And then it was off to Blithfield. I headed to Tad Bay first, but as I left the lane, the vehicle in front of me was struggling to get up the bank and along the track to Stansley Wood. I gave up immediately and decided to walk from the lane to the hide. Tad Bay was extremely quiet. I walked back to the car and stopped on the road at the bottom of Tad to see if three Swans I had seen flying over the wood had landed or not. There was no sign but there were two Foxes on the ice.
I then headed towards Branston GP's. On the way, I received a text from RB saying "Cambs then?!". As per usual with RB's cryptic texts I racked my brain to think why would I want to head to Cambridgeshire. Then I received the mega about the BAIKAL TEAL. Only a two hour journey, not much happening in Staffs, busy on Sunday so would have to wait all week - it was a no brainer. I set the sat nav and headed off. I was a bit worried at first as there were no updates coming through, but eventually the confirmation came that it was still present. All was going well and I was only about 20 mins away. Then I had another text off RB. Now if I'd thought about it and decided to leave it and not headed off to Cambs I would be looking at full frame pictures of a 1w BAIKAL TEAL now on the internet and regretting not going. But this time, I raced across the country for a hybrid. Brilliant - ain't birding good. And yes, as I was only 20 minutes away, I decided to carry on and see it.
Oh well, dust yourself off, there's always next weekend!
