Gone, but not forgotten.

I headed up to Beadnell this morning at first light hoping to get involved in the twitch for the Ivory Gull siblings, with much less panic than yesterday, cool in the knowledge, they were already UTB.

Now I knew these birds were not going to be a roll over from yesterday, mainly because there was no fixed food source to attract them. Gulls in harbours or fish quays are one thing, feeding on fish scraps, but birds on the shore or nearby fields looking out for a food supply is an altogether different proposition. Still, with many eyes looking, it was a matter of time before they turned up. Surely.

As time passed, the theory that they must be on the Farnes feasting on drowned seal pups was mooted until word came that these islands had been checked by a boat owning birder, who only had a single Iceland Gull to report from the archipelago.

That leaves us wondering now, where are they? Well to me, one ( the little'un) didnt seem too clever before roost, so maybe its succumbed to the waves, but the other seemed fit enough. I'm sure, well, hopeful anyway, that one or even both will turn up again. But where? There is a lot of unwatched coast line from North Northumberland into Lothian that could hide the pair...

What can we hope for next? Recently this stretch of coast has had Glauc, Iceland, Little, Bonapartes and Ivory in the space of a few weeks. I hope there's Captain Ross's out there waiting to be discovered...

Sunderland, many years ago...