Not tonight, Josephine!

Well, I had to choose an interesting title for this post because the photos I took today weren't going to hold anyone's interest for long.  See if you get the reference by the end of the post.

Paul Richardson and I went out to the Wirral today in search of two lifers.  He got both but I only got one and none of the views either of us had were truly satisfying.  We first visited Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB to try to see the Spotted Crake which had been showing on and off for a couple of weeks.  I'd been previously with no luck, so I was up for trying again.  We stayed for a couple of hours or so during which time Paul had a glimpse of it for about five seconds but I didn't see it at all.

We then moved on to Parkgate where we saw six Greenshank which was nice, but not a lot else.  Finally we headed off to Red Rocks near Hilbre Island for the high tide because a Bonaparte's Gull had been showing around the beach area for over a week.  We spent a lot of time looking here to no avail, and the so-called high tide didn't show up, so we moved along Kings Gap to the Lifeboat Station at the other end of the promenade.

There were only a few people out looking for this rare gull today, and we all focused on a small group of gulls roosting on the beach about a hundred yards away. After a short chat with the others we decided it wasn't there and headed back to Red Rocks for another look there. We met Ray Banks and his friend and whilst we chatting I got a text on the North West Birding WhatsApp group to say the Bonaparte's Gull had just come in to the very group of gulls we had been watching - so we shot off back to the Lifeboat Station, with Ray and friend in hot pursuit.

Sure enough there it was, but now asleep with it's head tucked in.  Unfortunately, although it's a smaller bird than a Black-headed Gull, you really do need to see it's head to pick the dark bill and black smudge behind the eye to be sure you've seen it. In all the time we were there it only lifted its head up a couple of times and so it was very difficult to pick out, especially when most of its body was masked by other gulls.

After checking that nobody minded, I tried to get a closer photo from a different angle by going down onto the beach and getting the sun behind me.  There had been plenty of dog walkers passing in front of us, so I knew the birds weren't going to be easily spooked.  However, when I got there, I couldn't pick out which bird it was, and so I returned to the promenade to take this photo.  It's not great, but you don't often get one with a Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, Bonaparte's Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gull all lined up to show their relative sizes for comparison.

So 'not tonight Josephine', do you get it now? Answers on a postcard please.