Nice walk around Shustoke Reservoir today with the highlights being a very rare sighting at this location of an Oystercatcher in flight, actually seeing a Grey Heron at the reservoir which unfortunately has been a rarity over the last couple of years, having a very close encounter with a splendid looking Green Woodpecker which looked extra nice in the bright sunshine, still having hundreds of House Martin present above the reservoir, seeing c.50 Cormorant in front of the sailing club and observing 70+ Little Grebe on the water, which is unusual at any location let this relatively small one.
Birds seen today were Kestrel, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, House Sparrow, Robin, Wren, House Martin, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Pheasant (cock), Pied Wagtail, Oystercatcher, Grey Heron, Cormorant, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Coot, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Mallard and Canada Goose.
Nice to still see butterflies still about as well, with Red Admiral and Small White seen today, equally as pleasing was the reemergence of Fungi, with Bracket Fungus, Shaggy Parasol and Sulphur Tuft.
Nice early morning walk around Plantsbrook Nature Reserve before it got too hot.
Plantsbrook is a great place to visit and have a nice relaxing walk around but not all that great for bird watching because you are under the cover of the trees for most of the time but all the same I did see a pair of Great Spotted Woodpecker take exception to a Nuthatch and proceeded to chase it away.
Birds seen today were, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Magpie, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Muscovy Duck, Mallard, Moorhen, Coot and Canada Geese flying overhead.
As soon as I got in the car this morning (in Birmingham) it started raining but I decided to go ahead with my planned trip to Cole End Park Local Nature Reserve in Coleshill which was probably just as well because I didn't see a drop of rain in Coleshill.
There was a nice mixture of birds seen along the river and around the fields most notably a fantastic flock of birds in among a decent stretch of hedgerow, I would say there were at least a hundred birds going on the noise they were making, birds included were, Siskin, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Blackbird, Dunnock, Robin and Wren and just yards down the river from that was a fine looking Little Egret fishing in the river as was a Grey Heron.
When I was walking from one field to another a Buzzard flew out from a small tree right in front of me, it looked absolutely huge, you can certainly appreciate the wingspan of this magnificent bird when you see it at such close quarters.
Birds seen today were, Buzzard, Siskin, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed, Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Wren, Robin, Pied Wagtail, House Martin, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, Blackbird, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Woodpigeon, Little Egret, Grey Heron and Mallard.
Worryingly there was a lot of building work being done through one of the fields, I'm not sure if the work was for overhead cables or the ill fated HS2, either way a large area which once contained wildflowers and nettles has now gone forever, which is a shame.
Also worth a mention in this post was the sighting of Tree Sparrows in Ansley on Saturday when I was on my way to Nuneaton and today I saw c.100 Canada Geese feeding on the grass in the grounds of Coleshill Manor.
