Patch Garganey!

Compounding the loss of an hour's sleep, I was also rudely awakened this morning by Rob S who had found a male Garganey on Jubilee. This is a properly rare bird round here, my only previous record was in 2009 and most of my fellow patch-workers needed it. In short it would have been poor not to go and share in their warm post-twitch glow. As I live closer than most of them I arrived very quickly, only Marco beat me on his bike, which put me in prime position to witness their final desperate runs to get a clear view. First Nick, then Richard (although compared to the Thrush Nightingale he was practically comatose!), Tim, and finally James, to whom the prize must go for sheer panic and yearning. Luckily the whole team got it with the exception at the time of writing of Tony who we were unable to raise from his slumbers. It was very skittish indeed and I only had a small camera, but what a lovely bird. I went back a little later to have another go with something a bit larger....