Saturday 6 February 2010

Gulls, gulls everywhere but not a single yella' legged in sight.

Rainton Meadows

That’s it! That’s me and gulls finished! I spent about 2-3 hours today scanning through gulls to look for something interesting and didn’t see anything. However, I did gain more experience with ID’ing some of the commoner gulls and therefore familiarising myself with some of the commoner gulls. Today there was really high numbers of Black-headed Gulls, Herring Gull, and quite a few Great-black backed Gulls. There was also 2c Common Gull amongst them. 1 small (female?) Herring Gull nearly got my excited thinking it was a Ring-billed Gull but closer inspection and I quickly realised it was a Herring Gull. I missed a Lesser-black backed Gull when I went to go and look around Joe’s Pond for the Pintail. I couldn’t see it; this was probably because it had cleared of because of the idiotic fisherman on Joe’s Pond. They where either ignorant or couldn’t read the “NO FISHING” sign that is clearly displayed in the middle of the pond. No sign of the Tawny Owl either so I missed that! Sadly it wasn’t my day today.

I must admit I really enjoyed looking through the gulls hoping to find the Yellow-legged Gull. I have spent a lot of time this winter scanning through gulls but nothing has really stood out that well. If I confess I did go of gulls for a while after missing that Glaucous-winged Gull which I would have loved to have seen but missed by about 2 hours :( Thankfully I am getting back into them and hope to see or find a Glaucous Gull sooner rather than later.

Rare gulls I HAVE seen:
- Ring-billed Gull, Dundee 31/12/2008
- Iceland Gull x3
- Glaucous Gull x1
- Yellow-legged Gull x1

That’s me lot! Lol
Now lets bask in my terrible shot of a Great-black Backed gull from today.

(Great-black backed Gulls)

2 comments:

  1. I came to the conclusion long ago that some people think well displayed signs are only well displayed for others, and not themselves!
    Keep watching the gulls and you will be rewarded, or so I'm told. Brian.

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  2. Andrew, some Woodcock tips sure to get one on your list. Now is a good time with all the ones having arrived at New Year. Head for any wet woodland or wet areas with thick scrub and yomp through the thick bits. Particularly in woodland you will flush one up and away I'm sure. Up here I see them most times I am out in that habitat. They will get more scarce come March as the emigrate back to Scandinavia...

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