Housebound....With A Gull!

Off the birding road since last Friday, I was looking through some old posts on Birds2blog and copied this one which I posted on 5 April 2009 and thought it would help the blog overcome the gap with a little interest until my birding takes off again tomorrow....hopefully.

Ross's Gull.

The recent report of a Ross's Gull at Lytham St Annes on Sunday 22 March prompted me to recall the bird in 2008 which first presented itself at Marton Mere on 31 March and was found at Lytham St Annes on 18 April and continued to make many a birder happy until it was found dead on Friday 16 May. I have recently made enquiries about this birds demise, it had been noted by one expert to be regarded as unwell mainly because it had failed to show any sign of advancing summer plumage and also that a close approach was allowed by the bird. 

I myself enjoyed excellent views of this beautiful and enigmatic creature including some good photo opportunities which my second rate photographic equipment failed to deal with very well resulting in the images shown above having a 'bleached' effect resulting in the lack of plumage detail and falsely showing the bird to be a 'wholly white' individual.

In the 70's when my photographic interests were at their peak and my birding was in its early days I joined a group called Postal Portfolios and the chance of a lifetime presented itself to me in the form of a direct descendant of James Clark Ross (JCR) - Dr Shelagh Ross - who I eventually met and had a meal with at a rally in Kent the date of which escapes me. Sadly I lost contact with this person along with the winding up of my photo interests but am currently trying to re-establish the friendship.

The Ross's Gull was one of the great ornithological mysteries until 1905 when the Russian explorer Alexandrovitch Buterlin discovered the main breeding area only just within the Arctic Circle on the Kolyma River delta of Eastern Siberia. If JCR had still been alive it is unlikely that anyone would have been more surprised than he who undoubtedly associated the bird only with ice and snow.

Another intriguing piece of history related to James Clark Ross, was when he claimed to have found a new species of diver....

Around 1830 during his 4 year Arctic voyage he obtained three specimens of the then unknown White-billed Diver. Unfortunately Edward Sabine - of Sabine's Gull fame - who was with him on the voyage, persuaded JCR that these birds were very old males of the Great Northern Diver. The species wasn't rediscovered until 20 years later when Edward Adams found it in Alaska, the bird was first described by English Zoologist George Robert Gray who commemorated it to his friend Adams, hence its Latin name Gavia adamsii. The bird really should have been the Ross's Diver....never mind there is a Ross's Seal, the range of which is confined entirely to the pack ice of Antarctica.

Nice Day....Short List.

Superb Fairywren. John Darbyshire.

With no other appropriate photographs, thanks to JD the Superb Fairywren is a colourful opener for the post. The species is found throughout south-east Australia and took first place in a recent national poll to become Australia's most favourite feathered friend.

Nice Day.

By recent standards yesterday was an exceptionally nice day with some wall to wall sun for a while and almost spring like when sheltered from what little cold wind there was. But the list ended up a rather short one with nothing new found despite some serious searching.

Short List.

I keep seeing between five and seven on Conder Pool, today I found 6 Goldeneye with 5 Little Grebe, and a Little Egret, a Spotted Redshank was asleep in the creeks, and another Little Egret was on the marsh off the picnic area. On the canal basin at Glasson Dock, 18 Goldeneye and a Great-crested Grebe, and on the Lune Estuary, a male Ruff was with the Redshank again, with 14 Goldeneye and 3 Little Grebe noted, the waders were in the air several times with undetected raptor disturbance. 

At Cockersands I devoted most of what time I had there to two fields, after a thirty minute plus grilling one of the fields by Crook Farm was eventually found to hold at least 2,500 Black-headed Gull with a 'few' Common Gull. The other field off Moss Lane held c.240 Whooper Swan, but with much better and closer views today than of late I was able to identify 13 Bewick's Swan of which four were juvenile, these birds were presumably the same group as seen off Slack Lane 20 January....

Black Swan Arkive  

....also the Black Swan seen again. A bird of Australia where they are nomadic, and not to be taken seriously either side of the fence in this country, but a beautiful bird all the same.

Hard to believe it took me five hours to collect the above results, but an hour at Conder Green, two hours at Glasson Dock, and another two hours at Cockersands including a little wander around, time runs away with you....especially when you're having fun!! 

