Misty Skua

Having dropped off our mothing gear at the rangers yard, Draycote Water for tonight’s bio effort we strained our eye balls through the mist and on our first sweep of the reservoir saw absolutely zilch. The second attempt produced a large blob near ‘b’ buoy but because of poor viewing both Dave and I thought it might be a Great Skua we needed to be certain. Luckily a phone call to Bob and Tim found them on site and were good enough to get on to it and confirmed it was one. Yippee, In it to win it! Though I wish we had arrived minutes earlier as we missed the Avocet – bummer. The skua moved to ‘x’ then drifted towards ‘f’ buoy by the time we left at 1pm. Common Tern and Snipe was all we could add. No sign of the Shag but then again there was no sign of the valve tower. Nothing of note on Napton on the Hill while Flecknoe had 100+ Linnet and Goldfinches plus 2 Tree Sparrow. A late lunch at the Skylark Farm Café then back out to set up the traps for STW Draycote Bio with many duck going over and Tawny Owl calling but ran out of time to see what the skua was doing to the roost.

Snipe and Sallow by Bob Hazell