Birding at Dusk

Yesterday, after a brief visit by my Father and some of his friends and performing some household chores, I ventured out to Draycote Water to try out the Gull roost.  I arrived at about 3:30pm just as the gulls were starting to arrive en masse and settled myself down near Franklin's Point, as I had no idea where else to go.  It turned out that unfortunately I had chosen the wrong end of the Reservoir, as the gulls were settling down nearer the opposite bank by the visitor centre.  However, I managed to scope good views of the birds and after a while managed to find one white headed individual only to lose it but then find what looked like two adult Yellow Legged Gulls together.  Also, while scanning the roost I chanced upon the Black Necked Grebe, who was right in the middle of them.  On the way back to the car there were many Redwing and Wood Pigeon pigging out on berries.

Today, myself and my birder's wife were meeting relatives just north of Gloucester for a pub lunch and therefore we decided that we would take the opportunity to go to Slimbridge for a couple of hours.  It really was a beautiful day down there with great light which gave us clear views of Wigeon , Golden Plover and Black Tailed Godwits.  A female Brambling was also present on the feeders.

On the way home, after an enormous pub lunch, we went via Hawling to see if they had any Short Eared Owls yet and met a couple of locals who were just giving up hope of seeing one, but had seen one yesterday.  After five minutes of scanning, I thought I spotted one far away on the horizon just as it dipped out of view.  After checking the dry stone wall in the distance, I came across the owl sitting on top of the wall just before it took to flight again.  A good end to a very relaxed day of gentle birding and great food.