Upton Warren, Shustoke and Alvecote

A busy day in the field today....nine hours and three counties....I'm so tired I've even had to put my Owl hunting on hold for tonight. I grabbed a lift out with my friend Pete Walkden today, as Max had to get the car fixed.

We started off at Upton Warren Flashes, spending most of our time in the main hide. As I mentioned a few posts ago I'm hoping to invest in a camera soon and Pete let me experiment with his compact super zoom camera. I was quite impressed and I think I'd be best to start off with something like this, which is within my budget and I can get lots of practice.

Still a good selection of waders present; 1 Greenshank, 1 Black Tailed Godwit, 2 Common Sandpiper, 9 Green Sandpiper, 1 Dunlin, 2 Little Ringed Plovers, 1 Snipe, 1 Curlew, Sedge and Reed Warblers, tons of Goldfinch and the Peregrine on the mast again.

Next over to Shustoke Reservoir to see the Black Necked Grebe, only the second time I've seen this species and I was keen to see a juv. I saw a couple of friends there, namely Steve Seal and Dean Powell and a few other Warks folk from BF, a nice crowd. The bird was very mobile but it did visit us from time to time on the east shore and came close enough for Steve to get these images......

Black Necked Grebe at Shustoke Reservoir by Steve Seal

http://stevesealbirdingimages.fotopic.net/

I also had a play with Steve's camera and had a go taking photos of a BH Gull....this is what I came up with.....

Also 5 Common Sandpipers, Common Terns and a Tree Sparrow. Next over the border to Alvecote Pools in Staffs where a Wood Sandpiper had been showing well down to 5-10 feet over the last couple of days....until we turned up that was. Thankfully we did get a glimpse of it before it vanished and but didn't manage to refind it.

Wood Sandpiper by Jeff Wessonhttp://jeff-wesson.fotopic.net/

So thanks to Pete for the lift today, thanks to Steve for the Grebe pics and Jeff for the Wood Sand and thanks Steve/Pete for letting me try out your cameras.....maybe one day I'll learn what all the buttons do.....