Soar Valley update..... Its a Smew day!
Female Red-head Smew at Watermead CP(Birstall). With the whole week off from work it was down the Soar Valley again and a few more species tick off on the year list. First stop was Cossington South GPs and the surrounding farmland and sightings I saw included a couple of flushed Grey Partridge , and then a mobile Grey Wagtail . Then the phone rang and John Hague let me know that Mick Braker had found a redhead Smew on the Key Lakes at Birstall (Watermead CP). So off I went to twitch the Smew. Reaching the Key Lakes I spotted the Redhead Smew on the only un-frozen part of the Lakes. Get In!! So another good bird for the Soar Valley list. Meeting up with John in the nearby car park we spoke about the long-staying Black Redstart in the new housing estate just off the A6 and decided to include on the Soar Valley challenge. So after John had taken a few shots of the Redhead Smew and the Goosanders on the Key Lakes we met up again on the housing estate and it wasn't long before the cork...