Barton Slav.....Sunday 7th February 2016.

After hearing the Slavonian Grebe that had been present for a short while on Hotel Pit adjacent to Far-Ings,this is where i headed today.
 An organised meet with fellow birder Mike Bingham,saw us having a steady walk up to the reserve from the new visitor centre.
 Along the river bank very little was noted apart from some west bound Geeb's and Herring Gull's.
 Our first efforts at looking for the star bird,had me only seeing it very briefly at the far end of the Hotel Pit,as it fed in a sheltered bay out of the wind,so we continued onto Ness Lake hearing a nearby male Cetti's Warbler quietly sub singing,before blasting out it's song properly.
 Ness Lake was fairly quiet with another male Cetti's singing to the right of the hide with the continuing theme of little else being seen apart from a brief sighting of a young male Marsh Harrier.
 We continued on our walk around to the new pits and here at last,some decent numbers of birds.The largest of the pits had a good mix of Gadwall,Teal,Wigeon and Coot,with a hand full of 'Sinensis' Cormorants resting on the Tern raft.
 It was great to see the Coots diving for food and bringing up good beak fulls of weed,with the Gadwall and Wigeon taking full advantage of any tit bits,a great feeding partnership.
 As we neared the old visitor centre,another loud blast of Cetti's song had us recording our third bird of the morning,but we still didn't see one!.
 Our second effort on Hotel Pit eventually revealed our target,as the stunning Slav was eventually seen properly and was a very welcome 'New' bird for Mike.With some patience we eventually got some cracking close views,but all my photos were into the sun,so were pretty crap to be fair,but it was just nice to see one so well.
 This bird has been part of an influx of the species,with others being seen at Cleethorpes(2),Toft Newton Res,Hornsea Mere,Beacon Ponds and the Witham Mouth to name but a few.
 Also seen on Hotel Pit was a partially leucistic male Gadwall,which provided some interest.With the bird having pale primary and secondary feathers,quite smart looking to be fair.
 After a bit of a windswept morning we made it back to our cars and said our goodbyes and both headed back to the warm after a decent morning out enjoying the lovely star grebe.