Wanderings in the Strangest Summer. Tittesworth Reservoir, 21st June 2020

 I accepted Natty's kind offer of a lift up to Severn-Trent's Staffordshire reservoir at Tittesworth, in the shadow of the Roaches, and was surprised to find the site heaving with people and their dogs, running everywhere including the foreshore, putting up the waders, including a small crowd of Oystercatchers, surprised and confused at their previously quiet habitat suddenly robbed from them. 
The woods were relatively quiet, and I escaped the throng as I walked away from the Visitor Centre. The carefully managed Wild Flower meadows were alive with meadow browns and Small Tortoiseshells, flying among the ox-eye daisies and the Orchids, and they were a beautiful sight in the sunshine.

Small Tortoiseshell, photographed in 2015. Diving into the archive to illustrate these as I was still waiting for my new camera. 

Most of the avian interest was to be found on the Western side of the Reservoir, where a patchwork landscape of copses and scrub, fringed by fenced off farmland, dominates. A disheveled and unwell-looking Willow Tit adult fed a noisy fledgling. According to the Collins, Willow Tit fledgelings produce loud begging calls, while the near-indistinguishable Marsh Tit is near silent in its youth.  The Willow Tit is a fast declining bird and it was sad to see the adult in such an unfortunate state, showing severe feather loss and the suggestion of avian pox around its face. I hope it survived long enough to see the youngster to independence and the disease was not transmitted between the two of them, as this charming little species needs all the breeding success it can get. 

A beautiful Little Ringed Plover scuttled back and forth beside the water's edge, and Common Terns fished gracefully. The banks were alive with midsummer flowers, foxgloves and Ragged Robin. 
I reconnected with Natalie and we paused a while on the Bridge, and watched a Common Sandpiper probing about in the mud, possibly a returning migrant. A distinctive shape, like an obese torpedo on hummingbird wings, a Kingfisher whirred by, as the Terns continued fishing in the open water.

A Kingfisher photographed in Suffolk in January 2020. 

Birds Seen: Canada Goose, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Great Crested Grebe, Grey Heron, Cormorant, Oystercatcher, Lapwing, Little Ringed Plover, Common Sandpiper, Black Headed Gull, Common Tern, Swift, Kingfisher, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Coal Tit + Fl, Willow Tit +Fl, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Swallow, Long Tailed Tit, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Goldcrest, Wren, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Robin, House Sparrow, Pied Wagtail, Chaffinch, Goldfinch. 

Butterflies: Meadow Brown, Small Tortoiseshell, Green Veined White, Red Admiral.