Anything for the weekend sir? Frogs and a Smew.

Although I spent most of the Saturday kicking my heels at the LRI, waiting for a non-arriving taxi, Sunday was totally different from the previous day.
I met up with Andy Smith and John Hague at Thornton Reservoir to check out a few local sites for Little Owls.
Although we didn't see any Little Owls in the brief search, the surrounding habitat looked excellent for Little Owls, and I will probably check the sites out again over the next few weeks.

Andy then invited me and John for a coffee in his garden. Andy's garden probably has one of the best views in Leicestershire, as it looks over the reservoir and surrounding area.

Just below Andy's garden, was a small pond in his neighbours garden,which probably had the most frogs I have ever seen in such a small space. I counted over 200+ Frogs in it!

After leaving Andy's, John and me checked the feeding station by the boat house at the reservoir, with a good number of Chaffinches and Reed Buntings the only birds of note.

At this point myself and John parted company as John returned home, and I moved on to Cropston and Swithland Reservoir.

As usual, Cropston was mostly bird less except for the odd Great Crested Grebe!

Moving on to Swithland Reservoir, I looked for the two reported Smews first from Kinchley Lane, but then I was told by another birding mate Dave Mack who was driving by at the time, that the Smews were next to the dam. Moving onto the dam, and after a brief search,I spotted the male Smew which was close to the dam, but strangely there was no sign of the female in the surrounding area.

Also at around the same time I heard a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker calling in the trees next to the dam.

As there was not much else on the birding front except for some Goldeneyes, I decided to call it a day and returned home.
Ps Thanks to John for the Frog photo!