Great visit to Shustoke Reservoir even though I'm going to start with a moan, yet again it's about irresponsible dog owners, I'd been at the waters edge for less than two minutes after putting seed down for the water fowl when this dog came bounding out of nowhere and chased all the birds back into the water, even though I didn't speak to the owners, I did raise my arms in the air in utter disbelief and then then I heard the male say it was my fault because the dog (Rex) was after the 'food', not forgetting that dogs are supposed to be on a lead at all times at this location, which brings me to my second encounter less than three minutes after that one, true to my word I ignored a woman who spoke to me because her dog (Archie) was running wantonly over the place, so when I made a comment to the person I was birding with, the woman shouted back that the dog was under control so it was okay to which I informed her that she was throwing a ball so the dog wasn't under control and I was told not to be so pedantic and she then informed me dogs don't have to be on a lead but just kept under control, when I told her about the previous encounter I'd just had she said 'don't be silly my Archie doesn't chase birds', that's the same Archie that was just chasing around like a maniac when it should have been on a lead. The following three photos are the thee signs pertaining to dogs at the reservoir at the entrance she came in, I'm pretty sure they say dogs must be kept on a lead or maybe it's just me being 'silly'.
At least after those encounters it was all good, one half of the reservoir was bathed in sunshine while the other was foggy and misty, in fact the last photo below is actually in colour, it only looks monochrome through the mist.
Before I'd even got to the reservoir there was plenty to see around the car park area, plenty of House Sparrow could be heard near the houses, male Blackbirds were fighting all over the place which is also happening a lot in my back garden, I also got really close to a female Blackbird which seemed strange until I got closer and I noticed it was clearly blind in it's left eye so I left it to forage in among the leaf litter, the air was full of birdsong especially some very vocal Mistle Thrush of which I saw one with the biggest worm I've ever seen and just as I was leaving to get to the reservoir a Sparrowhawk darted passed me towards where the small birds where near the boat house, towards the end of the walk it was great to hear Skylark singing in the farmers fields.
On and around the water, I saw a Little Egret which is a bird I've never seen here before then I saw a Grey Heron which I haven't seen here for years, saying that I do see them on the fly-fishers pool which is the direction it was flying towards. It's always nice to see but sad at the same time the two resident Canada Goose with angel wing, at least I do the decent thing and feed them seed. Around the waters edge I normally only see Pied Wagtail so it made a pleasant change to see Grey Wagtails instead today. It was also great to see plenty of Little and Great Crested Grebe on the water, hopefully they'll have better success in breeding than they do most years at this site. I also saw what maybe my last sighting for a while of Redwing, who sadly were all flushed out of the trees by a passing freight train which runs adjacent to the reservoir on one side.
Birds seen today were, Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, Skylark, Nuthatch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Wren, Robin, Redwing, Mistle Thrush, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Collared Dove, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Magpie, Grey Wagtail, Cormorant, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Moorhen, Coot, Tufted Duck, Mallard and Canada Goose.
I can't be 100% possible that this is a crime but on the edge of one of the farmers fields I found the remains of a dead Rabbit hanging from a tree, seems strange whatever the reason is.
Nice visit to Shustoke Reservoir this morning even though the sun couldn't decide whether it wanted to come out or not, it was still nice and crisp all the same.
It goes without saying but there were a lot of small birds around the wooded area of the reservoir and surrounding areas today such as Tit and Finches, also birds in high numbers were Robin and Blackbird, in the water there were a lot of Coot, I'd say approximately about 300, shame there was only one pair of Goosander, still better than none at all though.
Birds seen today were, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Robin, Dunnock, Nuthatch, Starling, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Redwing, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Pied Wagtail, Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Cormorant, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Great Crested Grebe, Little Grebe, Goosander, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Coot and Canada Goose.
Sadly it's moan time again, namely that of the dog walkers at this location, even when I read other birding blogs from here I read the same comments as I'm going to make so I'm not alone in my thoughts, for starters they still ignore the signs about having dogs on a lead at all times and they have since day one, even worse than that they ignore the signs about blue algae being harmful or even fatal to dogs so in my opinion they couldn't give a damn about the poor beasts anyway let alone the birds that the dogs regularly chase back into the water and of course what goes hand in hand with letting your dog run wantonly everywhere, dog poo, don't get me wrong either it's not the dog's fault it's completely down to the irresponsible owners, when I'm out and about I never ignore anyone with the one exception of dog owners at this location who let their dogs run riot, so if you fall into this category and you say hello to someone at the reservoir and they ignore you, it may very well be me.
As you can see I've finally paid Ward End Park and pool a visit and on the whole the pool improvements don't look too bad, the water in the 'corner' by the main entrance was filthy and full of litter but surprisingly the rest of the water was looking good, the islands were a bit of mixed bunch, at least they are still there for starters as I feared they would have been leveled, in my opinion they have been a bit harsh with the cutting back of the trees but on the other hand if the works being down and you have the access maybe it was the right thing to do, at least the waterfowl still have decent access to the islands because when passing on the road it doesn't appear that way, the corner of the wooded area by the boathouse has remained untouched and hasn't been touched for years because that's where the junkies throw their discarded syringes and according to Birmingham city council 'we like to leave that area as a natural habitat for the wildlife' even though they know it's full of highly dangerous needles, and that's a direct quote so if anyone from the council wishes to call me a liar, feel free to contact me over the issue and I'll discuss it, you won't though because you've always treated me with utter contempt, you even called me a liar to my face in my own house even though I had a Councillors backing, anyway I digress, God help you if wander into that area unknowingly.
What about the birds I hear you say, nice to see that House Sparrows are still present near the houses as are Great Spotted Woodpecker around the pool, a very pleasant surprise was to see Stock Dove, a bird you don't see a lot of in Birmingham, sadly on the pool there wasn't a single Coot, they must have gone when all the maintenance was being done, hopefully they'll return before the breeding season starts again.
Birds seen today were, House Sparrow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Robin, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blackbird, Collared Dove, Stock Dove, Feral Pigeon, Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Mute Swan, Moorhen, Mallard and Canada Goose.
