A Draycote Water visit on a foul day.

Being president of the Fair Weather Birders Club it was a brave decision I took this morning in deciding to go to Draycote Water when the weather was very poor.

There were two reasons why I decided to go the first being that all the regulars down there keep telling me you get some great stuff there when the weather is foul and secondly after cocking up the AF micro adjustment on my camera/lens on Tuesday and getting only crappographs at Brandon I was keen to see if my latest effort was OK.

Arrived at 10.00AM and well wrapped up I set off along Farborough Bank to the Spit.I immediately realised I had not wrapped up well enough because there was a freezing north westerly wind howling straight into me and within a few seconds I could feel my blood freezing up.Ice Station Draycote was back!!!

I was pleased to get a few shots of a couple of Meadow Pipits down on the grass bank.Pleased because the wind was making hard to steady the camera and the results were good enough to indicate that the latest micro adjustment was looking fine.

I finally struggled up to the Spit and met up with Richard,Mark and Francoise all of whom were struggling with the icy wind.They reported that nothing decent had been seen so far but there were a couple of Dunlin on the Spit foreshore and a lone Rock Pipit (this I did not see which is a shame as it would have been another Warks tick).

I soon had to make my way back before frost bite set in.On the walk back I was blowed if I could see any Rock Pipits but just as I had nearly got back to the centre I spotted 2 cracking looking Grey Wagtails drop down onto the rocks.The cold forgotten I then pursued them back up the pathway to try and get some shots but they kept moving on before I could focus on them.I gave up a bit later on when I realised that they had lured me nearly all the way back to the Spit.

I think I will think twice before I head back to DW if the forecast is bad.Mind you if something great dropped in I'd be off there like a shot.