Wednesday night I play football at work for an hour. I know. Very hard to believe. Anyway I do and its good fun plus the obvious excercise. As soon as we finished it was straight home, a bit of food and then I was on the north shore just before 19.00. I got to the group of birders and asked if it was still around. The response? Flushed five minutes ago. Flushed last night by homo-sapians tonight flushed by Falco peregrinus. Yep, a juvenile Peregrine was terrorising the birds around Chasewater, the Franklins Gull included. The group searched through the returning gulls but no luck until a group of birders on the west bank started waving. They had relocated it in the north-eastern area, near the swag. we all marched over the bays, around the corner to a group of gulls. As I put the scope on them up they went and off into the distance. One guy said he had definate views of the bird there. Fantastic. Flushed three times in two days. By now it was about 19.30. A group of us hung around the north shore as slowly but surely birds drifted in to roost. All except the wanted one. Birds noted were Mute Swan, Common Tern, Goldfinch, Mallard, Swallow, Coot, Wood Pigeon, Great Crested Grebe, Canada Geese, Tufted Duck, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Sand Martin, Magpie, Dunnock, Linnet, Cormorant, Green Sandpiper, Gadwall, Moorhen, Pochard, Peregrine, Pied Wagtail, Swift, Reed Bunting, Mediterranean Gull, Little egret and Yellow-legged Gull. I hung around until 21.30 but no sign, it was getting too dark and any views would have been quite unexciting. Eventually it turned up to roost at 21.45. Tonight (Thursday) I had things on so I could not go, and there has been no sign of it up to now anyway. Oh well, thats the way it goes.
This was my last chance for this bird, unless it hangs around for over a week as I am on call yet again and working Saturday but I will get a bit of local birding done.
I have just edited this on Friday morning and the bird did not show yesterday at all.
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