Plantsbrook Nature Reserve.

Early visit to Plantsbrook this morning where the highlights of the day were seeing not one but two Kingfishers on the first pool, that was until one took exception to the other and after a sixty second odd high speed chase around the pool, one decided to venture to pastures new, maybe on one of the other pools. The other was seeing an adult Grey Heron sunbathing, at first it was only doing it with one wing so I thought it was hurt but then it decided to treat me to it's sunbathing routine.

Birds seen were, Kingfisher, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Robin, Jay, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Grey Heron, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Moorhen, Coot, Tufted Duck, Mallard and the following juveniles, Grey Heron (1) and Moorhen (6).

Whilst picking up the litter I noticed a can a few feet away under the bushes and thought to myself that it looked a can of Quatro, even though it was covered in crap I was still sure it was the logo, upon closer inspection it was, for those that don't know Quatro was a fizzy beverage made from pineapple, orange, passion fruit and grapefruit. It was produced from 1982 until 1986, so the can I found must have been one of the later ones because of the best before date being May 1988, It's not very often that a piece of litter gives you a blast from the past. It also shows that when people drop litter, especially stuff that doesn't biodegrade, that it can hang around for many many years, at least 26 years in this case, who knows if I hadn't found it, it could have been there for another 26 years. It has now won a place in my collection of useless crap that for some reason just has to be kept.

Here's a couple of related links for you,  a picture from Flickr of a Grey Heron sunbathing,  just like the one today and also a link for a Quatro television advert from 1984.

The poor little Fudge cat has had to endure another encounter with the dreaded cat box and a trip to the vets. Unfortunately she snapped one of her main teeth at the top and has had to have all but two of her teeth removed, she's now only got one at the top and one at the bottom and none at all on the sides, but at least she came through the anesthetic okay and can eat normally enough. The pictures above are from when she still had her gnashers.