A bright and breezy morning at Redcar Tarn, Keighley with a cold SW>4 at 4 degrees but clear with some sunshine.
My mission today was to get some images of the Caspian gull mainly to use for future reference on a very difficult species to identify. A morning and afternoon yesterday proved fruitless but as I arrived this morning the second probable Caspian was on the water briefly before heading off to fields behind the construction ground and out of sight.
Only another 5 Herring gulls were present so two dog walk laps of the water by which time more Herrings were coming in. Suddenly it appeared on the water though very mobile with people stopping and throwing food. Briefly it came out onto the banking before flying a circuit and landing in the flooded field from where it whipped over the wall into the second then third field down which was where I last saw it. The second bird never reappeared.
With mission accomplished I headed home with a beam on my face and not even getting annoyed with the traffic on the way back.
Late afternoon was very windy and very dark with a moderate S>6 and light rain showers so just a wander around Ogden in the part shelter.
A few Tit flocks were present but only Great and Blue with the only other passerines being my bogey bird Treecreeper with 3 together in one tree. It was dark as night under the tree canopy but I risked some shots with the camera wide open and amazingly they came out half decent.
BS