Shustoke Reservoir.

Great to have a trip out to North Warwickshire today to visit Shustoke Reservoir where the weather was perfect for a spot of much needed birding. 

It was just a pity there wasn't a lot of birds around but it was nice to start the day with a sighting of Goldcrests and Song Thrush in the car park, then it was off the water where there were plenty of Lapwing, Little Grebe, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Mallard and Canada Goose, also seen to the left of the reservoir there was a Kestrel (unsuccessfully when I observed it) hovering above the fields looking for prey. 

On the area around the Fly-Fishers Pool all of the following were spotted, Nuthatch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Wren, Mute Swan, Cormorant, Tufted Duck, Mallard and Moorhen, Great Crested Grebe and plenty more Little Grebe.

Birds seen today were, Kestrel, Goldcrest, Nuthatch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, House Sparrow, Starling, Wren, Robin, Song Thrush, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Cormorant, Pied Wagtail, Lapwing, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Great Crested Grebe, Little Grebe, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Pochard, Moorhen, Coot and Canada Goose.

If you follow my Twitter account you'll already know I've been having a horrendous time with a Sparrowhawk because it's been far too successful in taking birds from my garden especially my House Sparrows, since it's last observed kill on Monday 9th October the gardens been as quiet as I've ever known it, no bird song and virtually no visiting birds, even the Sparrows that do come get one seed from the feeders and they then dive into the pyracanthas, you can literally see how scared they've become, I've gone from filling up the feeders twice a day to not even having to fill them up at all in a whole week even the sunflower hearts in a globe that hangs in the tree aren't being touched, so it looks like the Sparrowhawk has won the battle in my garden but lost the war because there's nothing visiting for it to kill anymore and of course I'm the loser as well because I'm not having the pleasure of feeding the birds or even observing them, I know it's nature but it's just a shame as the whole situation has seen no winners in my opinion. 

Kingsbury Water Park.

Great visit to Kingsbury Water Park today where summer is clearly a thing of the past and autumn has now well and truly arrived which is great because it's a great time of the year especially at the onset of rhe season.

Great to see a sizeable amount of Mute Swan, Great Crested Grebe, Greylag Geese and even House Martin were still present.

With the leaves falling off the trees at a rate of knots it's lovely to see the Tits and Finches a bit more clearly but strangely enough I didn't see or hear a single Blackbird.

Birds seen today were, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Robin, House Sparrow, Starling, House Martin, Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Cormorant, Great Crested Grebe, Moorhen, Coot, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Greylag Goose and Canada Goose.

Now we've that moment that just has to be done on occasions...moan time...Even though there are a lot of locations where there are teasels I don't know why someone has taken it upon themselves to cut down large swathes of the plant for what seems to be no good reason, especially to do it at this time of the year.

Pity I didn't see a lot of Fungi but there's still plenty of time for that.