With many reports of rare migrants turning up on our shores, it was perhaps inevitable that Farmoor reservoir would present something of interest... and last Saturday a grey phalarope was reported. These small waders are usually quite confiding and some tend to hang around for a few days, so I was hopeful that I would be able to see it on Monday after I finished work.
I checked the local birding blog and it had been reported on F2 along the causeway at 8 am so I went straight to Farmoor from school. I checked with a couple of returning birders who told me that it had moved to the NE corner of F1 so I made for that point, which wasn't too far from the entrance. There was only one other person there and at first I couldn't make out where the bird was but then found it swimming bravely over the waves, sometimes hardly visible in the swell. It was only about a few metres from the shoreline and seemed quite unaffected by the visits of various birders who stopped by to photograph it.
Last time a grey phalarope visited the reservoir was back in 2016 so I was pleased to see another one after a long wait. I also saw the rarer red necked phalarope there in 2017.
Returning to the car, I stopped to photograph a rather sleepy dunlin which was just standing on the shore, either with its beak tucked under its wing or just watching the water or preening.
compare size with a black headed gull
photo taken from where the dunlin was on the shoreline, the phalarope around corner in the photo.
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