Staines Reservoir again,kerching!!!

Hello followers and those who choose not to follow but to read occasionally,you are all welcome,judging by my stats i am particular big in Romania as well as North America,hello Romanians and North Americans as well as a big hello to anyone not connected to the above.

I had a nice lay in this morning,i was awoken by the nipper shouting "dumbo,goofy,mickey,pluto,chicken? " from her cot,this usually means she is awake and wants to watch cartoons and is usually followed by "podge" which means she wants Porridge,she usually gets Podge as well.

As i had a 2pm pick up from Heathrow,i decided that a little trip to Staines Reservoir was on the cards,conveniantly located about a mile from Terminal 5 where i was picking up,i made my way there,stopping briefly on the way to a spot near Amersham where i have seen Yellowhammer and Corn Bunting before,along with Grey Partridge a long time ago.Today i didn't see any of the above,just 4 Red Legged Partridge.

I made my way to Staines,via a nice little chinese take away that does a crispy chicken curry with rice mega deal for £4,can of drink included,job done,set me up for a nice couple of hours birding,lovely!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I arrived at Staines to find a couple of birders onto something in the distance,getting my scope out it was a Black Necked Grebe,in fact there were 2 there,also way out in the distance was a redhead smew and plenty of Goldeneye along with Tufted Duck,i scanned all the Tufted and found the Scaup again,not easy to distinguish between the two birds especially at a distance and not something i would of had the patience or skill to do a few years ago but i am getting better at it now.On the raft and then towards the corner of the reservoir half hour later was an immature Shag and 14 Cormorants on the raft,also seen was a lovely Slavonian Grebe and Great Northern Diver on the North part,the latter flying right over my head to drop to the North from the South.There were plenty of Great Crested Grebes,gulls and Pied wagtails were particularly busy with at least 25 individuals around.I decided to call it a day around 1.15pm as the flight was due to land at 1.20pm but in hindsight i could of stayed there another hour as they didn't come out the airport until 2.20pm.On leaving the site i was alerted to a Fieldfare on the Grass bank and deciding to scan along the bank i picked up 2 Grey Wagtail and a Green Sandpiper,both taking my Year list up to 139,by far the best start to the year i have had,this time last year i was on 132 although a day later i was on 140 after a trip to Norfolk which included American Wigeon,ironically i shall be on the same stretch of coast and same reserve tomorrow and the next couple of days hopefully getting a lifer in the long staying Western Sandpiper that i was supposed to see last week amongst the other delights of Norfolks wildlife.

I got back from Heathrow around 3.30pm,just enough time for an hour or so local patch work.I headed towards Berwick Ponds and straight away saw c40 Greylags landing in a field behind the fishing lake,i parked up and scanned them and 2 White Fronts were in amongst them,moving on to Bonnetts for the last half hour or daylight,not too much going on,14 Fieldfare,11 Redwing,18 Long tailed tits,goldcrest and pheasant.Still no Yellowhammer or Corn Buntings for me this year but i am sure this will change the next 3 days in Norfolk,its good that i can combine work with pleasure as i am taking a Company work party to leicestershire first in the morning and picking them back up thursday evening,happy days!!!