BLACK REDSTART at Wyboston

I had just arrived at Stewartby Lake at c5.30 this evening when Jim Gurney rang me to say he and Pip Housden had just been watching the BLACK REDSTART on the roof of the first building on the right as you enter the Wyboston Lakes site from the aforementioned traffic lights.

I decided on a sprint over and the first several miles took but a few minutes but the last 2+ miles was a solid queue so it wasn't until 5.55pm that I got to the site with little hope now of seeing the bird. A friendly security guard came out and pointed to where he'd seen the bird a little earlier himself and said I was welcome to look around. A few minutes later I found it sitting beneath the light above the entrance to this L-shaped motel type block. It then flew up on the guttering and then up to the ridge where it sat for some minutes as I 'scoped it. It was clearly soaking up the last warm rays of sun and after some minutes dropped out of few at 6.10pm, presumably to roost. A fairly drab bird, clearly a female, with Dunnock grey base plumage, orangy brown tail and a Robin-like but a bit slimmer shape. I even managed a couple of my "soft focus" photos.

MJP