Summer Leys has all too short a date...

 I was lured off the patch today by the prospect of Glossy Ibis - a bird that has eluded me throughout the autumn. Wherever I've been, from Norfolk to Dorset, the message has been the familiar: "Well, it was here yesterday (and the day before, and the day before that, etc.)

So, this morning it was off to Summer Leys LNR in Northants - less than an hour's drive from home, and host to a Glossy Ibis for about as long as anyone can remember. 

Well, apparently not today. 

I arrived at 9am in thick fog, which was quite a surprise since it had been all clear at home. After a friendly face was kind enough to give me a bit of local intel, I worked my way from one side of the wader scrape to the other, and then on to a viewing screen at the far end, and ultimately around the whole circuit and back for a final hour in the first hide. 

It's a lovely reserve, based around a deep central lake with a sizeable wader scrape, well appointed with hides and the surrounding habitat carefully managed by a flock of rare-breed sheep. 

Good numbers of wildfowl were evident - mainly Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall and Tufties - along with notably large numbers of Cormorant and Coot, plus a Great White Egret and at least one Little Egret. The woodland edge was lively with tit flocks and a few thrush species - Redwing numbers are starting to grow, ditto Blackbirds, joined by one each of Mistle Thrush and Song Thrush.

But the real highlights were waiting for my final hour in the Pioneer Hide from where I'd started my day. 

First a Marsh Harrier showed well in the now-lifting mist, mobbed for a minute or more by two Carrion Crows before settling down beyond a clump of reeds and not reappearing. Then a dozen or so Golden Plover appeared and wheeled away in the near distance, sadly not stopping to set down. It was the explosive call and sudden kerfuffle with nearby Lapwings which alerted me to a just-arrived Green Sandpiper, a late migrant and the first I've seen for a few weeks now. And finally, one of the few birders who had by now joined me for the improving weather spotted that one of the newly arrived gulls latest gull arrivals looked suspiciously pale - and a quick gander through the scope confirmed it as an adult Mediterranean Gull. 

So, four decent day-defining finds, any one of which would have been a highlight had I stayed on patch. But no Glossy Ibis, so the search continues...

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Below, record shots of the Med Gull, showing the characteristic pale back, absence of black on the primaries, and winter hood at the back of the head. Flight revealed completely white underwings.