LWC Barnes w Alex Liddle - Caspo surprise! 17th November 2018

I was relieved that my exams were finally over on the 16th November, with the final Physics test a success. On Saturday the 17th I decided to have a day off of everything, and went to LWC Barnes to have a walk around. I asked Alex L whether he was around and he was up for it, so he met me in the observatory shortly after 10am. 

We started by going to the WWF hide to have a look at the gulls. There were good numbers of them, consisting of a few Common in the many Herring, BHG and LBB. 

While I packed up my stuff ready to leave, Alex called me to the scope with a few interesting gulls showing. One certainly had characteristics of Caspian, but as I had glasses with the wrong prescription on, as well as low confidence, I was slightly dismissive of it. So we carried on towards the Peacock tower, where we had numerous Snipe (13,) more gulls inc. first winter Common, 2 Peregrines on Charing Cross hospital, ducks and 3-4 Water Pipit that were busily feeding. While Alex was in form finding the first a long way off, I picked up the second on call only before a 3rd flew up with the others. We watched them for a bit, chatted to others in the hide, and then started to head back to the observatory. 3 Chiffchaff were seen on the way back.

We then went to the Headley Hide, where the Bittern was on show, hidden as usual by reeds and a strand of bright green grass that was extremely annoying. I also had a brief view of a Dunlin around one of the islands. 

By around 12:45 we reached the Wildside Hide, where a single Snipe was all to be seen at first. However, within a few minutes Alex had found the male Pintail miles away, and 3 Linnet flew SW calling, while a f Goldeneye was showing well within 15m from the hide. Despite being close it was nearly impossible to photograph - coming up for 3 seconds, down for 10secs and then moving about. 

By around 13:30 I needed to head back home, but from the observatory, after packing my stuff up, the f Peregrine landed on the islands causing a stir. It had a drink, but Alex also managed to spot a nice 1w YLG that promptly flew further away. A nice few birds to end a good session birding. 

1 month and 2 days later: I was having a flick through the photos again, writing this blog post, and came across the gull that Alex had pointed out. However, I had a chance to look at it in more detail and it had some key features for a Caspian Gull, such as the very pale, pear-shaped head (that I'd learnt at Beddington from Roger Browne a few weeks prior,) smallish eye, greyer scapulars . I sent it to Dante Shepherd - gull expert - who replied to confirm it was a first-winter Caspian Gull. It was a pretty big relief to finally tick a bogey bird that I'd had after looking for one for so long, and I feel like I'll find my own ones in the future hopefully. Thanks to those that confirmed it for me, as well as Alex for a top find!

1st-winter Caspian Gull (lifer 201, and probably the last of the year)

Common Snipe

Water Pipit - closer than usual but still distant

Water Pipit

Common Gull

Water Pipit

Possibly a hybrid? Gadwall x ...?

Bittern

f Goldeneye 

f Goldeneye

tail of a f Goldeneye

f Goldeneye

Black-headed Gull pose

m Pintail etc

f Peregrine

Thanks for reading :)