After a very hectic night out for me at a couple of friends wedding reception, getting into bed at 1-20am. The last thing you would expect is for a first for Britain to turn up! As we know us seasoned twitchers Always expect the unexpected Waking at around 10-15am my fuzzy head was plotting what to do with the day, when a message from Craig B stated Cape Gull at Grafham Water, Cambridgeshire the usual panic set in when a possible first for Britain occurs. Next thought, who wants to go? Texted/phoned around, the usual A teamers had already made plans for a summer Sunday. Then Rob D from Huddersfield and Dave W (now residing mainly in Barnsley) said they would come along, both ardent twitchers and plans were made. The fuzziness cleared as my man`s brain concentrated on getting to the bird as soon and within the law as possible. Picked up Rob D at 12-30pm and we headed for Barnsley, on the way a nice juvenile Cuckoo flew over the car. The usual morass of people going shopping, visiting garden centres, roadworks with nobody actually working on them slowed us. Arriving at Dave W`s abode at 1-30pm helped as we were only a few miles from the A1. Now progress could be made on this road, always aware of lots of sneaky camera`s etc that are positioned on it. As we got near the Newark A17 turn off, Dave`s pager told us that the Cape Gull had flown off. Sorry but the words used for the next few minutes are certainly not printable! We slowed down a little but 5 minutes later a further message told us that the last message was erroneous (that means lies or rubbish) the mood in the car changed and my foot began to feel heavier again.
We arrived at an already busy carpark at Grafham Water, a place I have never visited before, and found a parking spot, dashing off to the place where the Cape Gull was last seen. It was incredibly hot down here, no wonder they are running out of water. Along the path we saw lots of smiling faces and we heard that the bird was still there, after a couple of minutes we could see the considerable crowd that had assembled from all parts of Britain, so quickly. A look at the bird confirmed the sighting for us all, but we all agreed that if we had seen it for ourselves at some other location on our own that, apart from saying that looks a little strange that we wouldnt have been able to identify it. After watching the Cape Gull for over an hour we all began to recognise the more salient features of the bird. This species has been expanding its range northwards over the last 20 years and it was predicted to grace our shores a couple of years ago. The bird had been initially found a couple of days before by a very diligent man, who is too be congratulated for his identification skills. Once the heat had got to us we retreated to the café, where I had my first food of the day and an ice cream.
A trip on the way home to Eyebrook Reservoir on the Leicestershire/Rutland border was next to admire an American visitor, a White rumped Sandpiper was made. I called a birding friend of mine, Martin Q who agreed to meet us there and find the bird for us. Upon arrival an Osprey flew over the reservoir and a few of the overspill birders, from the gull, had this American peep in view. It was distant but showing well in the sunshine. We had a nice chat with Martin Q then headed for home via A1 & M62 both these roads were fairly quiet and I reached home by 10pm. It certainly wasnt the way I had expected to spend the day watching a first for Britain. Good trip, here is to the next one chaps!
