Shustoke Reservoir.

Today was a perfect morning to pay a visit Shustoke Reservoir in Nortth Warwickshire what with the lovely blue skies and before it gets too hot later in the week.

If there's juvenile birds present that's always a great place to start so here goes, easily the highlights were baby Blackcap, Nuthatch and Whitethroat, I love to see all juveniles birds but don't always get the chance to see those three, especially in the same trip out, there was also an abundance of Pied Wagtail and Mallard (forty eight juveniles!) also spotted was Blue Tit, Long Tailed Tit and Carrion Crow.

In the fields adjacent to the reservoir there were two hunting Kestrel, also nice to see was a Grey Heron around the waters edge which is strangely a rarity here these days, close to the car park there were at least three Common Sandpiper, another bird you'd think you'd see here all the time but you don't, for some reason this year there are also double figures of Common Tern present where most years you only see a couple at a time, it was also nice to see three Greylag Goose among a large number of Canada Goose, sadly I didn't see a single Swallow or Swift and the House Martin numbers were very low which is a real shame, talking of sad news it appears that the two torrential downpours put paid to all the Great Crested Grebe and Coot nests on the reservoir, sadly it's a terrible location for nests, as any 'decent' amount of rainfall destroys the nests completely, all the same two Great Crested Grebe were nest building today.

Birds seen today were, Kestrel, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Robin, Wren, Dunnock, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Nuthatch, Whitethroat, Pheasant, Song Thrush, Jay, Collared Dove, Blackbird, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Cormorant, House Martin, Common Tern, Pied Wagtail, Common Sandpiper, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Great Crested Grebe, Coot, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose, Tufted Duck and Mallard.

In the farmers fields adjacent to the reservoir and the fly-fishers pool the farmer has appeared to have left large margins untouched and even though he/she hasn't appeared to have sown any wildflowers as there's too much grass present, beneficial wildflowers are flourishing all the same with birds foot trefoil, oxeye daisy, vetch and red clover among others already in full flow, lets hope it was a conscious decision to do so and remains the norm because all the butterflies and insects were clearly enjoying it.

I don't like to be negative but certain things have to be said, so.....

All the entrances have signs that say 'dogs must be kept on a lead and under strict control at all times', yet every time I go here I very rarely see a dog on the lead today, in fact I saw nine people walking the dog this morning and only one had them on a lead, these are probably the same people who park in 'disabled bays' when they are able, have been mixing with other people during the lockdown and who drop litter, we all know people like this and they are scum, pure and simple, so if you were one of those people who said morning to me today and I ignored you, it's not that I'm ignorant, it's just that I don't wish to give you 'people' the time of the day, which brings me to my second moan, people discarding wet wipes left, right and centre, what is wrong with you people, why would you want to visit a lovely place like this and leave your litter behind, especially when it's detrimental to the environment and wildlife and then there's people that litter PPE that they don't want/need anymore, you should be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves. The woman in the second photo who was throwing the ball for the dog near the wild fowl that included juveniles was very lucky I wasn't near enough to give her a piece of my mind.

Despite my little rant don't let that put you off visiting here as the good points outweigh the bad.