Un bel di

['One fine day' Madame Butterfly/Puccini]

And a very fine day it was. I drove towards Chisworth on the Greater Manchester/Derbyshire border. The satnav found Gun Road without trouble and I knew I was in the right place from the number of cars. I guess there were about 100 plus birders there at the peak time. The red-throated pipit was initially missing but was soon relocated quite close to my car! The camera was in the car as I had assumed like everyone else that it would need a scope to see this bird. By now Tiggy was surrounded by scopes and anxious birders as the bird walked among the juncus just in front of us!

Eventually I got the camera and caught up with the bird which had flown a little further into the field.

Red-throated Pipit Red-throated Pipit Red-throated Pipit Red-throated Pipit

Now what? Well the pied-billed grebe tempted me to head north for Leighton Moss. Quite a drive but I'm glad I went - not just for the grebe but for something else I'd never seen before.

Anyway, here's the distant grebe.

Pied-billed Grebe Pied-billed Grebe

It refused to come nearer!

Meanwhile in front of the hide two great crested grebes were displaying...

Great Crested Grebe Great Crested Grebe

It was a matter of watching 3 grebes! Where had the pied-billed got to? What were the great crested doing?

Wonderful moments! Unless you look carefully you might not notice there are two grebes together here.

Great Crested Grebe

Great Crested Grebe Great Crested Grebe