Middleton Hall Bird Fair.

Other than the Night Heron at Earlswood Lakes I knew of no other decent birds about locally so I thought I'd pay a visit to the bird fair at Middleton Hall.

Almost straight away I bumped into that midlands birding legend Steve Seal together with his friend Anne.Always nice to bump into Steve.

We had a good look round the fair and saw some interesting things but the trouble is you can see everything in an not much over an hour and what you do fancy buying is always too expensive.The good thing about the fair is you bump into some friends so it was nice to see Dave Hutton and Bob Duckhouse again.

After a quick bite I decided as I was here I would have a look at the reserve for the first time.I'd missed the organised walk so I had to make my own way round which was pretty easy as the the paths were well signposted.

So what did I think of the new reserve.Well it's a pretty long walk if you do the Wetlands walk circuit,there are no hides and only one screen.A big worry was that all the way round you are exposed to the birds and this will scare them off.

I and all the birders I met on my walk saw nothing decent at all.No one had seen a wader.One old regular I met up with was not at all impressed with the changes and said "The bast**** have fu***** ruined the place". I think it was just a one off bad day.I will give it another go soon.

The only time I used the camera was when a few Swifts were zooming about.