A First For Britain!!

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A First For Britain!!




We arrived at 8:00am at Eyebrook Reservoir (Leicestershire) in hopes of seeing a reported White-rumped Sandpiper. We met someone who let me look through his scope to see it. A lifer for me! It was paler that the Dunlin it was feeding with. It was also slightly smaller and longer than the Dunlin. Soon after, a large raptor hovered for a second above the water. It was an Osprey! It flew around and then went away. He told me it was likely the ones nesting at Rutland Water. The White-rumped Sandpiper kept feeding distantly as we viewed it. Not long after the Osprey, two Red Kites soared in the field behind us, as well as three more feeding in the field opposite us. We then went to Willow Tree Fen in hopes if seeing some Cranes but when we arrived (at 10:50am) it was closed. We waited a bit as it mentioned on Facebook that it was open today. Soon after, a report came in on Rare Bird Alert of a Cape Gull. We found out that it was a first for Britain and lucky for us, we were only 58 minutes away. We got straight into the car and rushed there. Unfortunately, road closures delayed us but we managed to get there. We followed some people towards the dam it had been seen at. When we arrived, we spotted it sitting quite close to us. We also saw two Yellow-legged Gulls with one right besides the Cape Gull. This bird had been turning up in the Canaries so was going to turn up in the UK eventually. It is also known as the Kelp Gull and is from the Southern Hemisphere. We got good views of it and then went over to Fishlake Meadows where we dipped the Whiskered Tern but saw some Great White Egrets. We then went to Pagham Harbour where we then dipped the Squacco Heron but did see a lot of Cattle Egret and a Kingfisher. Overall, a fantastic 23 hour birding trip (4am Sunday till 3am Monday).

Location: Grafham Water PE28, UK

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