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| Ross's Gull Ardglass Harbour Co.Down found by Tom Ennis |
Yesterday I had been dropping of some photos off in Bangor and was on my way to Belfast when I heard that a Ross's Gull had been found at Ardglass Harbour by Tom Ennis. (Brilliant find Tom) A big rarity for Northern Ireland with the last one being seen in 1998. I had never seen a Ross's Gull before and it is one of the five gulls that I would really like to see. The others being Ivory Gull, Pallas's Gull, White-eyed Gull and Heermann's Gull. It was a quarter to four . The pain of knowing that I had to go to Belfast to pick up my keys for work and that by the time I had done that and got to Ardglass it would be dark and then the fact that I am at work before it is light meant the bird had to stay around until the afternoon. When I got home I found out it was an adult bird which was even better still
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| Ross's Gull |
At work today it was fairly quiet and fortunately I got away at three and drove down to Ardglass Harbour cursing every driver who was driving slowly and cursing Downpatrick as it is a nightmare to drive through when the four schools are being let out.
I arrived in Ardglass and drove onto the pier and parked and could see four birders, Chris Murphy, his wife, son Tim and Derek Charles looking out from the top of the harbour wall. I was already beginning to feel relieved and Chris Murphy shouted down that it was still there. I climbed the steps and there it was flying in the middle of the entrance to the harbour. What fab birds Ross's Gulls are. It was small, slightly larger than a Little Gull smaller than a Kittiwake but with similar feeding actions, of aerial dipping, to the Little Gull.
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| Ross's Gull Aerial dip feeding |
One of the first things that strike you is it's wedge shaped tail and it's pale grey underwing and which has a broad white trailing edge to the wing. It also had a very small splash of pinky orange on its belly and fairly big eyes for its body.
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| Ross's Gull |
I watched it for over an hour flying up and down the entrance to the harbour. The light was not good for photography and I had to use a high iso to get any speed. Oh for an upgrade of camera with better low light ability. There was a strong breeze and it was bloody freezing. Nevertheless I went home happy because of yet another unexpected lifer.
The first specimen of a Ross's gull was collected by Sir James Clark Ross in 1823 in the Northwest Passage. The Ross's Gull is mainly an Arctic and subarctic species distributed around the Northern polar region and mainly breeding in northeastern Siberia and on some sites in Svalbard, Greenland and Canada.
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| Ross's Gull |
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| Ross's Gull |
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| Ross's Gull- Wedge-shaped Tail |
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| Adult Ross's Gull |
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| Ross's Gull |
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