Staines Reservoir (6/5/12)

Today my mum brought me again with here to were she was going and dropped me off at Staines Reservoir on the way. I began at around 8:40 and I found a group of local birders who now what was about. The first thing I   found were two Black-necked Grebes in summer plumage. They were stunning and they were also nice and close which allowed me to get some pictures of it too.

Around that time other things like Turnstone, Swifts, House Martins and Swallows were also about. After looking at the Black-necked Grebes for a while I looked on the other side at the Common Terns and tried to pick out some Arctic Terns. This tock a while and I ended up not seeing any. Then I went back to the area where the Little Gulls were always seen and I found one after a bit of looking. The first one I saw was flying around with a few terns and Black-headed Gulls and I could see the W shape on its wings. I looked at it for a while and photographed it until I pointed it out to the rest of the group who had seen one on the water.

When I looked back at were the 1st Summer Little Gull had been it was no longer there. Then I looked to were the group had seen one and I saw another 1st Winter Little Gull. After that the Shag came in for a while, a female Wheatear and a Redshank. When I arrived I found a male Wheatear.

But our attention was turned to a pair of Grey Plovers which had very goldeny brown backs. We walked closer so as to see them better they flew after a while and some of the group saw the black axillaries. After they flew we looked around for some thing else and we found another Wheatear and 3 Yellow Wagtails. After that we saw two Hobbys flush some gulls. By this time it was about 12 o'clock and the Swifts had began to wake up. I went back to the tern rafts and me and two other men found some Arctic Terns.
Because the flies had been attracted to my heat the Swifts had decided to swoop around me as close as 1 ft from me. This was probably my best birding experience in my life.

If you enlarge this photo you can see hundreds of swifts

When I had finished looking at the Swifts (maybe 1 hour later) I walked to the other side of the reservoir were the Black-necked Grebes had moved to. As well as the Black-necked Grebes I saw a Shoveler and some Tufted Ducks. Then when I had finished looking at the Black-necked Grebes I again returned to the tern raft this time in search of a Little Tern. When I got to the other side there was some one there already I told him what sort of stuff I had seen and then after showing him the Little Gull he found a Little Tern. After a while of looking at it we came to the conclusion that it was a Juv. When we had finished I made my last journey to see the Black-necked Grebes with the man that I had met and then I had to go home. On the way back to the car park I found a Shelduck.