Catching up with some Shropshire birds

When your other half ( a very definate non-birder) gets up and suggests that as it is a nice day then we should go birding, well, how can you refuse? Especially when they suggest looking for the Ring-billed and Iceland gulls reported at The Mere. Wonders will never cease, but I do wonder if it wasn't just a ploy to get me to stop wittering on about them....

Oh, and you do have to conveniently pass the Raven truck stop on the way.....so cooked breakfasts later we roll up to The Mere - hardly a gull in sight. A quick scan, and a quick change of plan, and we're off to Melverley Green in search of Whooper Swans.

Now the big sign that said the road was closed due to flooding obviously didn't apply to us and so after a pleasant run down country lanes we finally found, erm, flood water. So, progress halted (and the domestic about whether or not we should try to get through narrowly avoided) we were just checking directions when a glance left revealed, yes, swans.

They were in the left hand corner of a flooded field to start with, which made viewing a little difficult as being a little on the short side I couldn't actually see over the hedge. And then Darran remembered he had steps in the back of the van - excellent!

Good views of 7 Whoopers (along with Greylag, Lapwing, and Wigeon), turned into good views of 19 as they moved to the right, allowing me to move to a gate where I could see a wider area. In attendance were a lone Mute Swan, and an equally lone but very handsome Black Swan (Daz was impressed with this one). So mission accomplised it was back to The Mere.

And the gulls were dropping in for the roost, and yes there were several species, but no, none were the Ring-billed nor Iceland. Never mind, with a little help from Andy Latham I did manage to get on to a Yellow Legged - the first I had (knowingly) ever seen.

So, a rather cold couple of hours later it was time to head back. It did strike me though that when trying to convert a non-birder, it is perhaps not such a good idea to make them stand about in the freezing cold looking at distant gulls, whilst at the same time fending off the attempts of a guy with a placard to convert you to religion (a scope is a useful thing to hide behind and become very absorbed in the local Black-Headed Gull population........).

Er, sorry, I won't make you do it again (well, not in a hurry anyway!).