Hilfield Reservoir - 19.1.14

This post should have gone in front of the last two but I can't be arsed to delete them and type them out again!

 As I had Tom I thought I'd drag him around the reservoir for some fresh air and hopefully get to see some of the birds that were being ringed close up and hopefully add some more species to my Patchwork Challenge list. It turned out that I had already missed 4 PWC ticks that morning so things looked grim. Just then the ringers arrived and out of the bags appeared a Goldfinch which tom wanted to stroke but was told no he can't! But he was allowed to gently hold and release a Blue Tit which seemed to make his day. One of the ringers then received a phone call from Tony Blake who was scanning the water to say he had just found a Mediterranean Gull. So up the steps we went and as is usual it was on the far side. It was a 2nd Winter bird but unlike the mainly black wing tipped individual I had on new year's day this one had mainly white wingtips. So there is a good chance it's a different bird. The walk round was pretty uneventful with only Green Woodpecker new for the list and seeing 2 female Goldeneye. It was only as I was locking the main gate that a BH Gull flew over sounding annoyed that I looked up and saw it was attacking a Sparrowhawk which was another tick. So after 3 visits I've now seen 57 species which from the challenge's scoring system gives me 59 points. Better that I thought but compared to other sites it's most likely useless!