Rarities at Bothal

After hearing about the Black-winged Pratincole at Bothal pond yesterday I thought I would go down this morning but I just had time last night and went along and arrived at 2055 and there were three birdwatchers there and one of them Mark Eaton put me onto the Pratincole straight away sitting on the North West edge of the pond. After 5 minutes it got up and flew around the pond chasing insects among a large flock of Swifts. About 5 minutes later a Tern was hawking insects towards the North end of the pond and Mark who had been watching it for a couple of minutes said it was a Gull Billed Tern. Ian Fisher arrived and we all were watching the Tern twisting around in the air; its broad wings and uniform grey colour to all upperparts could be seen. The Tern landed quite close to the Pratincole which had landed back where I first saw it. More features could be made out including the black bill and the long black legs which gave the bird a more upright appearance at rest. The bird flew up again but this time we couldn't see it again and it was believed to have flown East. The Pratincole was back in the air again and I watched it feeding on insects until about 2130.

I was back at Bothal pond this morning and the Pratincole was still there but as it was very cold it was just sitting on the edge of the pond again. There was a lot of birdwatchers there and it was good to catch up with a few familiar faces I haven't seen in a long while.