Blashford Lakes HWT - Sun 11 Feb

The drive from Arne up to Blashford Lakes didn't take as long as I was expecting and we arrived just before 4.30pm. I walked out to Tern Hide overlooking Ibsley Water and was lucky enough to get on the Thayer's Gull pretty much immediately thanks to the birders in the hide who shared their 'scope initially and then gave excellent directions to enable me to get on it myself. It was a pretty impressive gull, and a real education. I did try to get a photo, but it was rather distant and the light was poor...plus, of course, I'm terrible at photographing birds!

There was an adult Ring-billed Gull present also, but I didn't have time to search for this. To be honest I wasn't that bothered as I only had a short amount of time and the Thayer's Gull was what I was after, but I did see a couple of Yellow-legged Gulls.
I did manage a couple of year ticks though with a flock of fifteen Goosander and two female Goldeneye noted whilst I was looking at the gull. As it was starting to get dark, and as the warden came to lock the hide, I called it a day and re-joined the family ready to head home, and to round off what was a brilliant day, a Woodcock flew over the car as we were approaching Bere Regis, result!