A couple of hours at a beautiful site

[John]

I wasn't going to do any birding until tonight as I am driving down to Oxfordshire in the hope of seeing a Scops Owl that has been there for a week.

Seeing as the morning was so nice I decided to drive ten miles to a Quarry that I had never heard of before in the hope of seeing a 1st Summer Great Northern Diver that had been reported on the pager as being there for a few days. I was hopeful of a decent photos but sadly when I got there it had disappeared.

You would have thought I would be a tad frustrated at missing the bird but not a bit of as this quarry was an absolute gem of a place to be.

If you weren't a local you would probably not know about it as it is nestled in the middle of a housing estate and to get to it you have to walk up a little cul de-sac to find the entrance to it.

If you are in the vicinity and fancy a walk around it it is called Newbold Quarry, near Rugby. (and is situated here where the arrow is pointing in the linked map) http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.sr...=newsearch.srf

The first thing I noticed was the clarity of the water. It was almost gin clear. The second thing was the lovely log fencing along the pathways around the quarry perimeter. Every now and again there would be a break in the fencing and little wooden platforms had been built where you could fish from or just sit there looking at the bird / insect life. Most of the water was edged with reed and at the far end you walked through a small wood.

Before long I was watching many types of Damselflies, Dragonflies, Broad bodied Chasers etc as well as Grey Wagtails, G C Grebes plus all the usual common birds. A female Mallard and eleven extremely young chicks swam just in front of me.

In the water I could see some very large Tench in the margins. They were possibly a few feet down but such was the clarity of the water you could see them as if they were in tap water. Talking to a local fishermen I was told there were carp up to 36lbs and huge Pike in there as well. It certainly was a nice place to follow the sport of angling as the surroundings were very pleasing to the eye.

This really was a beautiful spot to be and I wouldn't have known about it if the pager hadn't alerted me to it.

I was so engrossed in the place that I only took two photos. One a very long distanced record shot of a Broad Bodied Chaser and one of the Mallard and her chicks.

John

[jezlee]

I'm glad you managed to get a male BB Chaser, John .... I have seen so many females around these parts in the last couple of weeks, but no sign of a male anywhere .... could there be a simple explanation for this, or am I just unlucky? Are the males off for a stag weekend somewhere?

[John]

Originally Posted by jezlee

I'm glad you managed to get a male BB Chaser, John .... I have seen so many females around these parts in the last couple of weeks, but no sign of a male anywhere .... could there be a simple explanation for this, or am I just unlucky? Are the males off for a stag weekend somewhere?

Hi jezlee

Well you only have to drive down to this quarry and there are dozens of them.

John

[Wild-Woman]

Sounds like you had a good couple of hours, it's amazing what little gems can be tucked away in the oddest of places. Glad you had a good time. Julie