First lifer of the year.

Notging common about this one! A Common Yellowthroat was discovered in S Wales whilst I was in Australia and unbeleivably it stayed until I got back. With jet lag working better than the alarm I was up at 03.00 Saturday and headed off down the M6 to meet with Phil Lockyer near Stoke as he'd kindly offered me a lift!

This was only the 9th UK record of this cracking little American passerine and the first twitchable one in the UK since one on the Scilly's in 1997.

An uneventful journey saw us on site around 8.30 and after hearing the bird call several times we eventually saw it well over a period of an hour but not well enough to photograph. It spent most of its time skulking in a bramble bush where it could be seen moving around and occasionally making a quick foray out in to the open.

More photogenic was a nearby male Lesser Scaup whilst to complete a good day we managed to home in on three Smew  -a drake and two redheads - near Barton Under Needwood as we dropped another traveller (Sean Cole) off home.

Getting home around 17.30 completely knackered I soon fell asleep on the couch!.