I thought about the patch today, while twitching the Bow Siberian Chiffchaff in fact. I probably may have strolled over there if the little devil hadn’t have given me the run-around for over two hours! It showed well, calling constantly for nigh on half an hour when it deigned to put in an appearance. That left little time for Walthamstow, after the Tesco run.
I was sitting at the back window in the late afternoon gloom, which looked remarkably similar to the midday and morning gloom when I suddenly realised that I had left my Bins in the car, I’ll pop out and get them in a minute, I thought, I won’t be needing them in these conditions, at which point I looked up to see an adult winter-plumaged Mediterranean Gull flying around the factory roof opposite with a few other Gulls, in fact it landed on the roof a couple of times, thus coming off the ‘seen in flight from the house’ list and getting itself straight onto the ‘seen on the deck from the house’ list. It’s the first adult that I have seen from the house the last two being first winters, with another first winter just a couple of hundred meters away in the local park.
This was a Bird I had not quite given up on for the patch this year, as an adult, probably the same one, has been seen by the filter beds and by Ferry lane in the last couple of weeks, in fact it could be the Wanstead Flats Bird too. I have been on the lookout for it and decided I must check the filter beds in the mid-late afternoon in case it is dropping in there for the pre-roost gathering, no need now, I shall have to think of other targets for the year.
After considering this year to be a bit mediocre patch-wise the last few weeks have seen both the patch and me adding a number of species (totals 145/126 respectively) and now we are both only 5 species off last year’s record. Can it be done?
GH
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