I was raining early morning but the forecast suggested that it would
clear between 09:00 to 10:00 and so I agreed to pick Roger up at around
09:00. There had been a first-winter
Iceland Gull and two first-winter Glaucous Gulls at Albert Village tip and so
we decided that we should start the day there.
When we arrived in the car park at Albert Village it was still raining
but it soon stopped and after getting or gear on we walked to the lake and
around the western shore. There were a
few gulls on the lake mainly Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls but there
were also a few Black-headed Gulls and several Lesser Black-backed Gulls. There was also a few Mallard, Tufted Duck and
Coot on the water and party of ten Goldfinch flew over. We continued around the lake and the headed
for the main road to view the tip from the road.
There were two Kestrels hunting when we reached the road and after
crossing we could see that there were masses of gulls on the tip. The gulls were tightly packed in some areas
and it wasn’t easy scanning through them.
Roger did pickup one of the Glaucous Gulls in the area where the rubbish
was being disturbed by the bulldozer. The gulls then flew around but Roger then
re-found the Glaucous Gull again and just afterwards another birder joined
us. He picked up a Glaucous Gull in a
different area but with the first now not being on view we assumed it was the
same bird. As I was scanning an area
where we had first seen a Glaucous I picked it up one in flight and then got
the others onto it on the ground. Roger
checked and found the other bird was still in the same area and we had
therefore seen both first-winter Glaucous Gulls. Just after another birder joined us Roger and
I decided we should go and check out the lake again and one of the two birders
joined us.
As we approached the lake there didn’t appear to be any more gulls than
earlier and we were joined by Dave Grey who had been observing them for the
path. The other birder then picked up
two Yellow-legged Gulls and shortly afterwards I picked up a white-winged gull
in flight, which turned out to be one of the Glaucous but it didn’t land and
just returned to the tip. Dave then left
us and headed for the tip and shortly afterwards Roger and I started to go back
down the slope to the lake.
We hadn’t gone too far when Dave called to say that the Iceland Gull was
on the tip and so we went back up the hill and after informing the other birder
we went back to the bridge to view the tip.
When we reached the bridge, Dave said that he couldn’t see it any more
but that it was still there. As we
started to scan the birds they all took to flight and most went up quite high
but some began returning. Initially it
appeared that the Iceland Gull was one that hadn’t returned when another birder
said he had it. He gave directions and
when I scanned I saw it appear from the back of flock and then it stood on a
small mound where it was in full view before it returned to feed amongst the
other birds. Roger, Dave and the other
birder hadn’t found it and so Roger and the other birder looked through my
scope and Dave used the other guys, to see it.
They all took flight again and this time there were fewer gulls returned
and there was no sign of the Iceland and eventually Roger and I headed back to
the car, seeing a Peregrine before we dropped down to the lake.
After some lunch, we went to Groby Pool to look for a Firecrest that has
been present for a few days. The
Firecrest had been seen some distance to the north of the pool and we therefore
walked from Newtown Linford to reach the site, which was only a few minutes
away.
I hadn’t been in this area before and was surprised to find some rather
nice habitat. Roger had already been to
look for the Firecrest on a couple of occasions and hadn’t seen despite
spending two hours on site on both occasions.
It was surprising how few birds there appeared to be in the area and
when another local birder joined us we had seen very little. Roger walked up the hill and few minutes
later I left the other birder to view and area of scrub. It wasn’t long before the other birder
summoned us back indicating that he had seen the Firecrest fly over the
footpath and disappear into the scrub.
We spent quite some time viewing the area from various positions and I
heard a crest call several times but when I caught site of a bird it turned out
to be a Goldcrest. When some rather
ominous looking black clouds appeared, we decided to call it a day and headed
back to the car and just got back before the real heavy rain arrived. During our stay the only birds of note were a
couple of Buzzards, with very little else observed.
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