A last minute change of plan.

My plan this morning was to pay a visit to Draycote Water a place I hadn't been to for ages mainly because I thought I might freeze to death with the winter we have been enjoying.

However,taking a quick look on the internet before I left,I stumbled upon Pete Walkden's excellent shots of the Slavonian Grebe that's been on the sailing club lake at the Top Barn Farm Water Sports Centre near Holt.So a quick change of plan had me zooming over to Worcestershire hoping the Grebe would be still there.

Luckily I found the right lake straight away and just as I started to scan the water a birder appeared from nowhere and said "I've been here for an hour and can't find it.It looks as though it has gone.I'm off " After a few swear words and mainly because it was a nice morning I decided I would hang around a while hoping it would turn up.

After a short while I noticed a small lake to the left of the main one so I strolled up to it and blow me down one of the three birds on the lake was the Slavonian Grebe!!!!!!! This other birder couldn't have checked out this lake.

What a cracking bird.I'd love to see one in summer plumage.I spent the next 90 minutes trying to get some half decent shots which wasn't easy as he stayed most of the time asleep on the side of the lake facing the sun so not good for taking shots unless you want to increase your collection of silhouettes.Attached are a few of my better ones.Click on them to enlarge.