Another late afternoon visit after work today and a cursory look around the southern end of the reservoir produced absolutely nothing, so it was back to the northern causeway. I had a quick wander around the car park, but saw nothing so as the day started to draw to a close I concentrated on the gathering gulls. Amongst the several hundred Black-headed Gulls I was surprised to pick out a total of eleven Mediterranean Gulls, seven adult-plumaged birds and four first-winters. This is my highest ever single count of Mediterranean Gulls at SBR, my previous highest being just four birds!
Other than the massed gulls I saw just a single Kingfisher as it zoomed across the water and just as the light was about to go I noticed a pair of ducks appear as if from nowhere. A quick rush back to the car park to get closer proved futile as they appeared to have vanished in the two minutes it took me to move locations. Back to the causeway and finally managed to get a good view of a pair of Gadwall. The mild weather was obviously playing its part today as they actually started copulating! So two new species for the SBR year list tonight, bringing it up to 103 species!
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