Sitting in a barber’s chair as he put the finishing touches to my birthday haircut , my phone went with a message I never thought would see. An Ivory Gull on Seahouses golf course! This town was the site of the last county record way back in 1979 of this mythical ,enigmatic species that inhabits the high Arctic tundra and rarely wanders this far south ,even in winter. A dash to the car and 50 mins drive, saw me admiring this fabulous bird eating drowned worms on the flooded golf course. It took flight ,flew around a belt of trees ,then back towards the crowd of birders. A strange mewing call was heard and we realised the Ivory was calling to another flying with it, incredible! Two Ivorys are unprecedented and doubled everyone’s joy as they flew closely by,then off to the south and over the dunes where they were alighted on rocks towards Beadnell. As I arrived at the beach, they were quite close, but a Grey Heron spooked them and they flew out to more distant rocks where they stayed for over an hour,picking at seaweed,occasionally flying a few metres,or laying flat resting. As the incoming tide began to reach them and dusk fell,the two gleaming white birds took flight and headed off north, one being seen at last light going to roost on the sea near Seahouses. Sadly,they were not around for the folk arriving on Sunday.
Both juv/1st winter birds ,they were different in terms of size and appearance and thought to be probably a male and female bird. I did see one back in Feb. 1986 at Saltburn ,Cleveland, but these were a county tick for myself and british tick for a great number of the local birders present,and a birthday present I wasn’t expecting!
(An account of the finding and excellent photos can be found on Gary Woodburn’s Beadnell Birding blog site). He has to do the Lottery!
A.S.Jack