The muttering paid off - it was still there on arrival! Problem was, it was tucked up in the cow drink at the Southern end - directly into the light :-(
I was not surprisingly, relieved and over the moon just to see it but there was no chance of any decent images sadly. The following were all that I could rescue from the situation.....
The arrival tick....
The flight a little nearer (still into the light!)
The landing with those translucent secondaries and inner primaries on fire!
Brief float on the water....
before off again.....
A brief stop against the far reed bed.....
followed by the last thing we wanted to see...
.....the sight I was dreading as several friends were homing in fast, this flight was to be the last we would see of it :-(
Oh well, if you want to see some better images of a similar bird, here' s the Westport bird in August 2008 or and the Belvide Sabs from just a week ago.
