Sunday 20 December 2009

Stubbers Green - Ice and Iceland

After a pretty unproductive Saturday - checking out the Meres, VP and Priorslee (BNG still there) a decent bird was called for! A long haul was knocked on the head - (glad about this as the Gower Gyr didn't show!) and I opted for a drive over to Stubbers Green with Andy (so he could tell me all about the Gyr he'd had the previous day!!)

Another good Stubbers Green Gull had been about recently and it was an icy scene which welcomed us mid-morning....

We'd just got out of the car, when the Iceland Gull flew overhead! It joined the rest of the Gulls in the middle of the ice covered pool - they were all giving the grassy bank a miss! Nevertheless, it was showing quite well (irritatingly with it's back to us most of the time) and a fair distance away......

Fleshy coloured black tipped bill, pale iris and quite uniformly marked wings and tail - characteristic of a 2nd winter bird.








After a brief flight which I missed, it was relocated and went walkabout amongst the other gulls....






A bit of a wingflap....






A running take off - showing a clean pair of heels....






and it was way back to the tip.... (where the Caspian Gull presumably was?? - didn't see this bird at all although it was reported in the afternoon)






Shame it was too cold to hang about and wait for it to return!!