Glaucous Gull at Wernffrwd

In a startling turn of events this weekend consisted predominantly of rain, followed by drizzle, followed by more rain. Indeed I may have foregone any venture in an outdoors direction if not for a rather timely tweet from Rob Jones. His 140 characters told of a Glaucous Gull tucking into an animal carcass out on the marsh by Wernffrwd church, a species I’ve been wanting to catch up with for a while. There’s been an individual off Whiteford Point recently and I presumed this to be the same bird with the added advantage that in its current position it would be viewable from the car. I duly set off and upon arriving at the designated spot had absolutely no trouble picking out the Gull. In the flesh it’s a real brute of a bird and definitely lived up to expectations.

As this record shot shows it looked to have had its fill of the carcass and was just standing around on the marsh. I ventured as close as I dared but given the conditions I was never going to get any photos to write home about. Jeff Slocombe and Peter Morgan arrived not long after and we had a good chat during which the Glaucous Gull headed off towards Crofty. It returned not long after I’d left and was reported to still be present on Sunday morning. A cracking bird, a new life tick and the sum total of my weekends birding.