Saturday 22nd March: Two Iceland Gulls!

I made two trips to the Meadow today. Mid afternoon I went looking for spring migrants. Whilst the rest of the county is enjoying lots of spring migrant action such as 100+ Sand Martins at Farmoor, the first Little Ringed Plovers at Otmoors and Wheatears everywhere, there was not so much as a sniff of anything on the Meadow. In fact it was more or less the same birds as yesterday with now just 3 OYSTERCATCHERS and no sign of the Godwit though the SHELDUCK count had increased even more to an amazing 11 birds, surely a Meadow record. The two GOOSANDER were still about as were a pair of PINTAIL and noticeably more Gadwall with at least 10 birds.  

My second trip was when I decided to make a late visit this evening to see if I could catch up with Steve Goddard's Iceland Gull from yesterday. Fortunately I was well rewarded for this effort in the form of not just one but two ICELAND GULLS. The 2nd winter bird that was seen at Farmoor this week and which Steve saw yesterday was there but there was also a first winter bird present as well. It's not often that you get to see two Artic gulls standing right next to each other in the county - very pleasing! Unfortunately I had problems with my camera so only managed to get some shots of the 1st winter bird.

It was practically dark by the time I found the two Iceland Gulls and after my camera problems all I could manage was some rather dodgy video footage from which I've taken this grab.

...and here's the footage from which it was taken