Grimsbury Reservoir :: 05 June 2020

I decided to stay local today as the weather was not as settled, heading down to Grimsbury Reservoir for a pre-breakfast circuit. In the scrub to the left as I entered there were numbers of greenfinch, a goldcrest, house martins and a chiffchaff. There was quite a lot of action and I thought I could have stayed here for a while, but decided to keep going.

There were a couple of cars in front of the sailing club gates and when I got the reservoir I could see around six fishermen already within the fencing - not bad for 5.30am - maybe they were working later too. Soon I found two juvenile little ringed plover, both with their backs to me ... one did at least turn a little and give me an opportunity to take a record photo. One of the fisherman then decided to site himself towards the north of the site, flushing the two juveniles. As they spun out across the water, they were joined by an adult that must have been further ahead.

I got ahead of the fisherman and when I reached the top end, one of the juvenile LRPs dropped onto the waters edge; when I stepped into the longer grass I could get a better photo. As I stood, a wren called in the trees to my left - he gave me some good views, and seemed content to stay close.

I reached the scrub and brambles at the north end of the site finding numbers of whitethroat, both common and lesser. It proved impossible to get a photo of the lesser as they stayed in the undergrowth and I wasn't going to camp out until I got what might only be a record shot; however, a number of common whitethroat showed reasonably well. Some had the look of juveniles but appeared quite well advanced if they were.

I turned left to go into the edge of the wood and stopped to watch a couple of sedge warbler. As I stood, a grey squirrel walked up to me getting within about three or four feet. It obviously wanted to get passed me on the path. He stopped, unsure how to proceed - perhaps worried about social distancing rules. After a few tens of seconds it resolved its dilemma and just made a dash for it, almost jumping over my feet.

I continued down and under the bridge. On the other side I looked for any action across the water, and when I couldn't locate the singing sedge warbler I bore left. Ahead there was another singing sedge warbler, but it was flighty. As I stood in wait, a female whitethroat collected food for its young - the sun also came out.

I returned through the bridge and down toward the canal. As I passed an area with log pile I had two juvenile wrens with still fluffy heads. On the canal side I found chiffchaff and a grey heron.

Back up on the reservoir I headed back adding willow warbler and c.80 swifts feeding over the river. A peregrine passed overhead and didn't give any of us a second look. A handful of house Martin had also joined the swifts.

Sightings (28) included: blackbird, blue tit, canada goose, carrion crow, chiffchaff, dunnock, goldcrest, goldfinch, great tit, greenfinch, grey heron, grey wagtail, house sparrow, lesser whitethroat, little ringed plover, long-tailed tit, magpie, mallard, mute swan, peregrine, robin, sedge warbler, stock dove, swift, whitethroat, willow warbler, woodpigeon and wren.