Wednesday's storm must have stirred some food up for the gulls - with huge numbers around this afternoon.
Between 15:30 and 16:30 there were over a thousand large gulls, with about 700 feeding in two large groups off the beach (one off the harbour mouth, and the other to the east off Culverhole) and 300+ resting on the lower part of the Estuary. Sadly though, I couldn't find anything of note amongst them - I'm certainly pretty confident there weren't any white-wingers in with them. Actually there were unusually few Black-backs, with only three Lesser and probably no more than 40 Greats, which makes 957+ Herring Gulls!
There were very few small gulls too, with just a few Black-headed Gulls, Common Gulls and Kittiwakes offshore. It was a nice surprise to see yet another adult Little Gull though, which came flying through close west very determinedly at 4pm. Cracking bird.
And now for a quiz, spot the Little Gull...
I'll be quite impressed if someone does find it! It is there I promise, and more importantly, perfectly identifiable. |
In-between the wings of the GBBG which is directly below the blue buoy in the middle of the photo?
ReplyDeleteAlmost... well you are exactly right, but the blue bouy is actually a blue boy! Some very brave lads body boarding - mind you not all that brave as they weren't surfing! Well done mate. Top birds are Little Gulls.
ReplyDeleteYay! Is there a prize!?
ReplyDeleteI did think the buoy looked a bit of an odd shape!