Saturday, January 17, 2015
I drove down to the harbour early but there was no sign of the ivory gull. Another birder was there and told me he'd been at a meeting of the rare birds committee in Inverness when my phone call came through to Birdline Scotland. I hoped he would be successful today and went home to breakfast.
Greger and I walked from home, up Ullapool Hill and round by the Braes. An odd sight met us as we gained height - two ferries, one outbound and one inbound, with a bit of horn-blowing as they passed one another. This is the new ferry docking.
Coming down from the Braes, we had a quick look round the harbour for the ivory gull but couldn't see it. After lunch, Greger wanted to go for a longish drive in his car to charge up the battery so I went back down to Shore Street. And there was the gull again! I got some poor footage of its flight which is swift and strong but somehow fluttery - sometimes like a tern, sometimes a bit like an owl or a bat - as it swooped and soared restlessly around the boats. I also caught the call - but like other video clips, it's disappeared from the blog.
// posted by Christine @ 8:18 AM 
