On a White-wing and a Prayer

I'd dipped on the Iceland Gull earlier on in the week at a 'quiet' Ogmore-by-Sea and so I didn't hold much hope of finding the Glaucous Gull there today in the middle of a beach full of weekend trippers. Even so I was surprised at the sheer number of people (and dogs) there this afternoon - it was packed. The world and his wife were there (erm, including my wife) and the only gulls visible were distant and to the west on Newton Beach.

I checked them out with the 'scope but didn't manage to pick out anything resembling a Glauc. I looked up to see Richard Smith coming towards me. He hadn't seen it either. While we were chatting I hadn't noticed that the young Twitchmeister had commandeered my 'scope and was grilling the beach for himself. A couple of moments later he called out: "What's this Dad? Is it the Glaucous?" This is what he was looking at . . . . . The Boy Birder had done it again. Glaucous Gull in the bag - a lifer for the Little Lister and a county tick for me. (Ahem. It must have flown in 'cos it wasn't there when I looked!). It showed very well, if a little distantly, for around 10 minutes before it was pushed off the beach by the incoming tide. It flew off towards the east. In the meantime Richard had found a Med Gull standing just behind it.

We headed off east along the coastal path to try and re-locate the Glaucous and also in an attempt to find a Chough. We found neither and spent most of our time dodging the dog poo which was liberally scattered along the path. Ogmore-by-Sea must be vying with Kenfig NNR as the Dog Crap Capital of Glamorgan.

Later, a planned visit to the River Ogmore around Portobello Island had to be cancelled because the 'car park' had been taken over by an enormous film crew, lorries and portable cabins. They were even periodically closing the road. What were they filming? 'The Bridge on the River Ogmore'? My bet is an episode of 'Doctor Who'. (Can you imagine the joys of birding if you had a Tardis?). Flippin' media types!!