yorkslister

The day before Mikes stag do I was shocked by the discovery of what appears to be Britains first Slaty backed Gull.  Those who know me well know I'm a bit of a Gull bore so this really fired me up to get out to the tip and find something of my own.

I wasn't expecting this though!

This thing I found really interesting but unfortunately as soon as I clapped eyes on it it promptly sat down and stayed there for 40 mins.  I couldn't move the car to a better position due to the layout of the road, i.e. a fuckin big roundabout next to where I was!  So I took a couple of phonescoped shots and started sketching it.  As I was filling in the scap pattern the whole flock flew and I couldn't relocate it.  I showed the pics to a few people and they thought the same as me that although a bit on the dark side it showed features of a Juv Thayer's Gull!!!!  I went back to the tip 5 out of the next 6 days before I had to go north for work but it didn't show up again.  Obviously I can't claim this bird but it certainly looked interesting.

So trying to banish thought of Gulls from my head I ventured north for a get together of ACE Surveyors in Pitlochry, it was a bit messy with a couple of very late finishes in the bar, but it was good to catch up and meet a few new faces.

I called in at Rainton meadows on the way up and bagged a single Arctic Redpoll it was a bit distant for the DSLR though

Still a bit worse for wear on the sat morn I ventured to Slammananaman, or at least that's how it looked to my eyes, I'd still been in the bar at 5am!  I'm too old for this shit!!!  After a bit of searching I got onto a flock of about 80 Taiga Beans, good to get a bit more experience with these as they are often claimed in the county but very seldom do they make the grade, most being Tundras.  I would upload a pic but my stupid phone has decided to start saving pics to a folder on the main memory and the computer can't access it for some reason.

Which also means I can't upload a pic of Dan blindfolded and trying to pin a wig on a Haggis!  And he wasn't even drunk.....

Got to do a couple of days birding during the week as the boat survey I was on was interrupted due to bad weather which was good as we saw 3 Otters and some of these bad boys.

Plus loads of Great northens and a few Slavs.  Bird of the trip though was this fella, fortunately seen about 5 minutes from the end of the survey so we could finish off and turn back and have a good look and get some pics.  We've been hoping for this all winter so it's good to finally get one, should be a good chance of getting summer plumage birds in the coming months too.