Friday January 27 - The January twitch

I promised myself at the start of this year that in addition to opening up a second front, East Redditch, on the patch birding scene, I would also twitch something within easy reach once a month. In truth there hasn't been much locally to get excited about since my new year resolution but missing the Glaucous Gull at Arrow Valley Lake has concentrated my mind. Up the three had been roosting at Bartley Reservoir and I decided I would go to try to see them.

However before I get to that I should say that during a day of domestic jobs, and our attendance at the funeral of Suzanne, our next-door neighbour, I did add Common Buzzard to my patch year-list.

The first challenge was actually getting to Bartley Reservoir. I drove past Bittell Reservoir only to discover my way blocked by some serious roadworks at Barnt Green. Consequently, I drove over the Lickey Hills, across the M5, and then back towards Birmingham via a second diversion to finally arrive at 16.15. I was pleased to see about five car loads of birders already there. Patch birding is a rather solitary occupation and I've missed the craic of chatting to other birders.

Soon after I started scanning, Steve Roberts got out of his car to give directions to a first-winter Iceland Gull he had spotted. I got on it quite easily and, as the light wasn't too bad, tried a shot with the trusty bridge camera.

Iceland Gull

A couple of other birders were looking through scopes on tripods, and they were joined by another face I recognised, Ian Ricketts. After a bit of banter, he spends a lot of time on the Hebridean island of Barra and is planning to move there permanently later this year, he showed me the photo he had taken of the same bird through his iPhone which he had clamped to the end of his scope. All I could say was wow, and to show why, I took a photo of the image at the back of his camera.

Ian's photo 

At around this time someone spotted my target bird, a first-winter Glaucous Gull, which I soon located. The light had faded to the extent that even Ian didn't bother trying to get a shot. At this point another character I hadn't seen for a while appeared from his car, Terry Hinett. He always has plenty to say and it was interesting to hear that all the main Worcestershire tips have now closed and as a result Westwood Pool no longer has a regular gull roost. I am acutely conscious that I have never twitched a Caspian Gull in Worcestershire, and it's now apparent I had better make an effort sooner rather than later. In fact, a second-winter Caspian Gull was apparently somewhere on the reservoir tonight, but I couldn't find it and no-one else seemed keen to get back on it.

Apparently I had picked the right night because yesterday had been pretty poor, with just the Iceland Gull present, and that hadn't appeared until 16.45 when it was quite dark.