A quick trip to Wells after work produced good views of the 2 Red-breasted Geese on the Pitch and Putt Course along with 2 Black Brants and several hybrid young.  A brief stop at Salthouse on the way home added Little Stint to my year list, while a Barn Owl hunting the marsh was majestic as always!

I left home at 11.15pm, picked my Dad up on the way down and arrived at the Hayle Estuary for dawn which soon provided stunning views of the White-billed Diver as it fed in the channel on crabs and flatfish.  We then moved to the causeway where the Spotted Sandpiper showed very well and was supported by 2-3 Med Gulls, 3 Greenshank and a Spotted Redshank but the Franklin’s Gull failed to show.  A quick stop for pasties at 10am saw the addition of Great Northern Diver a few hundred yards from the White-billed before we headed for Wales.

5.5 hours later, we finally managed to find our way to Llys-y-Fran Reservoir after spending half an hour meandering through tiny back roads.  We were greeted by three locals who informed us that the Pacific Diver hadn’t been seen since the morning but they suspected it had gone into a different arm of the reservoir which was a 7 mile walk!  They put us onto a 2w Iceland Gull before leaving us to test our fortune.  We headed to the other side of the dam and shortly after I picked up the Pacific Diver showing well.  Unfortunately, it soon dived, heading in a direction that would take it out of view and despite searching we failed to relocate the bird.  We suspect that a fishing boat which powered it’s way into the area near where we saw the bird flushed it back to wherever it had previously been.  Before heading off we discovered that an adult Iceland Gull had dropped into the roost and we also discovered another 2w in a field a mile or so away.

Sadly the Glaucous-winged Gull failed to give itself up but otherwise a good day was had.  I finally got home at 1am having covered 1100 miles for my first lifer of the year and a new sub-species.  Not too bad for my first real day out of 2007!