Sutton Bingham - Wed 18 Sep

I missed a call last night telling me of a major Sutton Bingham rarity, a Red-throated Diver, at the reservoir from the hide in the evening. What followed was a fitful night's sleep and an early start as I arrived on site at 7.00am in the rain. After drawing a blank from the hide, though I did see four Mandarin, I drove back to the northern causeway in case the bird had moved up the reservoir looking for deeper water...it hadn't, and a Little Egret was scant consolation. So I walked along the shoreline from the car park back towards the hide, a Snipe flew over and so too did a couple of Grey Wagtails. Finally, after forty minutes of searching I found my quarry! A very smart summer-plumaged adult Red-throated Diver!

You can just about make out that this is the bird, it was distant, in the rain and dark!

The rain was falling, the light was poor, my feet were wet, and I was pushing it for getting to work on time, but it was well worth it...cracking bird and a patch tick...result!