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Rare bird excites twitchers
While the holiday season may be coming to a close, a rare visitor has travelled thousands of miles to enjoy our seaside.
The Bonaparte's gull from North America has been spotted off the coast of County Durham for only the third time, with its last trip made to the area back in 1987.
Twitchers believe the bird made is first reappearance in the North East late last month and has since been spotted off Whitburn Steel, Seaham beach and even the rooftop of Lidl in Ryhope, attracting birdwatchers from far afield.
Experts say it has only been spotted in Britain 170 times before, with the majority of sightings made in the warmer climate of Cornwall and southern Ireland.
It is believed it could have been brought to the North East by recent strong winds.
Mark Newsome, the county recorder for Durham Bird Club, said: "It may well be still in our area.
"Good areas to look for the bird include the seafront at Roker and Whitburn, where a wide range of other shore birds can also be seen. It is difficult to find as it looks very similar to a black-headed gull, but differs in being slightly smaller, having a thin all-black bill instead of red and it also has more white at the ends of it wings.
"This time of year, at the start of autumn, a lot of birds are going to migrate for the winter.
"It's likely this bird has stopped off for a few days and is hanging around before moving south."
Spotting the gull, which was first seen in the area on Saturday, August 28, has been made even harder because it has been among flocks of native gulls, but Mark was able to capture this image of the bird off Whitburn Steel.
For further information, including a forum which details sightings of the Bonaparte's gull and other rare birds, can be found at www.durhambirdclub.org.
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Weather for Sunderland
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -3 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South west
