20140715 Black-winged Pratincole

Quiet sunny afternoon walk with relatives shattered by Black-winged Pratincole at Cley.
Alerted to bird on Pat's Pool from Dawke's hide by birder who scoped it.
Obvious we had a Pratincole but which one?
After being hastled by a Lapwing the bird lands with underwings on view and showed all black.
But was enough light getting onto the sensor at this range...?
As on jolly only had 600mm on monopod, Bigma left at home.... (Note, always take biggest lens to Cley??)

Bird flies low again due to Lapwing, again shows all dark underwing and no white trailing edge on upperwing.
Two young chaps in hide had birdguide to hand so checked against shots and at this point we
elected to run round to Bishop's hide.
Young chaps pass us at a hellish pace, stop and zoom back again as bird seen to fly onto Simond's.

Bird head on sat down behind Lapwing on Simond's scrape.
Call from the UK's leading twitcher... is it Oriental!? Rapid run through ID... nooope.

Lapwing flock put up. Forked tail shows on Praticole. Upperwing seen well at this time,
overall dark and without a white trailing edge to secondaries.

Upperwing and mantle show darker than nape. Almost same tone on Collard.

Tail seemed to fall short of primary tips, often longer on Collard.

Bird alighting, long legs showing.

Bird re-located at Stiffky Fen on 17th. Flew off high to West as I was setting up.
Black tail feather spread in this shot.

Built for rapid flight, difficult to follow as bird changed direction several times.
Barrel chested reminiscent of Pom.

Black-winged Pratincole.
Pen & Ink sketch from photos by Trevor Williams.