December 29th

Draycote Water
Very strong winds and heavy rain last night so out early on bike wrapped up to take on the elemients but had extreme difficulty in finding any birds and it took me three hours to locate the Lesser Scaup first winter male and male Smew in grays barn tucked up against the shore underneath the willows. The conditions made very poor viewing - far to choppy for my delicate stomach and bloody hard to cycle in. I managed to hear a Rock Pipit flying over hensborough bank and at least 3 Ruddy Duck, 100+ Cormorants, 230 Great-crested Grebe, 16 Goosander, 120 wigeon, 50 Teal, 10 Gadwall and two Kingfisher were logged. On the way out via cycle route 41 between toft shallows and M45 there were at least 10 Siskin.

Second visit to do roost with John Judge. The winds seemed stronger and more westerly but the light was appalling and we were joined by Jeff Wesson who was more on the ball than we were and managed to find at least two Yellow-legged Gulls. Poor return considering it was one of those rare evenings when the gulls were much closer than they normally get.

More rumours - Slavonian Grebe valve tower and female Smew toft bay but no one seems to know who actually saw them. Will have to wait - on one of my rare trips out of county tomorrow.

Richard