Hollingworth Lake - Sat 20 Nov

On the road at 6.00am with a car full of my birding mates, John, Andy and Barry, and leaving Ellie tucked up in bed, I headed off north to Manchester in the hope of catching up with the Pied-billed Grebe that had been present for a week or so. I had dipped this species in the earlu nineties and was hoping to get it marked off, and after a drive of just less than four hours we parked up in a pay and display car park on the edge of the lake. As we got out of the car a Grey Wagtail flew over.
We had a twenty minute walk to the far side of the lake, seeing nothing of note along the way, and after meeting a few birders en route got directions as to where the bird was. Setting up our scopes it took us a bit of time to get on the bird as it skulked in the reeds, but before long it flew out on to open water and we got cracking views of this Nearctic vagrant.
Unfortunately, it flew out of the bay we were looking at and out of site, so leaving the others behind I hot-footed round the corner, and after relocating the bird within about two minutes it had flown back to where the others were still stood! So I retraced my steps and finally managed a few really poor record shots of the Pied-billed Grebe.


After watching the bird for half an hour or so we completed the circuit of the lake back to the car, seeing a Mistle Thrush and a couple of Redwings in the waterside trees, and a single Tufted Duck on the water. It was about 11.30am by the time we got back to the car, and with the twitch being a success we headed straight back home, and to round off a perfect day, Spurs notched up their first win away at Arsenal for seventeen years!