I didn't see the news about the Prat until around 23:00 on Sunday so I very quickly had to shuffle my work schedule! Some of the regular readers may remember what happened last time I went on a twitch for a Collared Prat... it was one of many rare birds that I waited a while to go and see (just to be sure that there was a good chance of connecting) and of course I missed it on it's first day of absence. My twitching luck in 2013 and 2014 was amazingly bad in that respect with a similar thing happening a few times!
We arrived at Ham Wall just after 08:30 and the viewing platform was surprisingly quiet with only 2 other birders there, neither of whom had seen the bird yet. About 10 mins later I spotted it fly up in the same place that it was frequenting the previous evening. Result! We spent almost 12 hours waiting for good views but the bird always remained distant - just a small speck in the viewfinder. I took work with me so I could wait and work at the same time! Thankfully it was such a good bird that it didn't really matter if the pics were a bit crap (these are cropped in VERY far, hence the poor image quality):
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| Dancing in the rain |
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| Open wide! |
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