Grey Phalaropes galore

22 Sept - There's been a big influx of Grey Phalaropes inland due to several days of westerly storms, and as the birds are probably displaced and exhausted they tend to stay for a day or two. This morning I went up to Charlecote north of Moreton-in-Marsh where a juvenile bird was seen on the pool in the NT grounds, and as I expected it had stayed overnight, and was spinning happily at close range on the lake in the cloudy but bright morning light - I had half an hour or so to admire it (and take quite a few photos) - they are one of my favourite birds, aesthetically pleasing, nearly always confiding, and being a bird of the far north having that sense of the untamed wilderness areas where they spend the summer. Very enjoyable. En route home I received news that a Grey Phalarope had been found in the Glos section of the Water Park - the first for many years - and I managed a quick look at the bird in the by now steady rain, as it fed at the northern end of pit 57 - I later discovered after referring to the county avifaunas, that it was only the second ever CWP sighting, the first being in the Wilts section after the Great Storm in October 1987. A real local mega!