Wednesday 29 January 2014

1w Glaucous Gull!

 A thoroughly miserable day today rain, rain and more rain with a biting easterly wind, that numbed my fingers so much that I was struggling to press the camera shutter. Despite the weather I was still at the fishing boats at 07.45 where DW was already on site and where we spent most the day. In the south east to east wind, the fishing boats offered very little shelter and we both got soaked and cold. Sea bird numbers were well down on recent days but still enough to keep us out in the rain and cold.
Red-throated Divers: 100+W
Great Crested Grebes: 1,000+ on the sea
Fulmar: 3+W
Gannet: 100+W
Brent Goose: 3E
Common Scoter: 60+W
Shelduck: 1W
Wigeon: 4W
Little Gull: 7+W
Kittiwake: 150+W
Glaucous Gull: 1 1st w on the beach
Auks: 2,000+ W
The 1st w Glaucous Gull appeared at the back of RX446 in the melee of feeding Gulls and spent c1½ hrs showing down to a few feet before apparently moving to The Patch. Shame about the weather and light.









 This afternoon at The Patch the 1w Glaucous Gull was not difficult to find as it was the only Gull on the beach. Over The Patch were 5+ Little Gulls and a Mediterranean Gull. The 2 Black-throated Divers could be seen on the New Diggings from the causeway as well as 2 Great White Egrets and a red head Smew at the south end of the ARC.



4 comments:

  1. The Glaucous is a smart bird ... Love image No: 2

    The bill base is a little odd ?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Mick, It looks like an extra flap of skin. From some angles it gives a tube nose effect.

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  2. Great set of Glauc images Martin. Must get to see one one day !

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  3. Nice images of the Glaucous Gull

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