Shustoke Resrvoir.

The trip to Shustoke Reservoir today was a very different tale of two birds, one good and the other bad. Quite literally on my first steps around the reservoir the Robin in the top picture appeared at my feet clearly looking for food so I treated him to some mealworms which obviously went down a treat, I left some for him by the fence away from the foot traffic and started walking around the water when I noticed a Black Headed Gull on the waters edge which I fully expected to fly off as I got closer, sadly it didn't because it was clearly dead, so I risked life and limb (I'm not exaggerating) trying to get near it to retrieve it, I eventually had to get there and back on my bum, which meant I ended up getting filthy, but it was worth it because you should know by now I don't just leave deceased animals if I see them, I brought a dead Black Headed Gull home from Birmingham city centre last week and buried in the garden, anyway the bird I found today had no external injuries whatsoever and looked like it had just died through the cold, I took it to a location around the Fly Fishers pool and buried in it's final resting place under the dead tree stump covered in moss in the last picture.

Highlights apart from the friendly Robin were seeing c.40 Redwing foraging on the grass in a field were horses are kept, also present on the grass were Song Thrush, Blackbird, Robin, House Sparrow, Dunnock and Chaffinch, it's always nice to see many different species of bird foraging in the same location. On the water it was nice to see Little Grebe, Gadwall, Wigeon and Pochard, on the fly fishers pool there were c.50 Tufted Duck and c.60 Pochard.

Birds seen today were Buzzard, Kestrel, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Robin, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Redwing, Song Thrush, Jay, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Pied Wagtail, Mute Swan, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Moorhen, Coot, Gadwall, Wigeon, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Mallard and Canada Goose.