LAST POST

no im not giving up the blog (but it got you attantion didnt it) but it's my last post this year, so here it goes:

sheepwash UP

22/12/09

a really frikin freezing day, it was so cold,despite telling andy that the lake would be frozen he didnt listen,he was hopeing to get the wintering goosanders. as expected though the lake ws almost completly frozen apart from a few small areas. but there was a fair few gulls down. a flock of 15 pochard was noteworthy,a drake goosander flew along the tame(but no others were seen),a meadow pipit flew over as did 2 pied wagtails. from our viewpoint the angle of the gulls(the largest concentration) was directly into the sun,we moved around(a good thing with small lakes.

,you can change viewpoint easily) to a better position opposite the sand martin bank,looking back where we had been standing had only a few BHG's and a 3w LBBG, i then started scanning the gulls in front of us on the ice, 4 more LBBG's including a 1st winter, a lone LBBG at the back by the sand martin bank was surrounded by a few gulls, then i noticed a pale backed gull, with a large gull primary look. it was facing away from us towards the bank,but i knew what it was having seen many the previous saturday, i called 'COMMON GULL', this is the 1st common gull i have seen at sheepwash,and as im sure many of you will know,despite having common in their name,they are completly opposite, with scarce sightings away from gulling sites. i left the scope with andy as i ran around to the south side of the lake with the camera. and this is what greeted me:

a stuning adult common gull,perched out on the ice

andy then started comming around and the gull was spooked by a LBBG,but as i was trying to find the bird though the viewfinder the bird dissapeared into thin air. we scanned though the gulls but the bird had dissapeared,although i did get this funny pic of a tuftie trying to act like a phalarope:

we decided to search for the common gull so we could get better photos, we stopped at every area that views the lake but it couldent be seen, we had a final stop near the boulders in the water( its got a funny smell there),a few BHG'S were sitting on the ice while 2 LBBG's were at the edges.i scanned the aseemabled gulls with my scope and there it was, the common gull,i again called out and we again changed possition to get some more photos, well now it was relocated it was easy to pick out, and we got some half decent photos:

after a bit a LBBG again flushed it with the BHG's and andy managed a wing shot:

the bird again dissapeared and as a few teenagers stated ice scating on the lake we headed home

MB

should be a good bit to talk about after i come back, watch this space