Sunday's Mega.

Ross's Gull L Moss Sunday 9 Feb. Copy Permitted.

On Sunday a Ross's Gull at Leighton Moss was reported by the RBA news service at 1.28pm and later confirmed as being seen giving good views until flying off at 4.15pm.

Teal Bay & Migration.

Another of those compromises with KT whilst on a visit to Morecambe had us at Teal Bay just after high tide when the waders were assembling to feed and I noted in excess of 1,000 Dunlin, 55 Black-tailed Godwit, and a 'few' Knot. A female Scaup was off here, with 3 Pintail, 6 Wigeon, a Red-breasted Merganser and 4 Great-crested Grebe, 2 Little Egret were in the area.

Great-crested Grebe Martin Jump

An interesting record of note was of 124 Great-crested Grebe off Starr Gate at Blackpool today Sunday 17 November.

Migration.

There were predictions of huge movements made last week, some of which came true when almost 60,000 Wood Pigeon were counted flying over Swanscombe Marshes in Kent in a single morning, Fieldfare also arrived in number when 20,000 were counted coming in off the sea in one hour in Norfolk. Cold winds straight from Greenland and Iceland look like they could bring snow to parts of the UK, along with Greenland White-fronted Geese....

Ross's Gull. Pete Woodruff.

 ....and maybe a Ross’s Gull taking refuge on Plover Scar at Cockersands!

The Ross's Gull is a stunningly beautiful bird, and one of the most stunning of all the gulls. My photographic efforts of the bird at Lytham St Anne's in April 2008 resulted in the brilliant sun at the time bleaching out the birds pale grey upperparts to make them appear brilliant white.

No Go....

....and the Ross's Gull.

For one reason or another the traditional Friday JB/BT/PW jaunt was called off today. I'm housebound and taking antidepressants by the dozen, whilst KT continues to insist its not the end of the world, well....we're all entitled to our opinions.

Ross's Gull. Pete Woodruff. 

So I've been sifting through my photographs and came across a reminder about a gem of a gull which I went to see at Lytham St Annes in April 2008. My resulting photograph may well look initially good, but the camera didn't handle the bright light and the bird appears to be a pure white individual with its plumage detail bleached, in fact the birds upperparts are essentially a soft grey. This unfortunate individual was found dead in the area in May.

For nearly a hundred years one of the great ornithological mysteries of the Arctic was the location of the breeding grounds of the Ross's Gull (RG). The bird had been seen only amongst the pack-ice of the far north and seemed likely to breed only in the high Arctic. In 1905 the Russian explorer Alexandrovitch Buturlin discovered the main breeding area only just within the Arctic Circle, on the Kolyma River delta of eastern Siberia. Subsequent records showed that the RG bred further south often in association with Arctic Tern, Spotted Redshank, Snipe, and Ruff in well-vegetated marshy areas. Had he been alive, it is unlikely that anyone would have been more surprised than James Clark Ross, the man who collected the first specimen of the gull and who undoubtedly associated the bird only with ice and snow. Today it is well established that the RG breeds in north-eastern Siberia, western Greenland, and in northern Canada, the most famous site being at Churchill, Manitoba.  

Although formerly a great rarity in Britain, the RG has been much more regular since 1974 and the first record for Lancashire was that of an adult found on Birkdale shore in January 1983. There was a RG which created an excellent record in 1995 in that it was seen briefly at Fleetwood in January, relocated six days later at Seaforth, and then became the longest staying RG in the country being seen at Seaforth until the last sighting in March almost two months after first being seen in Fleetwood. I myself remember this bird well, it was reported as being seen on the reserve fairly regularly during the day usually only for short periods before flying off inland to feed. The bird would then reappear at dusk to roost, in itself an unusual behaviour in that Seaforth was at the time - and presumably still so today - rarely used as an overnight gull roost, therefore, in relation to all other gulls, this bird had the entire reserve to itself for its overnight stay. I clearly remember a friendly 'Mersey Birder' telling John Leedal and myself all this interesting detail as we waited in anticipation for this gem of a gull to return for one of its predictable 'short periods' during its long record breaking stay here....it did eventually return to our great pleasure and delight.

Birds....they fascinate me in a thousand ways!