The first month of the year is coming to its end already, and I see on
Bubo listing that I am well off the Lothian list pace. My running total of 88 species reflects a January with limited time for birding beyond my local patch. As a combined force, Lothian listers have logged 130 species in the county this year already and Tony O'Connor leads the current table up at 112. Of course, it is not a competition, I keep telling myself - just some fun. Nevertheless, quite a few of these should be easy targets for me in the next few weeks - I am yet to see
Goosander,
Whooper Swan or even
Pochard. I also note that there are three species that feature on several lists that I have not yet seen in the county -
Taiga Bean Goose,
Green-winged Teal and
Smew - maybe I should put some effort into seeing these in early February...
I did add a couple of new species today thanks to a deviation on the school run and a lunch hour in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh.
On both visits the
Iceland Gull was showing well, on St Margaret's Loch in the morning and on Dunsapie Loch at lunch time. It could be enticed into flight with some carefully thrown bread crusts, though it seemed unable to compete with the screaming
Black-headed Gulls for the scraps.
This bird is in first winter plumage, though this term is sometimes avoided for gulls like this one that have no post-juvenile moult (all the feathers here are un-moulted first generation juvenile feathers). The lack of moult may be related to the short nature of the Arctic summer. So what term would be better than first winter? Second calendar year (2CY) is maybe no better, given how different this bird will look in ten months' time, so possibly 'first generation' is best of all. Whatever we call it, it is certainly a strikingly beautiful young gull.
I had travelled to Galway in December in the vain hope of getting good views of this white-winged cracker. Little did I know that a month later there would be such an accommodating individual within a couple of miles of home!
The subtlety of the bird's markings could be best appreciated on the tail. The white primary feathers and long wings make this bird unmissable in flight.
The
Iceland Gull could be tempted by bread, but it always seemed that little bit slower off the mark than the
Black-headed Gulls and
Common Gulls.
On the water, the long white primaries made the bird equally distinctive, and in good light, the bird's iris could be seen to be chestnut brown rather than black. This colour will lighten over the coming months to the very pale eye typical of adult
Iceland Gull. The 2CY bill pattern already seems well developed.
Too slow to get to the bread, the bird started foraging, though it did not seem to be successful.
A great bird and one that I hope hangs around for the next few months...
Another bonus while feeding the gulls this morning was this
Common Treecreeper in the trees around St Margaret's Loch. Another Lothian year tick for me.
A
Common Raven over Arthur's Seat at lunchtime was a good bird for the city centre.
Finally, here is a
Carrion Crow with
de-pigmentation showing that there is more than one 'white-winger' in Holyrood Park today!
Another quick trip up to Alnwickhill pays off with an unringed adult winter Mediterranean Gull dropping in to bathe and loaf around with around 100 Black-headed Gulls. Fantastically white winged in flight, the Med Gull has to rank as one of my favourite species; watching it float around in the blustery wind after bathing was particularly enjoyable - particularly as this was the trip to try out the Opticron HDF eyepiece with the Kowa TSN4 scope body. A stunning optical improvement just in time for a stunning gull.
In amongst the Black-headed Gulls this rosy individual with a flush of pink on its chest and neck was eye-catching. A well-documented variant in this species, it reminded me of the apricot coloured Common Gull that visited the back garden a few times during the winter. Both of these birds were more striking in the field than the photographs suggest...
A Common Raven over Arthur's Seat at lunchtime was a good bird for the city centre.
As I returned through the park, I paused to photograph the sunset and was pleased to notice that there was a Northern Fulmar high up over Our Dynamic Earth. Another appeared and the two birds began chasing and interacting like a pair of giant swifts careering through the twilight. It may have been cold, but it was a warming reminder that spring is not far away. 
