Probably female with P10 mirror not fully covering primary tip, if that is reliable info eh Mick !!
A good grey morning at Fly Flatts with rolling mist and light drizzle at 12 degrees then hot and sunny p.m. up to 19 degrees.
A terribly boring morning at Fly Flatts with just the usual species around the water and half a dozen LBB gulls over >NE. A bad finish to the month at this site.
Late afternoon and the pull of the gulls found me back at Keighleys Redcar Tarn, thats a good thing about gulls, the weather never affects them, come rain or shine, although they do move better in wet and windy conditions.
As soon as I arrived it was apparent that there were several more gulls than yesterday with around 120 LBBs on the water and in the opposite field whilst ,right before my eyes, the Yellow Legged Herring gull was stood in shallow water and showing well. It was the only adult Herring present with around 7 sub adults. About 100 Black Headeds were there and the Tufted ducks were back on the water with 15 showing. Possibly they were on the island at my yesterdays visit.
I hurriedly took some shots before the inevitable happened, people started arriving with bread which put everything up in the air.
Luckily the YL resettled on the water each time it was disturbed and was present throughout the watch.
One of the BH gulls had a blue ring on its right leg, 2R55, which traces back to being ringed in Britain in the NW BH gull study at Killington Reservoir, Cumbria and most of these birds return to winter at Preston docks.
So once again gulls saved the day and its amazing to be in amongst them ,although only 1 local and 1 distant birder would agree with me.
BS