October Holiday

Stared my main October holiday on Friday, and had a full day birding yesterday.

After an early morning flu jab, I went down to Amwell. Autumn migration seems to have kicked in with Skylark and thrushes flying around. Duck numbers are slowly building up, and at least two Pintail were present though they spent most of the time asleep. Several Buzzards took advantage of the thermals. Around mid-day news came on about the Azorean Yellow Legged Gull at Didcot, and after a quick phone call to Colin we arranged to get there early afternoon.

Unfortunately it had not been seen for a good hour prior to our arrival, and was not seen up til dusk. We did have a couple of Caspian Gulls-adult and first winter, and everywhere we looked we could see Red Kites. I did try to get a few images (hand held manual focus 500mm lens with a 2x converter!) but none were sharp. The Kestrel came out a bit better.

Hope to go back and try for the gull later in the week, hopefully when the tip is open, a routine will be established.