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Caspian Plover; 1st Swedish Record; Sandasjön, Norra Mörkö; 26th March 2014 News came yesterday whilst I was at work that a Caspian Plover had been found on Norra Mörkö. The bird was a male and I couldn't get there on the first day, cue an agonising wait overnight before setting out the next morning. The weather was bad at first light and I decided to take a chance and leave after visiting my local camera shop where I picked up a TLS APO adaptor for my scope, which would allow me to attach my nikon D90 body to the scope in order to digiscope. The bird was reported as distant most of the time and I wanted to get some reasonable record shots of the bird. News had reached me that the bird was still present as I travelled and on arrival a 20 minute dash resulted in the bird feeding in a flooded field about 80 metres away. It was everything I expected, a glorious bird and the scope  views were crippling. I just watched it for a while before eventually spendeing a little time grabbing some digiscoped shots. The I sat and sketched the bird and took in all the details, spending four and a half hours enjoying what is one of the most sought after rarities in the world, with good reason. The light improved in the afternoon and the bright rufous breast band seemed to gleam. This was a really unforgetable, tidy bird. A mythical bird really and I really never did expect to ever see one. As lifers go, this was one of the very best for me. The bird showed very well indeed all day and after getting my head around the adaptor and camera settings I got some lovely shots though my scope. What a bird...
Posted by Alan Dalton at 1:29 PM