A Touch of the Exotic

Saturday finally brought a proper migrant to Blackdog with several Sandwich Terns offshore. Add in the first Tufted Duck and Velvet Scoter of the year (a drake of each on the sea) and the list was walloping along.

Sunday brought altogether higher quality. After an uneventful walk around Blackdog Links, the Rifle Range and then down through the willow plantation into Blackdog Burn, an evening look out from the dunes revealed two Med Gulls, evidently paired up, cavorted on the beach. Both were in gaudy summer-plumage with one being adult and the other a 2nd-summer. They continued to flaunt their stuff, posturing erotically to each other, chasing Common Gulls and generally larging it in the evening sun. Just recorded previously in 2008 (2 separate birds that year).

Statto