Horned Lark

The short drive over to Staines reservoir with Simon Ramm was successful in seeing what is thought to be the American race of the Shore Lark, known in the US as Horned Lark "Eremophila alpestris" and only recorded in the UK a handful of times.

When we arrived we were told it was being watched a short way along the causeway. However within a minute or so we discovered that the gathered birders, perhaps 30 or so, had lost track of it.  So we spent the next hour or so scanning the banks of the reservoir.  Eventually Simon spotted a small group of Linnets on the west bank of the northern section, close to where the Horned Lark had last been seen.  I focused on these and low and behold there was the Lark feeding close to the Linnets. It was certainly hard to see and out of range for binoculars.  A bit frustrating as it had been seen down to a matter of a few metres 2-3 hours earlier!  Soon everybody else was on the bird and happy to have least sen it.

As the bird was such a long way off it was hard to even see the bird in my Nikon compact camera viewfinder! I could see the bird more clearly in my mobile phone but some of the detail is lost with the digital zoom. What with a brisk wind shaking the scope, the photos are purely record shots but an interesting comparison.

Digiscoped with my Samsung S7 mobile phone.

Digiscoped with a Nikon P6000 compact camera