A lot has happened birding wise since I last posted on this blog. Visits to Rainham, Lynford Arboretum and Santon Downham provided me with 9 lifers in the month of April. The highlight of which was a White Stork that I watched fly over the Serin mound on our London young birders trip (which I intended to blog but lost my whole writeup).
So when, news broke out of a Bonaparte's Gull and 5 White Winged Black Terns at Abberton Reservoir, I couldn't resist doing some bank holiday birding. After a bit of persuasion, me and my Dad embarked on the hour-long journey to the reserve.
On arrival at the car park, we were serenaded by displaying Skylark; their song, a beautiful way to start the day off. After getting organised in the visitor centre and buying an obligatory pack of Maltesers, we headed out onto the reserve. The path to Gwen's hide provided the first birds of note, with an abundance of Swifts (my first of the year) helping to distract me from my pre-twitch nerves - a welcome sight after not seeing any for so long. Once we reached the hide, an abundance of Common Terns greeted us - one of my favourite birds due to their beauty and elegance in flight. However, today it was a different species of Tern that I was longing to see, and before long we did. After some directions from a fellow birder, I managed to pick up on two of the White Winged Black Terns, a fair distance away. Although not the best of views, I was ecstatic to see them, the contrast of colour between the body and wings was completely unlike anything I've ever seen.
However, with views being distant and my Twitter page informing me that the Bonaparte's Gull was present at the island hide, we decided to move on. After a Reed Bunting posed for us on the fence, we spotted a group of birders just outside the hide - a good sign as they've usually seen something interesting. Sure enough, after approaching the group and asking them what they'd seen of note, we got the hoped for reply of "Bonaparte's Gull". Once again, after some helpful descriptions from another birder, I managed to pick up the gull; another fantastic life tick for me. However, again the views were distant and it was hard to make out any distinctive ID features.
After, this excitement, we headed into the hide where both rarities were supposedly viewable from. It didn't take long to pick out the beautiful White Winged Black Terns again, which were showing fairly well - at a 'tickable' distance and allowed me to take some half decent videos and a record shot. But the best was yet to come. After a good half an hour, somebody noticed that the Bonaparte's Gull had decided to settle down on the island next to the hide, offering absolutely superb views to the delighted masses of twitchers that were present. The Black-headed Gulls on the island offered a nice comparison also - the Bonaparte's daintiness and black bill particularly striking me.
So when, news broke out of a Bonaparte's Gull and 5 White Winged Black Terns at Abberton Reservoir, I couldn't resist doing some bank holiday birding. After a bit of persuasion, me and my Dad embarked on the hour-long journey to the reserve.
On arrival at the car park, we were serenaded by displaying Skylark; their song, a beautiful way to start the day off. After getting organised in the visitor centre and buying an obligatory pack of Maltesers, we headed out onto the reserve. The path to Gwen's hide provided the first birds of note, with an abundance of Swifts (my first of the year) helping to distract me from my pre-twitch nerves - a welcome sight after not seeing any for so long. Once we reached the hide, an abundance of Common Terns greeted us - one of my favourite birds due to their beauty and elegance in flight. However, today it was a different species of Tern that I was longing to see, and before long we did. After some directions from a fellow birder, I managed to pick up on two of the White Winged Black Terns, a fair distance away. Although not the best of views, I was ecstatic to see them, the contrast of colour between the body and wings was completely unlike anything I've ever seen.
However, with views being distant and my Twitter page informing me that the Bonaparte's Gull was present at the island hide, we decided to move on. After a Reed Bunting posed for us on the fence, we spotted a group of birders just outside the hide - a good sign as they've usually seen something interesting. Sure enough, after approaching the group and asking them what they'd seen of note, we got the hoped for reply of "Bonaparte's Gull". Once again, after some helpful descriptions from another birder, I managed to pick up the gull; another fantastic life tick for me. However, again the views were distant and it was hard to make out any distinctive ID features.
After, this excitement, we headed into the hide where both rarities were supposedly viewable from. It didn't take long to pick out the beautiful White Winged Black Terns again, which were showing fairly well - at a 'tickable' distance and allowed me to take some half decent videos and a record shot. But the best was yet to come. After a good half an hour, somebody noticed that the Bonaparte's Gull had decided to settle down on the island next to the hide, offering absolutely superb views to the delighted masses of twitchers that were present. The Black-headed Gulls on the island offered a nice comparison also - the Bonaparte's daintiness and black bill particularly striking me.
White Winged Black Tern
Bonaparte's Gull
A nice addition to this was the flash of colour from a Yellow Wagtail, which is a year tick and a bird I'll never get tired of seeing - my Dad was particularly impressed by it.
Eventually, we managed to pull ourselves away from the hide which offered two different rarities at once. We continued on towards the Bay hide to see what was in store for us there. On the way, more Skylarks serenaded us and a lone Whitethroat species proved elusive in a bush, adding another bird onto the day's list. Unfortunately, nothing of note was present - bar a lone Common Tern, but I wasn't about to complain after what I'd just witnessed at the previous hide!
On our way back through the reserve, the heavens started to open on what was a rather odd day in terms of weather. The recent downpour of rain causing us to dart back into the Island hide for shelter. Once, again the hide delivered, providing me with more great views of both rarities. The sight of a Little Gull, provided another quality year tick and a bit of extra excitement; especially when it decided to land on the Island, allowing for some fantastic views.
Little Gull
After another stop at Gwen's hide and another dose of miserable weather, we decided to head back to the car, delighted at seeing both of our targets for the day with relative ease. We decided on a brief stop to Billets Farm - the site of an Ortolan Bunting just the week before. Unfortunately, nothing too exciting showed apart from even more Yellow Wagtails, which provided some more colour to the Abberton scenery. A tip off from some other birders then sent us down to the Old road, where we tried our luck for Nightingales - what would've been another lifer, however the miserable weather meant that we only managed to hear one.
So with the rain pouring down, but my birding brain fulfilled, we decided to call it a day after achieving both targets on what was to be a rather memorable day! A big thanks to my Dad for driving me there.
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