Earlier this year I noticed that the BTO were asking people to volunteer to count gulls at gull roosts. I used to do this so thought I would apply to count the one "vacant" locality within my circle of interest; Lower Bittell Reservoir.
Now I know what you are thinking. Surely Lower Bittell doesn't have a gull roost. That's what I thought too, but maybe my knowledge was out of date.
I didn't hear anything after I applied, but I assumed that once I logged on to their website I would be able to enter data anyway.
It turns out I couldn't. Presumably my application went unnoticed. This was probably just as well because, guess what. There were no gulls whatsoever roosting (or even popping in for a look) at Lower Bittell this evening.
At least I got a Bittell tick out of it. Great White Egrets are semi-resident there nowadays, but in my very few recent visits I had managed to miss them until this evening. In poor light, photographed through a hedge, I managed a horribly out of focus record shot.
This may not have been the best bird recorded though. I also heard a Water Rail squealing from reeds below the locked entrance gates.
All in all it was an evening I'd prefer to forget.
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