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.