... the females were almost all adult birds with striking white patches around the base of the bill ... very different from the more subtly marked immature birds at Siddick in recent weeks ...
... with the tide being well in there were few gulls but this adult Common Gull looked particularly pristine ...
... as we walked along the track towards The Wig a bird flew up from the rough grass and landed further along ... and followed by another ... the flight was deeply undulating and seemed Song Thrush-like but the rump was contrastingly paler and greyer ... reminiscent of Fieldfare ...
... some stealthy approach lead to good views ...
Song Thrushes indeed but this was not typical habitat for resident birds ...
... a search of the literature indicated that these were likely to be Turdus philomelos hebridensis ... which are characterised by the more heavily spotted underparts, generally darker colour tones and a greyer rump as compared with the race T.p.clarkei which resides in Britain and the near continent ... they occur on the Outer Hebrides and Isle of Skye in the breeding season and are known to winter in Ireland, just a stones throw from Loch Ryan ...
Having enjoyed these close views of the birds up to this point, it was back to the more familiar Loch Ryan style of birding with distant views of ducks and grebes bobbing about among the waves and always appearing to be on the far side of the loch ...
So from satisfying DSLR photography to hit and miss 'phonescoping ... a small group of Long-tailed Ducks with the male of this pair sporting a fine tail ...
... and Slavonian Grebes were dotted around the loch ...
... along with these were Great Crested Grebes, Red-throated Divers and Black Guillemots ... around 100 Pale-bellied Brent Geese were directly into the sun near the end of The Wig ...
On the south side of Wig Bay some Brents fed in the shallows ...
... and a Greenshank did similarly in a sheltered corner ...
... a search of Luce Bay as the clouds came rolling in and the wind whipped up was less productive ... three Great Northern Divers were the main rewards with one adult fairly close inshore ...
... and then the rain came as the early winter dusk set in ...
