Glossy Ibis

about as cooperative as rarities get - choosing to feed right beside the entrance track when there's the whole of brading marsh to get lost in. nice red tones on the under body and marginal wing coverts and glossy green scaps and median/lesser coverts makes this at least a 2nd-winter?

lewington has done some work on his website http://www.ian-lewington.co.uk/index.htm

y'day peak of 65 herring gulls at canoe lake but nothing with them. peak of 17 shoveler.

long awaited east winds failed to deliver. started the day looking at the sea off ventnor but couldn't even stay an hour. with thousands of auks off portland and dunge why not in between? 21 brent geese were making the most of the easterlies and 10 rtd's went east. three visits to the canoe lake didn't produce anything of note but this was my first slr photo of an iow lesser black-back.

Iceland Gull invasion on the Faroes january 2012

http://birdingfaroes.wordpress.com/
http://www.nature-shetland.co.uk/naturelatest/latestbirds.htm

the iceland influx tempted me back to the tip for the first time in years. it's changed a lot since my last visit and it's not possible to get a clear view of the active tip since a planted conifer stand has grown up a little too high in front of the (now) only viewing spot. there were shit loads of gulls and i could at least bin all the ones streaming into the site from behind me, but in the end all i could pull out the bag was my first adult argie of the winter (!). maybe i shouldn't expect to just turn up after years of neglect and have a caspo handed to me on a plate but i cant help wondering what the situation would have been had i been on the mainland! it was frustrating/boring but i'll prob have to give it another go next week, and maybe more regularly again if i get my driving licence sorted (barely get change from a tenner for a bus return).

peak of 60 herring gulls on the canoe lake but only thing of note was this. peak of 15 shoveler the other day.