Sunday 7 January 2007

Staines & Wraysbury. 5th Jan 2007

Off to Staines Reservoir, Surrey this afternoon to find Great Northern Diver and Black Necked Grebe. On arrival i met up with Berks birder Peter Hickman and his grandson James, looking out over the reservoir a Juvenile Great Northern Diver was still present on the north basin along with a Black-necked Grebe.The reservoir is usually a reliable site for Black-necked Grebes during Winter as long as you can endure the weather while searching for them, Staines reservoir seems to have it's own climate, cold and very cold.As usual the weather was extremely windy but for once it didn't rain.
The next stop was just down the road at
Wraysbury gravel pits to find Smew, a good site for this winter visitor.I followed Peter to Wraysbury and as we parked up a small flock of Ring Necked Parakeets passed over, before we got to the pits another 4 small groups flew overhead.Looking out across the pits 2 Drake Smews were soon visible before they flew to the far side of the pit, later a 3rd Drake was found.

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