I put in a few hours Gull watching today and it paid off with five species seen. Top of the bill were a couple of Yellow-legged Gulls and they took up most of my time, patiently waiting for flight!
First off was a 3rd winter YLG, fist picked up by John Martin in the morning and here it is leaving...
It flew back in mid afternoon but I had to ignore it as there was suddenly an adult YLG too. A much cleaner bird! Here's the two together...
And a comparison with
Lesser Black-backed Gull...
Here's the adult YLG departing...
Two other species were present, an adult Herring Gull, keeping tucked away at the back of the crowd for much of the time!
I did manage to get its departure...
Let's not forget the noisy Black-headed Gulls?
And the last species turning up was a 1st winter Common Gull!
Not a bad session with counts of YLG 2, LesserBB 120+, BH Gull 120, Herring Gull 1 and Common Gull 1. Oh and with Great White Egret (coming next) , Redshank, Little Egret (7) Curlew (2), Cetti's very vocal too!
There was even aviation interest as the final flight shot was courtesy of the RAF and a Hawk (7K017) Shawbury bound with landing gear down at just 1250ft (taken from the memorial hide).
