With the temperature hitting 30 deg and little breeze it was way too hot to harness up the team or wander around Fly Flatts so I took the opportunity to check the local big gull breeding colonies but only managed to fit in 3 with the amount of traffic about .
Site one held around 12 LBBs and at least 2 chicks along with 4 Herring gulls.
Site 2 was hidden by trees and wire fencing and all I could manage was around 20 LBBs with strangely a flock of Canada geese in the factory grounds.
Site 3 was the winner with around 200 big gulls, 20% being Herring gulls whilst around 40 Black Headed were also present. Several juvs were present and the highlight was 2 adult Yellow Legged Herring gulls but very distant and scope able. Yellow Legged are believed to have bred at this site in previous years though these sites have not been publicly put out so as not to draw attention to gulls breeding on factory roofs in case health and safety get involved with water tanks being up there.
All viewing at these sites was into the dreaded sun with a shimmering heatwave restricting visibility as well as no access to the sites. If the sun ever stops shining I,ll go have another dabble at them and maybe pick out a Caspian.
BS