Rare birds spotted

Before I started up this blog I told myself that I would just stick to photographing birds that were native to the UK. So that's 272.

I went to Radipole Lake in Weymouth at the weekend, and had my first experience spotting rarer birds. I'm still sticking to my original goal, but I now understand why so many twitchers adopt 'Life Lists'.

As we returned from our walk around Radipole Lake there was a lot of excitement in the reception area of the lodge. The viewing area was crammed with eager birders, all clamouring to see a rare Iceland Gull.

Now even with my half decent knowledge of birds, I struggle to tell the difference between most gulls and found myself gazing out onto the lake, with no idea what I was supposed to be looking for.

Luckily, for me, people were only too keen to point it out, unluckily for me most birders like to use the most vaguest of terms in order to help you track birds down. "See that mural up there? Well look along to the left, then look down and it's the third on the left to the immature Herring Gull." They may as well have spoken in Greek to me.

Fortunately, the Iceland Gull grew bored of swimming and flew to a nearby island where I was able to get a photo of it.

It's a beautiful looking bird with snowy white plumage and a distinctive dark bill. Despite its name, the Iceland Gull breeds in Greenland and Arctic Canada, so there was little wonder that so many people were making a fuss about it.

I felt a tingling of excitement, not just because I finally spotted it, but because there was the likelihood that I may never see another. I started to realise then why dedicated twitchers will happily travel for miles to spot rarities that have been blown off course when migrating.

My next rare spot was again at Radipole Lake. This time it was a Hooded Merganser. It's a saw-billed duck, which is quite streamlined and around the size of a Tufted Duck. I knew it must be rare, because I couldn't see it in my RSPB book. Even the wife was getting interested and I was eventually given its name upon reaching Lodmoor after talking to a fellow birder about my find.

Apparently, this male has been at Radipole for around 5 years and thinks it's a Tufted Duck (it's apparently always trying to mate with the females there). Due to its native home being in America, there's plenty of controversy surrounding this particular bird, as some feel it's escaped from a local park/reserve and isn't technically here due to flying off course. Rules or not, I felt that familiar thrill of witnessing the unknown and began to consider setting up my own 'Life List'.

While I got my answer about the Hooded Merganser at Lodmoor, my reason for going there was to see an elusive Black-Winged Stilt. It's a very rare wader that has admittedly become more common over the years, with over 388 known sightings.

Some twitchers were already there with their scopes and bins (that's binoculars in case you were wondering) and one gentleman kindly lent me his bins and gave me some more vague directions to find it. 'Look out for his pink legs,' he told me. 'See it's there, between the two tufts of reeds'. I exclaimed how bright its legs were and how beautiful it looked and handed the bins back with a foolish grin on my face.

'You didn't see it did you." My wife said after we moved on. 'No,' I confirmed, genuinely upset that I may have missed this once in a lifetime opportunity. Luckily, another gentleman had set up a telescope a little further down the trail and I was able to take my first proper look at it.

It's a delightful looking wader, with long pink legs and a distinct black back. It's otherwise all white, looking a little like a slightly less graceful Little Egret. I was made up, and thanked the stranger (who also hailed from Bournemouth) for the use of his scope. I was made up, I'd seen three rare birds in the space of three hours.

It wasn't until I got home that I received another surprise. Having long giving up on getting a photo of the stilt (my 250mm lens simply isn't long enough) I walked off in another direction and took a photo of the landscape. It wasn't until I was tinkering with the image at home that I realised I had inadvertently taken a shot of it. It's not great, but it's in the middle of the photo. Honest!

I'll be adding the Iceland Gull to my list at the end of the week, but it's nice to know that I have images of the other two tucked away, just in case I do feel the need to start my own 'Life List'. After all, who doesn't like to collect things?

Main stilt image copyright JJ Harrison