Saturday 10 January 2009

MOORE GULLS...

Its 7.50am on a Saturday morning -3.5'c outside (wind chill-12'c) so cold the monkeys are balless, overcast to greyish dull, roads are like scating rinks and I'm going to stand nexto a smelly working tip on an exposed hill top looking for rare gulls!!...the things us birders do for the cause.

Clad in yellow high viz vests and hard hats we are ferried via Land Rover up onto the old tip by Paul one of the Moss Side/Moore NR rangers from nearby Birchwood Pool. Shaking cos my extremities have gone numb and loosing two toes and a finger to frosbite the mornings searching through the 15,000+ larus on show produces:- One Adult Caspo , 2 2ndwin Glaucous , one 2ndwin Iceland and a very bright albino BHGull (wonder what this will be claimed as when it roams to Birchwood?). No Slaty backs or Western Gulls could be found boo hoo!

Two hours of freezing my preverbials off and no megas on show brought the gull fest to an abrupt end. At Birchwood Pool on the ice were 2 Med Gulls and Ally the albino BH. We'd missed 5 YLG!! one dodgy Caspo another Med and another Iceland plus a Heron trying to swallow a Little Grebe. Below view of BP hide.
Time for a hot toddy!

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