Grey Phalarope Phalaropus fulicarius
KGV Reservoir, Chingford, London
#3959

This bird was a delight as it bobbed and twisted only a few feet in front of perhaps only five lucky observers. The tactic here was to sit on the bank of the reservoir with the sun at your back, and wait for the bird to swim past. Managing the exposure was very tricky as the sun kept on going behind clouds. On the whole, I prefer cloud cover to sunshine, though with this bird I wasn't choosy as my only previous sighting had been of a swift-moving dot off the back of the Scillionian III.