The weather hadn't inspired me to get up early to head out to St Aldhelms & so I had had a lazier start, followed by a visit to Studland for the rising tide. But it was still early in the Autumn for Brands Bay to pick up a more interesting Autumnal wader. The highlight of the visit was seeing a Great White Egret flying over towards Littlesea as I was leaving Brands Bay. Ten years earlier & this would have resulted in a big twitch for the local Poole Harbour Birders. That happened when I chanced on one at Middlebere on 7 Sep 14: which was the first twitchable individual in Poole Harbour for about fifteen years. But it & later another were pinned down at Studland later that month. Since that time, they have been so regular from the Autumn to the Spring locally, that we rarely lift an eyebrow at the most recent sighting. I checked the news on RBA, as I got back to the car. There was nothing of note in Dorset.
Then I checked the rarity channel. News had just broke of a Kelp Gull at Graftham Water, Cambridgeshire: albeit RBA called it a Cape Gull which is a name for the South African subspecies. It was late morning. I wanted to give it time for other local Birders to arrive, see it & confirm the identification. If I'm going to be looking at a long drive, I would rather know that it correctly identified & also it is showing well. I felt there was a reasonable chance that it would be present for the day given it was at an inland reservoir, so I wasn't too worried by waiting for an hour for more news. That would give me the time to get home, grab some food & the camera before I left. I alerted my twitching buddies to ensure they knew. But I also said I will be travelling up on my own. C19 was still a particular concern at the time. It hadn't gone away & I still wasn't comfortable in sharing cars, even if my twitching buddies were also cautious. But there was also the thought of it I got there & it had left, then I will want to stay over, which wouldn't have been possible for my other mates.
By the time I had eaten a quick lunch, there had been a number of updates to say it was still present and showing. I left Dorset about an hour after seeing the first message. On paper, it was about four and a half hours. But it was a school holiday Sunday & it took me about five hours before I was pulling into the car park about 16:45. I could see a few Birders around in the car park & quickly got an update on the directions. I ended up taking the wrong route & ended up on at the top of the sloping bank of the reservoir. But there were about thirty other Birders there. The majority had taken a different path & were just above the wall behind us. I asked for directions & found it was on its own & trying to get some rest, but a party of Canada Geese were stopping that happening. That was easy. Twitches are always less stressful when you arrive & immediately see the Tick.
This is the dark eyed vetula subspecies that occurs in coastal South Africa & Namibia. The other Kelp Gull subspecies all have pale eyes & it has been suggested this might be a reason for splitting this subspecies from the other Kelp Gull subspecies.
After an hour of watching it sit and stand around I had seen enough. The heat haze didn't look like it was going to improve. I had a chat with a few mates before returning to the car park, to start the long journey home.
