Planstbrook Nature Reserve.

Nice early morning trip to Plantsbrook where there was plenty of songbirds around but not as much water fowl as I would have expected, but it was still nice to see the pair of Mute Swan have relocated here from Pype Hayes park in readiness to rear this years young even though they haven't made their nest yet unlike five Coots. The Great Crested Grebes also appeared to have paired up again also. There were also four Grey Heron present including one chased off by a very annoying woman's dog who was running wild, chasing any duck it could near as well as a nice couple who had there dog under control, she even kept shouting at the dog and telling it off like it was the dogs fault, put the dog on a lead if you can't control it, problem solved, it's not rocket science ! Sadly there was also the remnants of a poor Canada Goose who probably fell prey to one of the local foxes.

While I was watching the songbirds near bird tables, a Sparrowhawk darted in from the left hand side, I couldn't actually tell if it got a bird, hopefully not, either way the area fell silent for the next ten minutes until some brave Great Tits entered to forage again thus encouraging an influx of song birds back again.

Birds seen today were Sparrowhawk, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Chaffinch, Bullfinch, Reed Bunting, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Robin, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Great Crested Grebe, Moorhen, Coot, Tufted Duck, Mallard and Canada Goose.

I also got myself some nice wood in various states of decay to add to my log pile, most of the wood was quite rotten so will fit in nicely to my existing log pile. I've also got a bug box for the back garden to hopefully attract and give a home to Ladybirds, Lacewings as well as Mason Bees and Solitary Bees. I aslo liberated a nice bit of Holly for the back garden to give the birds some more berries in the Autumn and Winter.

I also have sad news that the seven Ruddy Duck at Witton Lakes have been killed by a sniper thanks to the Government led cull which has cost millions of pounds. You can read about the incident by clicking on the following link. Shame on anyone who backs or has had anything to do with the murder of these unsuspecting birds, who to my knowledge whenever I visited the lakes just kept to themselves and if anything stayed away from the other birds either sleeping or floating about on the water, in my personal opinion it's a complete disgrace but hey, who am I ?