Friday, January 16, 2015
Ivory gull in Ullapool harbour!
We worked until one o'clock and Greger said he would do the shopping as he needed stuff for his fish pie; so I got him to drop me down at the harbour just to see if one of the glaucous gulls (or even an Iceland) was around. A hard shower of sleet sent me into the shelter of a cafe doorway, and as I looked out across the road at the boats, a very white bird with almost tern-like flight came towards me and then swooped away over the water. It could surely only be an ivory gull (one was reported a couple of days ago at Ardmair).
Greger arrived and was also struck by the gull, so we watched it until we got too cold then went home for lunch. Work being over for the day, I ate my lunch extremely quickly and drove down to watch the gull again. Just before the camera battery gave out, it flew across to the seaweedy bit of beach where I was standing and had a wash.
I think the gull was also calling - generally but not always in flight and often when hectored by a larger gull. It was a sharpish but pleasing 'tsyoo!' but I wasn't successful in capturing it, thanks to wind and construction noise.
Four mad-looking shags were milling about near the beach, evidently not sure if they were feeding or courting but managing to do a bit of both.
Beyond the shags, two large grey seals were snorkelling, now and then raising their heads to give me reproachful looks before going back to the serious business of feeding. Meanwhile, I went home to a delicious and not inappropriate fish pie.
// posted by Christine @ 10:20 AM 
