Shustoke Reservoir.

Great trip to Shustoke Reservoir in North Warwickshire even if the for majority of the visit it was very windy and overcast.

Highlights of the day was seeing and hearing my first Chiffchaff of the year, not only were they audible before I got out of the car but they could be seen and heard all around the reservoir, the fly-fishers pool as well as the farmers fields, another highlight was my first ever sighting of a pair of Long Tailed Tit copulating, not only was it great to see it was like a lot of things in life in that it was short and sweet also in the same locale there was a wonderful sight of a Treecreeper heading upwards on a tree, also nice to see where the water levels returning to a more healthy state with the reservoir almost completely full even if there wasn't too much waterfowl residing on it, there was also the double edged sword of the lovely sight of the water birds nest building which is always a pleasure to see at any location but the birds here find it notoriously hard to successfully raise any young what with there being no suitable places to build a nest and the sailing club using the water, any nests they do actually build on top of the fishing net floats are always destroyed by any heavy rain and/or string winds which is heartbreaking to see especially if they had eggs or very young birds on the nest.

Birds seen today were, Buzzard, Chiffchaff, Treecreeper, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Dunnock, Wren, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Carrrion Crow, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, Cormorant, Mute Swan, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Pochard, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Coot and Canada Goose.

As of today there is a £1 car parking charge to visit the reservoir which is ironic because the place was an absolute tip with rubbish strewn everywhere including many nappies, to be fair the worker from Severn Trent who was picking up the rubbish he recently caught a woman throwing a nappy on the floor and she informed him 'What's the problem I'm keeping you in a job', sounds as charming as the horrible neighbours that I have to endure. Let's hope that some of the car parking charge goes into combating the litter, flytipping, drug taking and the general all round crime that appears here.