Country diary: An Arctic rarity has caused a stir | Claire Stares

Langstone, Hampshire: Hunkered down out of the wind, away from its cackling cousins, is a lone Sabine's gullI don't consider myself to be a twitcher. I get just as much joy from watching the blackbirds, blue tits and robins in my back garden as I do ticking a new species, and I've never felt compelled to travel miles to catch a glimpse of a vagrant bird. But when I heard that a Sabine's gull (Xema sabini) - a pelagic species that lives at sea when it's not on its Arctic breeding grounds - had turned up on my patch, I couldn't resist the urge to join the flock of birders descending on Southmoor Nature Reserve.This rare visitor has rapidly gained celebrity status, so the small car park was overflowing. Camouflage-clad and laden with binoculars, spotting scopes and telephoto lenses, a steady stream of twitchers made their way along the seawall under the bemused gaze of the local dog walkers. Continue reading...