, Pekin Duck, Tufted Duck, Mute Swan, Mallard, Coot, Canada Goose, Black Headed Gull and Cormorant. In the farmers field I saw a very impressive flock of 100 plus Goldfinch and then seconds later an equally impressive flock of 100 plus Redwing. The Coal Tits I saw were having a great time extracting the seed from fir cones, Coal Tits are another one of those birds that are underrated, I love to see them, very charismatic little bird. The lone Pekin Duck on the Fly Fishing pool seems to have fitted in nicely with his new mates, the Mallards, lets hope he's okay on there and finds solace with his new buddies. Strangely enough I didn't see a single Grey Squirrel today, in fact the only wild animal I saw was a Rabbit. I didn't actually see any Moles but I saw hundreds of mole hills though, they are always a regular feature at Shustoke. Another notable thing about today was the amount of insects around, they were constantly buzzing around your face, also the amount of plant life about, like very lush nettles and even some daffodil shoots coming through, it was more like a Spring Day than early January.