Shard End Lake.

A trip out to Shard End Lake today partly for a change and partly because I had planned to go to Shustoke Reservoir but after a full days rain like yesterday large parts of the best birding territory would have been been largely impassable, so Shustoke is now down for Saturdays visit instead. Anyway, back to today which was a visit to Shard End Lake and a walk along a two mile stretch of the River Cole.

With Autumn now in full swing and the leaves dropping at a great rate there is definitely a much greater chance of seeing Blackbird, Robin, Wren and Dunnocks among the bare tree and hedgerows, which is probably why I saw many more Dunnock in one day than I've see in a while, which was nice being as the Dunnock is a massively underrated little brown bird, they have loads of charisma if you take out the time to observe them. As per usual at this site there were plenty of House Sparrow and Satrling present. On the water it was nice to see a small gathering of Shoveler, another bird which I love to take the time out and observe.

Birds seen were Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Wren, Robin, Starling, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Pied Wagtail, Cormorant, Grey Heron, Great Crested Grebe, Moorhen, Coot, Shoveler, Tufted Duck, Mallard and Canada Goose.