Ivory Gull

An early Christmas present today more than made up for last weekend’s wasted trip. Nine days after the Ivory Gull was last seen, the bird’s finder, Archie McIntosh, amazingly refound the bird several miles to the north at Loans near Troon. Thanks to Angus Hogg for phoning me with the news! Initially this Arctic gull was showing fairly distantly for slr photography but it allowed me to slowly approach to within several metres for full fame shots. The bird fed on worms from the flooded muddy area in the goose field. It seemed totally oblivious as more birders arrived and just walked across the field and right up to it!
Larger versions of photographs from the last few days will be uploaded to my main websites after the holidays. Images are available for sale from £2.00 for a 600 pixel jpeg. Both gulls are full frame shots, the Barrow’s nearly so. Please e-mail me at frasersimpson74@hotmail.com before 3 January 2007 and webmaster@fssbirding.org.uk thereafter.