Christine's walking & birds blog

Yesterday: Ever since I saw a photo of a Sabine's gull I've wanted to see one, and after a report of one in Ullapool on 21st by AW on highlandbirds.scot, I announced to Greger that this was a bird I was prepared to twitch - if it was still there. He said he'd join me and we walked our old lockdown walk through the village, round the point, and out onto the river spit. But we failed to spot it, although it was nice to see several kittiwakes there. However - looking at some pics that I took just shooting into the mob of gulls, I found one that might well have been the Sabine's (in fact, it definitely was!).

So this morning, while Greger went off to Inverness in his Tesla, I decided to try again. Making my way out to the river mouth, I spotted a "possible" flying past me down the loch and managed to see where it went down. I liked the way it landed on the very tip, aloof from the gully throng; was this the Sabine's? I was fairly sure it was.



I set off on the walk round to the golf-course spit, although I knew that I would probably not be able to see the gulls from there (well, not without flushing them all) as the tide was fully in and they would be hidden from view by the lie of the land. Arriving on the edge of the golf course, I noted ringed plovers and turnstones on the narrow beach and stopped in "the rough" so as not to disturb them. But I hadn't bargained on there being a knot present; this was much more wary, and after I'd clicked off a shot, it flew. I hope it went down somewhere close by.


I walked a little way towards Rhue, and when I returned a few gulls were on the water. Scanning them, I realised I'd got lucky as the Sabine's was there, in the company of a juvenile black-headed and a common gull.


The larger gulls took off one by one until only the Sabine's was left, so I should have been ready for it to do the same; but I could manage only one poor shot when it finally did.


However, it does show the lovely curve on the upper wing where grey meets white, and the shallowly forked tail - which I noted at the time but was unsure about, as I didn't know of this feature.

The gulls flew slowly down the loch and seemed to circle over a buoy; the Seascape Expeditions rib was out there (at least I think that's what it was), and this appeared to slow and stop - so perhaps they were also looking at the gull. The wind was now getting up and there were a few spots of rain, so I went home.

I gave up twitching many years ago, mainly because it didn't provide the same thrill as "finding my own"; and it's a long time since I've actually enjoyed a twitch. I enjoyed this one.