I don't often go twitching, but a report of a rare bird at Alton Water was too good to miss. Yes that's Alton Water, a place where its often difficult to find a coot, where I have spent many a windy rainy birdless day (most of which I don't bother blogging about).
The bird I was looking for was a GULL-BILLED TERN, a rare bird to Suffolk, with maybe 15 previous records, and with only four or five recorded in the country every year, a bird which was most definitely a lifer for me, and for the other people I met at the twitch today. I was working for the first couple of days it was present, before a free Thursday allowed me to race down to the reservoir, and eventually catch up with it.
When I turned up there was a small gathering of birdwatchers and they guided me to where the bird was about. This was the Water Outfall, a large structure sticking out into the water, on the dam side of the reservoir. The area had a large flock of COMMON TERNS feeding, with many resting on the building's railings before flying off again. Every so often one yacht would pass underneath the structure and disturb the birds to which there would be loud groans from the assembled birders.
Eventually the bird was found in flight before it flew to the outfall building where it sat beneath a colourful poster thanking the NHS for their help in the covid-19 crisis.
Having got my eye in, it appeared at first glance, if I wasn't paying attention, the bird could be mistaken for a sandwich tern, biggish with a black bill. However the bird had an all black bill, without the yellow tip of the sandwich, and lacked the sandwich tern's crest. When the bird had alighted it had long black legs which made it significantly taller than the surrounding common terns. It had a thick black beak, and it had a very muscular neck, which was more out of shape with the rest of its body. In flight the bird had black edges to the tips of its wing along the outer primaries which was distinctive compared to the neighbouring common terns.
Having appreciated the tern my mind turned to the other bird life on the reservoir. Unfortunately there wasn't much else about, this area, the Dam, is very disturbed by water sports, and so wasn't really bird friendly. There was a tame flock of EGYPTIAN GEESE present, dosing away on the concrete sides as many people walked by.
So with this in mind I decided to have a look at the rest of the reservoir. The Larchwood car park (on the southern side) was closed, so I moved north to Lemon Hill car park near the causeway. The hides usually have the odd migrant WADER in front of them, but with the wet summer there was very little mud available and so there was only two COMMON SANDPIPERS present. There were still lots of COMMON TERNS about as usual providing a lot of noise you can hear way before you get to the hides. There were still some birds looking after chicks, terns nest quite late, well after most of the other birds have finished. After that visit I decided to give it a rest, there didn't seem much on the tail end of the reservoir.
There you go, birdwatching holds many surprises. Days of fruitless searching can all be alleviated by just one beautiful bird, and one of the joys, and yet one of the downfalls of twitching, is that you don't have to search too hard for the bird. Alton Water is one of those local places which I will visit time and again, just because its there, just because I enjoy bird watching, even when there's nothing to see. I promise myself as long as I keep birdwatching I too will find that rarity which takes local birding to a new high.
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