A couple of black-necked grebes (in summer plumage) had been spotted at Draycote Water on the previous day, so I got up early to arrive as the gates to the reservoir opened. The car park was predictably quiet as not many had beaten me there.
On previous occasions any black-necked grebes I'd seen there had been off Farborough Dam and so I headed that way. Not a sign of the grebes but there were c.10 little gulls in the centre of the water and numbers of sandmartin moving left to right. All to distant for a photo.
When I got to the hide I stopped briefly and decided 
to go to the trees just beyond the boardwalk as there are often a selection of tits and finches there. I was not disappointed as I soon found a blackcap, chiffchaff and a pair of goldcrest.
As I strolled back and forth a green woodpecker landed in a tree ahead but almost immediately left again. As I watched the blackcaps a treecreeper dropped in a the top of the trees behind.
As I made my way back to the car, I could see reed bunting, meadow pipits and a few skylarks in the field down the bank on my left. Nothing else of note other than the sandmartins appeared to have departed.
Sightings (38) included: black-headed gull, blackbird, blackcap, blue tit, buzzard, canada goose, carrion crow, chaffinch, chiffchaff, coot, cormorant, gadwall, goldcrest, great crested grebe, great spotted woodpecker, great tit, green woodpecker, greylag goose, herring gull, jackdaw, lesser black-backed gull, little grebe, little gull, mallard, meadow pipit, moorhen, pheasant, pied wagtail, reed bunting, robin, rook, sand martin, skylark, teal, treecreeper, tufted duck, woodpigeon and wren.
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