After a quick walk on Staines Moor, Tom walked to Staines Reservoir for some birding...... I have now admitted I am a 'birder' as I went with two species in mind- the black necked grebe and yellow wagtail. These were two species I had not seen before in the UK and the reservoir is a known site for both species and they had been seen recently. Sadly the lighting was poor with a significant haze and the effect on the water strangely affected the autofocus. Despite this I had a fantastic day seeing some fantastic birds.
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| Looking north over the reservoir to large rafts of tufted duck and coot. |
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| I saw two black-necked grebes, one was stupidly far away, but I managed to get one or two photographs despite the bad lighting and got some fantastic views down the binoculars- especially that bright red eye in the sun. |
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| Great crested grebe- there were literally dozens of these impressive birds. |
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| One of a pair of little grebes. |
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| The causeway across the reservoir. |
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| The terrible photograph of a 'likely' yellow wagtail. Found in a mixed flock of wagtails, this individual clearly had a yellow toned back and yellow throat (that can be seen in the photograph) differentiates it from grey wagtail (I think!). |
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| Shortwood pond on Shortwood Common. This old gravel pit was teeming with dragonflies including ruddy darter, red eyed damselfly sp., common blue damselfly and migrant hawkers. |
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| Ruddy darter. |
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