I didn't manage a dawn start but there was not a gull in sight when I arrived at the Mere just before 8.00am! Then a flock of c100 gulls suddenly appeared in view over the water from the southern end - 93% Black-heads and yessss, the other 7% were Little Gulls :-) They briefly landed together - well, birds of a feather and all that!
The light was challenging but I could see there were photo possibilities over by the park and had a stroll. They were occasionally being hassled by immature gulls but easily outmanoeuvred them!
A 'near miss'!
And whilst not exactly close, a few keepers made it all worthwhile...
They were continuously picking up small insects off the water...
Or in the air!
The most appealing images seemed to come after a catch - droplets!!
You just gotta love Little Gulls, we them so infrequently, they are special inland birds and you gotta love droplets... I watched them for two hours with not another birder in sight...
Geoff Holmes has been doing some digging and it looks like this will become a joint record? Seven were on the mere on 8th April 1996, 23 years to the day. Six were on the Mire lake on April 17th 2009.
