A Smew in the fog.

I could not have picked a worse day to go on my first visit for many months to Draycote Water if I had tried.Why ? Because the place was shrouded in thick fog all morning.

I only thought to venture out with the camera on Friday morning when it started to brighten up in Knowle.I decided to have a go for the drake Smew that friends had got some great shots of earlier in the week at Draycote Water.Got there not long after 10.00 AM to find the place shrouded in fog.

Out of the gloom as I walked along the Farborough bank I came across two top local photographers Dave Hutton and Kevin Groocock. After some chat I joined Dave to search for the Smew which he found near the Spit.

I then spent over an hour trying to get some shots but the fog refused to lift and the Smew would not come in any closer than 50m.These are the only shots I could get which are pretty ordinary but not too bad considering it was so foggy.

By this time I had slumped into wimp mode and was feeling the cold also if anything the fog was getting thicker.On the way back to the car park I spotted this chap that I think is a winter plumage Lesser Black-Backed Gull who looked as fed up as I was.

I cheered up considerably in the car park when I met up with that Draycote Water living legend Bob Hazell. Bob checks out Draycote Water nearly every day and lets everyone know if anything decent shows.Bob also gave me some interesting information : The Centre/Cafe is to re-open in March and the sailing club will  allow visitors in for food and drink.This is good news now all we need is some decent birds to show up this year.