A manx shearwater found its way to Farmoor Reservor today and was reported late morning, so as I was looking for somewhere to go, I headed straight over there. It was cited as being at the north of F1, the smaller of the two bodies of water. As I walked along the footpath which runs round the reservoir, I picked up a year tick in the form of a yellow legged gull on a small building which jutted out into the water As I neared the small group of birders already gathered there I scanned the water but couldn't see any bird, but then realised it was only a few metres from shore rather than the distant shape I had pessimistically expected! I stopped to watch the shearwater being taken for a ride over the waves, mostly facing the wind which was away from where we were standing. A couple of times it gave a bit of a wing flap, but there was a limit to the variation in photos one could take of this somewhat monochrome bird on a grey body of water! How it got there and how long it will stay, is anyone's guess! It didn't seem to doing much, so inwardly I queried its state of health. (Later I read that it had been taken into care about half an hour after I'd left, so perhaps it was a sick bird).
After around twenty minutes, I called it a day, it was quite cool and windy, so I was glad it was only a short walk back to the car.
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