A poor start but a great finish to a day's birding.

After some early morning shopping I went over to Draycote Water to try for the Black Redstart seen near the sailing club the day before.An hours search failed to locate it but having been entertained by the one at Coleshill a year or two ago I wasn't too bothered.

A walk down the Farborough bank was very disappointing and to put it crudely I saw buggerall so realising it was going to be a quiet day at Draycote I thought I'd rather stare at the reeds again and fail to see the Spotted Crake at Brandon Marsh.So off I went on the short drive down the A45.

Entered the East Marsh hide at 11.30AM to find it packed out with birders and to be told it had made two very brief appearances earlier that morning so I settled down to stare at the reeds.

Nearly three hours later there had been no sign of the Crake and the only moment of interest was when a Cetti's Warbler paid a visit to the reeds (no shots too quick for me).There were only five birders left in the hide three of which were togs.I was beginning to flake badly and worried about becoming brain dead and losing all feeling in my legs I was considering leaving the hide when all of a sudden the chap on my left shouted out "The Crakes out in the channel".

I immediately went into panic mode but eventually spotted it in my bins.Yipppeee!! a life tick.I was very surprised what a small bird it was.It seemed to be smaller than a Blackbird although it was a long way down the channel.

In my excitement at finally seeing it I had neglected to take any shots but I managed to rattle off a few before it scurried into the reeds.