Saturday 18th February

I had arranged with my mate to go to north east Norfolk today but this was changed when we heard about the Common Yellowthroat near Newport, Having checked the weather we set of at 4 30 and we were joined by Corrina after a breakfast stop we arrived at the site at about 7 15 we parked and joined the other birders that were already there about 150, There was no sign of the bird by 10 30 (there were brief sightings of the bird in the afternoon) as the promised rain started and rain had been forecast for the rest of the day we decided to head for the Forest of Dean to see if we could get ahead of the rain, On arriving at the raptor watch point the rain started again my mate picked up a Goahawk but me and Corrina did not get on it we had Raven, Crossbill, Common Buzzard here but the wind and rain moved us on we had a look at canock ponds where we had 27 Mandarin Ducks, Then it was on to the site for Dipper with no luck as we now where getting wet we decided we might as well have a look at Slimbridge to see if we could see the female Lesser Scaup, We set up in the Pen hide over looking Rushy pen my mate found the bird but then it disappeared out of sight but we did have some fun with a female Tufted Duck that had a lot of white at the base of the bill, We then had a look from 2 of the other hides overlooking rushy pen as we entered the last hide I found the Lesser Scaup again over the back and we had the female Tufted in the scope at the same time, we had a nice Water Rail out in the open, by now the weather had picked up at it turned into a nice sunny and please late afternoon after a coffee we set of for home.

As I have to work during the week no chance to go back for the Yellowthroat so a dip it was for me not the first and will not be the last