Alexandra Park, Oldham

There's been a magnificent adult Caspian gull at Alexandra Park in Oldham over the past few days so I decided to call in for a look. 

I find it very uncomfortable birding in these types of places with lots of the general public hanging around and families feeding the ducks. I never like walking around with binoculars and a camera and I wouldn't dream of taking my telescope, that's just a non-starter. 

Anyway, I'd spent an uncomfortable hour and a half looking very suspicious with no sign of the gull when suddenly I saw a likely contender flying over one of the lakes. It circled around allowing me to confirm the identification before heading off over the trees to the south west and was lost to view. It repeated this about three more times over the next half hour before finally landing on the lake. Unfortunately it only stayed there for a minute before flying off and I didn't see it again despite waiting for another two hours.

It's a beautiful bird and well worth the effort. Pity it didn't stay longer.

I was quite impressed with Alexandra park, especially since it had a heronry in the trees on the small islands. I really didn't expect this in the middle of such a busy park.

This wood duck has apparently been on the lake in front of the café for a few weeks. It arrived last October, it's unringed, has a full set of flight feathers, and is very wary if you get closer than 2 feet......✓