Draycote Water :: 29 January 2012

This morning I found time to take part in the 'Big Garden Birdwatch', organised by the RSPB. This year was the quietest yet with only: robin, chaffinch, house sparrow, blackbird, woodpigeon, dunnock, blue tit and starlings visiting in the allotted hour. Hopefully, as many suggest, this is as a consequence of the mild winter we are having; it seems to be the main topic on bird forums just how quiet some gardens are.

To cheer myself up I decided to drag the family off to Draycote Water. There have been consistent reports of smew on the water; photos of the male are stunning. On arrival we could see that it was going to be a cold walk but also that there were large numbers of birds on the water, predominantly gulls. Unfortunately we were unable to locate any smew, but talking to others they hadn't been able to locate them either. The species could for the visit was 31, including: carrion crow, teal, black-headed gull, little grebe, mallard, great crested grebe, coot, gadwall, cormorant, lapwing, canada goose, starling, greylag goose, pied wagtail, goldeneye, tufted duck, pheasant, grey wagtail, goosander, red-breasted merganser, great tit, common gull, lesser black backed gull, woodpigeon, rook, magpie, linnet, robin, golden plover and buzzard.

On the way home we warmed up with a trip to Costa - caramel latte ... mmm!