Today was mostly about its early morning and late afternoon, less about the time in between, and also about recording my career 500th bird for the Western Palearctic region. That personal landmark was reached courtesy of a Laughing Gull that over the previous four days (since Tuesday 10th) had been logged coming in to roost at Chew Valley Lake (ST565606) just south of Bristol, then flying out again at up to 10 o’clock in the mornings.

I find this common and widespread Nearctic Gull attractive, having experienced many in various plumages two years ago in Florida. In the British Isles it is a rare vagrant. The two mainland opportunities I recall prior to that 2018 life’s great adventure – at Dungeness (Jun 2016) and on Merseyside (Apr 2015) – were both in what I considered unappealing locations and rather too far to drive. So when this latest individual, a first winter bird turned up at just over 90 miles from home I immediately felt interested.

First winter Laughing Gull in Florida (Jan 2018)

But picking one Gull out of a possibly distant roost is not a birding activity I have ever relished. So I waited to see whether any pattern might emerge that could ease my task. Now, given the absence of the usual Saturday afternoon filler of live football on TV and radio, I considered my motivational options at around midday then hit the road.

I arrived on-site mid-afternoon and pulled into a shore-side lay-by alongside CVL’s Heron’s Green Bay. There I engaged with two friendly local birders who said it was as good a spot as any to seek my quest. Though I at once thought any sighting from there would be distant, it became apparent they were in contact with colleagues stationed at the various locations where the Gull had been viewed thus far, so I stuck with them.

By 4:20pm nature’s necessities prompted my relocation to Woodford Lodge, the visitor centre and cafeteria where the required facilities might be found. That had also been the most oft-cited spot from which to scan the Gull roost over the preceding days, and on getting there I found rather more developed twitch lines. Now it was a matter of tagging along, letting other birders do the harder work as is my preference, and seeing what transpired.

The outlook across Chew Valley Lake from Woodford Bank © rights of owner reserved

At some time after 5pm a ripple and murmur enveloped the gathering as various people simultaneously called: “It’s there, with the Common Gulls”. The safest option was to ask a nearby birder to put me on the Laughing Gull in my own scope, which bird then stood out at once by it’s dark tone, black bill and relatively slim build. Having been thus assisted it was quite easy to re-find a number of times. I was impressed by the youth of more than a few of my companions and just how knowledgeable they were, and so might keep trying myself. One Cornish 20-something had also reached and passed 500 WestPal today, or so he said.

The Gull thereafter seemed unlikely to move in any closer, drifting ever sideways out in the mid-to-far distance. But I had ticked it for Blighty and thus satisfied opted to head for home with the warm glow of a successful twitch within me. As I drove away most of the other birders had also departed or else were doing so. It would have been impossible to gain pictures today. For what has been posted on RBA so far see here.

My day had begun with a short drive the other side of Oxford to a public park, The Rye (SU 875921) in High Wycombe, Bucks. There a Black-bellied Dipper had been reported on RBA early on Friday morning on a rocky water feature at the outfall from a long ornamental lake known as “The Dyke”. Amongst sub-species of Eurasian Dipper the one resident to the British Isles has a chestnut coloured band on the darker brown / black belly. The more widely distributed continental European Ssp does not, the underparts being uniformly darker, hence the citation “black-bellied”. Small numbers of these are reported nationally each winter but I had yet to observe one here.

Black-bellied Dipper in Corsica, Sep 2017

When one turned up in another public park outside Northampton for a few days at the beginning of March I looked back through my picture archives and found I had recorded a BBD in Corsica in September 2017 (pictured above). On the day I planned to go for the Northants bird it moved on, so now I was interested to try for this latest, even closer one to home. On 13th I had arrived mid-morning to find several people standing right at the waters edge and yapping dogs on the path above the waterfall, which hardly looked promising.

I then heard a tale of how a dog walker had allowed his pet to scare off the Dipper, then two birders “had a go” at him, he “got the hump” and sent the dog into the water again. Such are the pitfalls of trying to bird in a public park. It was not rocket science to surmise the Dipper was hardly likely to come back with a posse of optics toters now in such close attendance. Hence I searched the water course that flows through the park for as far as I could walk, downstream then up but without success and so gave things up for the day.

In the afternoon I was contacted by a local birding friend who said colleagues would be looking for the Dipper again both at dusk and first light today (14th), so I would be kept informed. It was not seen again on Friday but the dawn tripette still seemed worth making. As I turned off the M40 a message came in to say the Dipper was back, which sort of tip-off is always helpful. So all I had to do was arrive on site in confident mood and walk over to where people were gathered. Things this time were as easy as that.

Black-bellied Dipper in High Wycombe

Now eight birders were standing at a sensible distance and the Black-bellied Dipper (pictured above) was moving around the water feature. The aforementioned colouration was quite obvious, and I watched it going about it’s business for around 15 minutes. At just after 6:50am if flew off towards the long lake of it’s own volition, then after hanging around myself for another 20 minutes or so I decided to go on my way. The bird did return, and was reported on and off right through Saturday, but I suspect a bit of a circus might have developed later.

As the country is now in the grips of worldwide hysteria concerning the Covid-19 outbreak I feel glad to have both birding and gardening as interests should normal life be suspended. With many people stockpiling supplies and stripping out supermarkets, on my way home from Wycombe I took advantage of the still early hour to acquire a small stash of my own before pandemonium broke. So now I need not go out too much in public for a few weeks if that is what we are all instructed to do. There could be more days like this to fill in the time ahead. Today I did that quite successfully.