Having been to Skye on early Saturday morning for the singing Common Rosefinch, the last thing I wanted to do was drive immediately down to Fife for Britain's second ever Long-tailed Shrike on the Sunday afternoon. Once I had convinced myself of that and relaxed a bit, a Laughing Gull was then found on Skye!
Anyway, I resisted both but hitched a plan to drive to Skye as soon as the 2am England game had finished, which I duly did and I arrived onto Skye to heavy rain, strong winds and tired eyes. There was no sign at its previous location, but thankfully Pete Stronach was also in the area and knew the hidden corners and where some gulls roosted. Pete soon re-found the Laughing Gull and after enjoying some excellent scope views, it was back home for a whole 10-minutes. Matt Broadbent was waiting, we drove down to Pete in Aviemore, and then it was onwards to Fife... or so we thought. A flat tyre in Perth halted us for an hour, and after what felt a very long journey, we arrived. I was hoping for an easy twitch but as always, the birding gods have different ideas as we had to wait 2.5 hours for the Long-tailed Shrike to show, but mercifully it did.
The journey home wasn't as eventful and I arrived home just before midnight!
Other bits this week have included both Nightjar and Long-eared Owl, the former I didn't expect up this way!
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| Laughing Gull on Skye |
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| Long-tailed Shrike |
