Ivory Gull

What a day......

It started by watching my 2yr old opening his present's and then followed by a text from my friend Gary saying their was an Iceland Gull on the golf course at Seahouses. I texted back saying I would be done in 10 minutes and then 5 minutes later I got a call saying get your arse down here now theirs a f*****g Ivory Gull here now.

I jumped into the van and raced to the golf course.

On arriving I saw Gary beside the trees waving come on it's over there. We  were like 2 paratrooper's sneaking through the trees with our cameras in our hands like they were guns.
"This way he whispered" and the next thing splash he was in a ditch full of water, but this did not hold a man on a mission. He shook his foot and got with it like a true pro he is. We got to the end of the trees and onto the edge of the fairway. We looked around as if the enemy was approaching and slowly crept towards this beautiful bird.

We both crouched down aimed our cameras and fired a few shoots off. He looked at me as if to say he missed and waved his arm to move forward.

It was standing out like a sore thumb and after a few more shoots of this stunning bird we were both very happy lads.

Mission (IVORY GULL) Accomplished.

Gary was just about to put it out to the rest of the birders but then realized that in the middle of our mission he had lost his phone. We turned and traced of footsteps back to the beginning with myself ringing his phone along the way.

While we were going back for his phone we realized that we did not have permission to be on the golf course, so yet another quick call and we got the go ahead.

We were nearly back to the start when we found his phone in the long grass. His face was nearly as excited as it was when he saw the Ivory Gull.

He got on the phone and put it out to the world what he had seen.

The first people to arrive were the Farne Island Rangers. How lucky were they, as they had just come of the Island in the morning and were packing all their gear away, but that got left as they ran along the golf course to see this fantastic bird. Now those guys have had an amazing season and this just topped of for them.

I decided to leave and see the second half of the game and in the mean time the bird had moved to the beach.

Not only had it moved to the beach but their was 2 Ivory Gulls together. Amazing really as the last time two were seen together in Britain was 1907 in Cornwall, but never have two been together in Northumberland so it just shows you how special it was and on my son's birthday too. A day I will not forget in a hurry.

I have also heard that the last county record was on December 23rd 1979 at Seahouses harbour which is not surprising really as we had lots of fishing boats around then but now we don't have any trawlers around it makes it a little bit more special.

After all the running around I decided to take my dog for a walk along the beach and hopefully spot something else, but nothing to report.

On the way home I stopped at the harbour to see if there were any gulls around and when I walked to the cliff top caravan park I noticed the rangers watching a Ivory Gull resting on the water. It also looked as it was going to roost for the night so I'm going to be there in the morning and hopefully it will pass The Farne Islands as that will be a first.

The only complaint I have is that my auto focus is broken on my camera so my pictures are taken manually and are slightly out sorry.