Off Day

 It was my one day weekend today and I fancied popping along to Eyebrook keen to see if yesterday's Little Stint was still hanging around. A pink suffuse glow in the sky sadly soon gave way to rain clouds and it was pretty damp by the time that I arrived at the reservoir. After a spell sheltering under a tree at Stoke Dry car park the rain eased just enough to tempt me into venturing further afield.

Stonechat

My walk on the Rutland side did not produce any sightings of the stint and it looks as if the bird was a one day wonder, other would be observers failed to see it too. A pair of Stonechats at the sharp end provided some much needed entertainment but overall it was pretty dull. North of the island a single Dunlin was noted and there were a couple of Pintails feeding with the growing Wigeon flock. From the bunker south of the island a fly over Golden Plover added to my meagre wader total and I also had distant views of an adult Yellow legged Gull.  A long billed and small headed gull looked very suggestive of Caspian but at the time I didn't want to commit myself.  Sam's Dyke yielded views of a Snipe and also further though more distant views of the putative Caspian. Eventually I decided that it was a juvenile moulting into first winter Caspian Gull, several dodgy record shots will hopefully support this theory. With the sun now shining and feeling warm my lift arrived to take me home and then on to a dinner at the George in Weldon with my wife. A poor return for my efforts perhaps but hopefully my recent poor run will improve soon.

Caspian Gull, apologies for the poor quality pics!