Sunday 1 April 2012

Lost and found in Oban

With a few hours to kill in Oban before catching the ferry to Mull for a week's holiday, I checked the harbour for Black Guillemots which were breeding in a hole in the wall the last time I was there. The same hole contained only feral pigeons unfortunately but I was distracted by an unusual gull call and turned around to find an adult Ring-billed on the shore just below the harbour wall.

For a few minutes I experienced the buzz of finding a rare bird but then it gradually dawned that in fact I was probably re-finding a bird which had been around for so long it was no longer being reported by the information services. I had only found it in the sense that my shockingly bad short-term memory had forgotten it was there in the first place. Still, a good re-find and a promising start to the holiday.




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