Richard Moriarty writes:

Twelve members of the Natural History branch assembled at Stoke Dry car park, Eyebrook Reservoir for an afternoon walk led by Hazel Graves.We had dry weather with an overcast sky and a slight breeze coming from the East. Not ideal conditions for bird watching, which was our primary purpose, but by the end of the afternoon we had a list of 41 species and some nice views of birds both on the water and in the surrounding fields.
We started off with a brief introduction to the history of the reservoir given by Richard Graves.
We initially spent some time in the car park observing several species of duck on the water with nice views of Teal, Wigeon, Goldeneye, Mallard and Tufted duck all in their smart late winter plumage. We then set off on a short leisurely stroll to the northern end of the reservoir.
We immediately started noticing large numbers of Lapwing and Golden Plover that were put up by a passing Red Kite and were wheeling around in the sky- probably one or two hundred in total. We had several sightings of kites during the afternoon. Also lurking in a hedge were two Treecreepers which surprised us as no one had seen them in this type of habitat before. Perhaps we were noticing a new subspecies - a Hedgecreeper!
Further along the road a couple of Stonechats were easily visible perched characteristically on top of bushes by the side of the water. A small flock of Starlings were also busy on the banks of the reservoir probing the grass for insects with their typical robotic like gait.  We spent some time looking further out on the water hoping to see Smew or Scaup, both of which have been spotted recently here but sadly to no avail. We did however find several other species of duck including Shoveler, Shelduck and a Pintail. At the north end of the reservoir on the mud were the mixed Lapwing and Golden plover flocks that were largely stationary facing into the prevailing wind. We made our way up to the bridge and spent some time observing several species of tit (mainly blue tit and great tit) on the feeders there. We also had good views of a Kestrel close by in a tree that gazed back down at us with an inquisitive eye.
A group of about ten Dunlin were noticed actively probing the mud amongst the lapwing flock and there also were two Lesser Black Backed gulls and several Black Headed gulls.
We started to head back to the car park against the bitingly cold easterly breeze but were rewarded with views of 2 species of geese in the field – Canada and Greylag along with a pair of Mistle Thrushes prospecting the ground for food. On the way back the cry went up - “Barn Owl” and sure enough the ghostly form of this enigmatic bird was seen quartering the field on the far shore for a minute or so before disappearing behind a bush.
A nice way to finish for some but being a bit of a straggler I got into conversation with a regular visitor to this neck of the woods and he assured me that Smew were indeed present. After a few moments we had our prize- a lovely drake bird in its beautiful white plumage with a black mask. This was my first view of one so I spent some time enjoying the moment.