10 May 2009. Black-winged pratincole.

While I was at Elmleigh today, David told me about the black-winged pratincole at Reculver, a very rare vagrant to this country. As I wasn't too far away I wandered down and met the throng of at least 100 birdwatchers waiting for a glimpse.

It was last seen over a field of rape. I didn't have much idea what it looked like. Someone saw it two or three fields away and I may have seen it in the sense that I saw a tiny dot in my scope.

Later, I saw what I thought was the bird and started calling out where it was. I lost it for a few seconds and the bird I then picked up on turned out to be a crow. How embarassing in front of all those experts!!

About half an hour later the pratincole came back and settled on one of the banks of the oyster farm. It stayed there for at least half an hour so everyone had time to move round to it and have a good look. It was about 100m away and there was a lot of heat haze so the picture is not good. As I left, it flew off and turned up the next day at Grove Ferry. I was glad to have seen it.

Black-winged pratincole, Reculver.