Found some open water.

On Thursday morning when I saw that some more bad weather was on it's way for Friday onwards I thought I'd better go out with the camera and try and get some shots.Being shrewd for a change I decided to go to Draycote Water where the chance of some open water was higher than at the rest of my local patches.

When I got there at 10.30AM and started to walk down the Farborough Bank the good news was that it was calm and not too cold but the bad news was it was very gloomy and as I need bright conditions to get a half decent shot things were not looking good.Annoyingly only a few miles away there was blue sky but it stayed well away during my stay.

I soon met up with Francoise who told me the drake Smew was about a hundred metres this side of the spit so off I dashed to try for some shots.It stayed a bit far out so no decent shots but always nice to see and a nice Warwickshire tick.

After the Smew flew off towards the Valve Tower I walked a bit further along Farborough bank and was pleased to catch up with another of my favourite ducks some Goosanders.Got some reasonable shots of the females but the male I always seem to struggle with particularly in poor light.