Slavonian grebes and four great white egrets, Pennington Flash

I arrived at Green Lane at 12:45 in heavy rain hoping that the weather might have dropped something in.  I scanned the western end through binoculars and almost immediately saw two small grebes directly out from the sailing club but close in to the ruck. On looking through the scope my immediate reaction was that they had Slavonian grebe jizz and were not black-necked. Unfortunately, the light was poor and rain was pouring so I was unable to confirm the identification from Green Lane, but I was so convinced that they were Slavonian that I decided to have a walk to the ruck in this awful weather in order to get a better look. 

My worst fears were confirmed on the ruck, it was a real mud bath, puddles and mud everywhere and the rain kept pouring. By now I was soaked with rain running down my back and my optics and glasses covered in rain drops and steaming up. Finally I relocated the grebes only to discover that they had moved to the opposite side! It was very dull and misty and I was really struggling to get anything on them. I tried a bit of video on my phone but it was difficult to even get it to respond because the screen was covered in water and the video was inconclusive.

After about 10 minutes the birds started to swim towards me and eventually stopped quite close to the ruck at a distance of about 15m, I couldn't believe my luck. It was still pouring with rain but I risked getting my camera out and quickly took a few photos.

The birds were about two thirds the size of a great crested grebe. They were dark grey and white. The heads of both birds peaked at the rear and the black crown was neat and didn’t smudge behind the eye. The bills were short and straight lacking the uptilt of black-necked, and they had a longish body which lacked the little grebe like rear end....and still the rain poured. It was time to go home and salvage what I could of my optics and get myself dry with a cup of tea!

So they were Slavonian grebes and it seems very likely that these were the same two that were at Acre Nook Quarry in Cheshire yesterday.

There was a little bit of initial confusion, the left hand bird especially looks very like a black-necked grebe.

This is the best video I could manage of the grebes in these conditions. I've slowed it down a bit.

Just before I saw the grebes I had the remarkable sight of four great white egrets in view at the same time from Green Lane. One was at the western end, two were on the spit and another was at the entrance to Ramsdales.

It really was a dreadful day.