Glaucous Gull

A Glaucous Gull was ringed in Oslo on 1 January (incredibly it seems to have been lured in with bread and then caught by hand http://oaring.blogspot.com/2011/01/parkfangst-uke-51-og-52.html ) . The bird then went missing until Saturday when it was seen again in Oslo harbour so I took a trip down on Sunday morning. Despite searching through in excess of 500 Herring Gulls along with a couple of other birders it was not to be seen so it was a bit of a blow to find out that it was seen a couple of hours after I left.

Glaucous Gull

Lunchtime today saw me armed with my bins and heading off to the harbour. There were even more Herring Gulls around today (in excess of 700) and in amongst them were a few Great Black backs, Common Gulls and also 3 Black-headed Gulls which were my first this year. I had just finished my first sweep of the gulls when I saw a suitably pale and large gull at some distance. I was luckily able to walk much closer to it and in the end get to within 50m as it sat on the ice.

Sure enough it was a 1st winter (2k) Glaucous Gull proudly sporting a ring. I didn't have any bread to attract it even closer although I did toss out a Werthers Original but this didn't seem to be to anyones taste. I managed to take a picture of the bird with my phone through the bins. I-phones are not best suited for this but I must say the result could have been worse.

On the way back to the office I took a detour via the church favoured by the Peregrine and sure enough she(?) was sitting on top of the spire preening.

Feeling rather satisfied I finished my lunch break on a high with a celebratory McDonalds! Does life get better....