31st October. Goodbye Ruby Monday

Well it looks as though the Rubythroat has finally left the building or should that be garden. I can't lie, every single update on this bird has caused the bile from my stomach to rise to the back of my throat in an attempt to choke me. I started off being pleased that the bird had charmed my friends on Shetland, genuinely chuffed for them. Then it started to take the piss, parading around for anyone - totally de-valuing itself. In short it became cheap! I conjured with the idea of going this weekend gone but, despite offers from Russ to pick us up from the ferry and look for the bird on the Friday prior to our departure, it all turned to rat shit when the driver (for whatever reason) couldn't make it. So that was it I spent the last week getting gripped by long standing twitching mates and updates on Twitter.

So sorry if you left it until today and dipped but I for one am pleased that I can get on with my bloody life now.

Gulls galore

Rather pleased that the patch appears to be gathering a decent gull roost over the last couple of weeks. Saturday night produced a nice Caspian Gull - though given the high rejection rate (in Yorkshire) getting it past a committee will be a bigger challenge than the ID. Fortunately it put in an appearance at Redmires this morning (picture below at Redmires by Richard Hill).



Sunday night was more predictable with less large gulls though a 2nd winter Yellow-legged Gull, found by Andy, was nice and I managed to pick a 2nd winter Med' Gull out of the black-heads. Photos below by Andy Deighton.



I've a sneaky feeling that this autumn might have one more major surprise up it's sleeve, fingers crossed