October 15th 2009

Last night was overcast and mild resulting in a good catch of moths including Yellow-lined Quaker but the low cloud turned to drizzle by the morning and when Mark Phillips and I arrived at Draycote Water the drizzle had become rain and visibility was appalling. Despite the conditions we spent 2hrs walking out to toft bay and back and managed a stunning Tree Pipit among the 60+ Meadow Pipits on toft bank, Snipe and a Kingfisher that spent 15 minutes fishing in toft shallows but very little else and were unable to locate the Lesser Scaup among the 250 Tufted Duck in the bay.
By the time we arrived back at the visitors centre we were drenched and cold so it was back to Rugby for twenty minutes in the tumble dryer then out again to Long Itchington for grapefruit with a side order of bacon and eggs.
Once heartily warmed the rain was slowing up so I decided we might be in for some movement if it stopped so we went back to the pond and walked out towards the valve tower.
Though colder than this morning and a damp feel to the air the visibility was much better and we managed to locate the Lesser Scaup off hensborough bank and from saddle bank we saw 33 Pochard, 22 Wigeon, 2 eclipse male Pintail and watched 4 Dunlin and a Snipe land on the inlet.
After getting better views of the Snipe and Dunlin from saddle bank a juvenile Raven landed just 20 feet away and took no notice of us and on our way back as the sky’s briefly brightened 3 Curlew and a Bar-tailed Godwit circled the reservoir before leaving to the south and another Dunlin arrived. Spent time in the country park but the clouded had darkened and nothing was moving.
Also seen were 2 Grey Wagtail, 4 Buzzard, Green Woodpecker and 48 Stock Dove

Richard