in this field with LBB gulls
Leeshaw reservoir 1630 - 1745 hrs Strong W>5-6 showers.
With the good bird movement weather sticking I thought a trip to Leeshaw was worth pushing my luck to get Common Scoter, the last of my 3 target birds for July having had YL Herring gull and Common Tern yesterday but on arrival to see an empty water other than the resident species I knew Common Scoter was an unlikely suspect.
Several BH gulls were in the area settled in a new cut field whilst another new cut field held an amazing record count of 21 Oystercatchers along with 38 LBB gulls.
2 Common gulls, which are very slow returning, were briefly on the water whilst a Moorhen dodged about in the reeds.
Good to bump into Keith Moir who sparked an interesting point about the Yellow Legged Herring gull I found on Sunday morning that it was possibly the same returning bird from last year.
When I got back I referred to the B.O.G reports and in 2014 a first year bird was reported at Leeshaw around the same time whilst in 2015 what is believed to be the same bird returned in 2nd summer plumage and the bird I got Sunday was in 3rd summer plumage, spooky or what.
Maybe next year we,ll get it returning in adult plumage which will be a rarer sight as not many adult birds are reported locally.
Thanks for the info Keith.
BS