Plantsbrook Local Nature Reserve.

Lovely visit Plantsbrook Local Nature Reserve this morning, especially as I went nice and early and had the place to myself upon arrival and the weather was great.

It's always great to see juvenile birds, so it was a pleasure from the off to be greeted by numerous Mallard Ducklings and juvenile Coots, even if they were constantly squabbling with each other as soon as I put some bird seed down for them, other juvenile birds seen were Wren, Blue Tit and Great Tit.

An absolute delight but very unusual sight was that of a Green Woodpecker in the meadow, I'm pretty sure I've never seen here before, especially strange though when you consider that they normally prefer grassland, maybe it came over from the adjacent Pype Hayes Park as that was very busy with dog walkers and there was no one in Plantsbrook, not until I turned up anyway.

There were a pair of Mute Swan but sadly there were no signs of a nest or any young, saying that the location where they were you would have been hard pushed to spot a nest anyway.

It was also great to see the meadow has been left untouched which was really nice to see, wildflowers seen were Heath Spotted Orchid, Meadow Crane's-bill, Bird's-foot trefoil, Red Clover, Cornflower and Cow Parsley.

Birds seen today were, Chiffchaff, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Mallard, Domestic Duck, Mallard, Moorhen, Coot and Canada Goose, also seen were the following juveniles, Mallard (22), Coot (16), Wren, Blue Tit, Great Tit and three nesting Coot.