Monday 1 February 2010

As cold as ICELAND!!!!!!!

30/01/10



felt a bit twitchy today, so where better to go than look through a few gulls

stubbers green here we come.........


well eventually............


finally got my dad out at about 1:30, about and hour later, we parked next to the road, a scan of the small pool produced a few common, herring and LBBG's in the numerous BHG's

there was about 5 birders on site and all at the grassy bank end. we asked had the iceland been seen, the expected NO followed.

so up the sailing club end me and my dad went, a minuite passed and then i got it

'CASPIAN'

my dad looked though my scope and saw the bird which was a lifer for him, and here it is.......









we spent some time scanning the gulls up the top end, but no iceland up there, i went down to the others to say we had the capso, when i heard one of the birder's go 'is it a 2nd winter'

in my mind i though, they have the iceland, and as usual when i get something in my head i asked, have you got the iceland, they said yes, and i looked through this 'dude's' scope at a beautiful 'white' 2ND WINTER ICELAND GULL (lifer 201), i looked for about 10 secs then said the usual thanks and went off to collect my dad, for some reason, we stopped and scanned the gull's up the top end, and went down to the other's about 5-10 mins later, and they said 'it had flown'

BULL CRAP


and the morel of the story is, always go imidiatly when a good bird is found........


anyway here is a pic my friend jim almond sent for me, thanks jim

(the pic was taken at same location, earlier in the day)

his day can be viewed here



we spent the rest of the afternoon scaning the gulls, the caspo was picked out a few times but the iceland failed to reappear before my dad, but i was well and truily gutted when i heard news of a gloucous gull just up the road.

terry hinett arrived and said that the smew was showing on the swag pool at chasewater, he give directions to where it was. we told him that no iceland or caspo(had left earlier) were in the flock, so i presume he then went to the roost at either chasewater or bartly. despite knowing where the smew was showing from and with us having about an hour untill dusk(or something like that) we could easily make it. but my dad didnt want to go.......


so i had to miss the smew again, grrrrrrrrrrrrr

well on the brighter side, he will have to take me up there again to get it, whoop, whooop


what didnt help either was the gull's were extremly skitish and therfore were quite hard to work, and after an hour and a half looking at gull's, every herring seems to be an iceland LOL

MB

4 comments:

Robs Birding said...

Hi MB, i dont think thier is anything better than looking through gulls , i have a real passion for this , anyhow well done with the self found caspain and the Iceland looks really smart
all the best Rob

Tim Jones said...

Congrats mate, lovely looking Iceland and Caspian can't remember the last time I had a Caspo, gonna get down to Bartley and see if I can pick one out soon hopefully!

Andrew Kinghorn said...

I have only ever seen 3 Iceland Gulls. My frist one was only about 6ft away at one point. That was at Anstruther in Fife. The same day I had King Eider and Ring-billed Gull.

Cracking day that was! Glad you saw the Iceland Gull. Caspian Gull has managed to evade my life list so far.

midlands birder said...

rob- i too really enjoy csanning through gulls, gives a bit of a challenge, glad you like it too,both the iceland and the caspian were smart......

tim- yep bartly is good, but if you dont fancy a scan through a good 10000 gulls then stubbers is THE place to go, not to far too(by car anyway), and if you still fancy a roost chasewater still has probs the biggest roost around(an amazing spectacle), if you do get a caspo at bartly, keep me informed :) not to long to get there from my moms....

andrew- an iceland a ring billed and a king eider, now thats just takeing the p***
well done anyway
thks for the comments guys :)
MB