A good day and a problem

The day started at Staines with four Black necked Grebe fairly close in, a couple of redhead Smew on the North Basin and an adult male and redhead on the South Basin, 30+ Goldeneye including two groups of displaying males, a juv Shag on the tern rafts and later swimming around on the South Basin. There were also two Scaup – one an adult female and the other that was either a dull adult female or a first winter. While grilling the ducks and chatting to another birder he picked up a Short eared Owl over the far side of the North Basin being mobbed by corvids and which quickly ditched into a tree. It was pushed out of the tree after a few minutes and tracked the east side of the reservoirs before turning west over the south bank and heading in the direction of Staines Moor.

Then the problems started. On the way back from Staines I dropped into the Wetland Centre and everything was pretty uneventful until I got to the Peacock Hide. I scanned around a bit and, fairly close on the nearest bank of the Wader Scrape, was a first winter Caspian Gull. It was an immediate stand out bird with a white head, long wings, all dark greater coverts with white tips to the lesser, median and greater coverts forming three pale lines on the wing, and dark pale tipped tertials. After taking it all in I reached for my camera – and that moment a huge troupe of bird tour people clunked, shouted and tramped into the hide and the Caspo flew off across the Main Lake with the other large gulls. And, while some of the other gulls returned, the Caspo didn’t.

Now why is this a problem? Well the problem is that the LWC has a history of reporting Caspians, some of which are, err, well, not always Caspians. I've been birding at the LWC for nearly seven years and in that time I've been shown about a dozen and a half ‘Caspians’ which turned out to be mostly Herring Gulls or LBBs (with a couple of GBBs thrown in). Of the ones that get reported there never seem to be any photos. So, fairly or unfairly, records of Caspians from Barnes tend to be looked on with a certain amount of suspicion, despite the fact that at least some of them are probably gen.

Which brings me back to the problem. I've just had a Caspo at Barnes with no photo. Which feels like I'm just adding to the problem. Do notes still count?

UPDATE: Thankfully someone else also saw this bird - Stephen Menzie - including some great pictures here.