August 26th 2011

With a toss between a look at the pond or staying in and trying and sort out blogger which has not allowed me access for three days then the pond won and I was in biggen bay long before first light hoping for Wednesday’s owl but I had forgotten about the heavy rain forecasted.
As dawn broke 8 medium sized waders were on daisy island but the viewing condition were poor so carried on to draycote bank where a juvenile Garganey was with 9 Shoveler near the valve tower and female Ruff, female Goosander, 2 Greenshank and 4 Common Sandpiper between inlet and valve tower.
By the time I reached rainbow corner I was drenched and while watching another 8 Shoveler the wader flock from the island had moved to dunn’s bay so doubled back but they flew past me heading towards rainbow corner. At least one Knot among them while the others remained unidentified as they turned and headed back to the island.
After 4 hours it had not stopped raining and despite adding Kingfisher, Wigeon, Gadwall and adult Yellow-legged Gull to the day list I was fed up with sheltering under trees so headed for home but not before I had long distant views of Sanderling and a few Little and Ringed Plover species while the island had the Knot, 3 Dunlin and a Common Sandpiper. A Little Tern appeared from no where resting on P buoy while 2 Black Tern and a Common Tern were between lin croft point and toft bay.
With the rain getting heavier I spent some time sheltering in toft shallows near the M45 motorway bridge managing 2 Whitethroat, 2 Blackcap, 3 Willow Warbler and Great-spotted Woodpecker in the hedgerow.
I had hoped to go back out in the afternoon but after appearing to lift at mid-day the rain returned for the rest of the afternoon.
Draycote may get a lot of disturbance tomorrow, Sunday and Monday due to the tank fest going on in the adjacent fields – last year they were firing blanks and flushed of a few birds so go early.

Richard