A visit to my Grandparents' house up in Cheshire meant only one thing for me - some left of field birding! With this in mind I decided to take a trip to Hope Carr nature reserve in order to try and add the reported Blyth's Reed Warbler to my life list. After a fairly late start, me and my Dad embarked towards Leigh in search of the site. However, it proved extremely hard to find, and if it wasn't for the help of Elliot Montieth, we'd probably still be somewhere in Greater Manchester now! Anyway, eventually we found the place (which was not the most glamorous reserve I've been to) and, seeing fellow birders, we headed towards the perimeter fence opposite the Industrial estate. Speaking to a few of the guys raised my hopes of seeing the bird as they had had brief glimpses and views of the Warbler in flight. A Goosander got the day's list off to an interesting start, providing a year tick of a bird that is seldom seen on my patch. After searching for the...