Another trip to Draycote Water.

As I set off to Draycote Water on Tuesday morning I was still seething at being at a family lunch last Sunday when I received a text "8 Curlew Sandpipers in front of car park hide at Marsh Lane" and of course I couldn't go and it was only 3 miles away.

It was a superb morning when I got to Draycote and things got better when a Little Egret started to show off near the outlet.Here are a few shots

A little later I spotted this duck cruising along the Farborough bank which I correctly ID as a juvenile Shellduck.Got to get one right sometime!!!!

The best spot of the day was a cracking looking Sanderling that was near to Rainbow corner a little awkward to get a decent shot of but very nice to see inland.It attracted quite a few of the Draycote regulars Richard,Bob,Francoise,Kevin, Mark, Kath etc.

There were still several Ringed Plovers and a lone Dunlin along the foreshore of the Hensborough bank.

Where did all the waders go?

Seeing that Wednesday morning might be OK weatherwise I grabbed the chance to go out with the camera having been trapped in doors for a couple of days.This must be the worst August ever!!!!

With nothing decent been reported locally again I decided to go to Draycote Water (third visit on the trot so this blog might be getting boring).

Had some fun near the centre trying for shots of some Swallows zooming around (and failing) and some juvenile Pied and Yellow Wagtails which were hiding amongst the yachts (had a bit more success than with the Swallows but not much more).

I then pressed onto where the waderfest was on my last couple of visits ie. the Hensborough bank foreshore however on my walk right up to the outfall I never saw one wader.Where the hell had they all gone!!!! In a 2 hour stay I struggled to find a couple of Dunlin and juvenile Little Ringed and Ringed Plovers.So nothing new to post I'm afraid.

Another Waderfest at Draycote.

The weather had forced me to stay indoors on both Friday and Saturday so,when the it looked much better on Sunday morning,I raced over to the only local patch that was on form Draycote Water arriving pretty early for me at just after 8.00AM.

I headed straight away to the Hensborough bank where the foreshore there last Thursday had loads of waders on show.It was the same on Sunday morning with the rocky foreshore from the start of the wall right up to the outlet being the place where the waders were showing again including numerous Ringed/Little Ringed Plovers, 3+ Common Sandpipers, 4 Dunlin, 2 Ruff and 2 Turnstones.

Here are a few shots of the Ruffs incl. my attempts of flight shots.

Here are some shots of the Turnstone which I found tricky to get a decent shot off maybe because it was very bright well that's my excuse).

Here are some shots of the other waders that were worth keeping.

Left click on the shots to enlarge.

A Trip to Draycote Water.

I had not been over to Draycote Water for several months so early on Thursday morning I set off there hoping the sunny start to the day would keep going.

Things went well to start with but as I got near the turn off to Rugby on the A 45 the road ahead was closed so some quick map reading got me going down some country lanes but I got there in the end.Mind you as soon as I left the car park to start my walk the sun went in and it started to cloud over (got it wrong again weatherman!!!!).

Despite these early set backs I had a good day which began straight away with me finding a couple of Ruffs by the pontoons just past the centre.I don't think I've seen any of these other than on the coast so very nice to see.

The water was low so,as I started to walk along the Hensborough bank,there was a muddy rock strewn foreshore exposed.It was on one small area of this foreshore I spotted some waders busily feeding.A quick count revealed 16 waders in a very small area including 3 Common Sandpipers,4 Dunlin and 9 Ringed Plovers.It was like being at Cley or Titchwell. Also in the same area were 3 juvenile Yellow Wagtails. Not bad for the first 30 minutes of my walk.

Things couldn't keep up at this pace and went downhill a bit because all I saw on my walk to the inlet was the long staying Egyptian Goose that was posing for photos on the wall.

In my 4 hour stay I did not see another birder but on the walk back I met up with Francoise and we enjoyed all the waders that were still on the same bit of foreshore on the Hensborough bank.

Another local trip.

As the sun was shining on Monday morning I thought I must get out there with the camera particularly as the forecast for the rest of the week was poor.Picking a place to go was hard as there is nothing decent locally except at Draycote Water where things have picked up lately.

However as it was windy in Knowle it was likely blowing a gale at Draycote so I chickened out and went to Brandon Marsh where at least I would bump into some friends.

As expected it was another quiet day at Brandon with very little showing both from the hides and from a walk round the reserve so as usual I ended up in the Carlton hide where a few friends had also ended up.It was very quiet which was a shame as it was very bright ideal for getting some decent shots.

A Kingfisher showed up a few times which prevented complete boredom setting in but how many shots of KF's do you need.Shouldn't moan at all really as most reserves never see KF's at all.

A Sparrowhawk flew in and threatened to land on one of the perching poles but changed it's mind at the last second and flew through.A Water Rail did show well for a few seconds in front of the hide but when it flew across to the right hand reed bed it caught me out and I missed out on a decent flight shot. I was pleased to get some Water Rail shots because somehow I'd managed to delete all my shots of them on my computer.

Sunday morning at Marsh Lane.

As soon as I saw that the rain had stopped at last I went over to Marsh Lane early on Sunday morning.

A visit to all the hides had produced very little to point the camera at but a second visit to the Oak hide produced a few Sedge Warblers quite near the hide darting around in the reeds.Here are a few shots.

This bird landed on the fence right next to the hide and when I took the shot I thought it was a Sedge Warbler but it's not is it????? A Willow Warbler?????

Also from the Oak hide and thanks to Brian I was eventually able to take some shots of the Garganey that I had not been able to find on my last two visits which is no wonder really as it's a bit hard to ID (well it is for me).I'm not sure if it's a female or a male in eclipse???

The only other bird of interest was a Common Sandpiper which was the first I'd seen for several months.