A very windy morning at Leeshaw but a bright start with sunshine and good visibility on a SW>5 increasing to SW>6 and rain by 1000 hrs with a temp of 7 degrees but feeling much colder with the wind chill.
Amazing to see the number of gulls which were all along the north shore and several in the goose field. Mostly Black Headed but several LBBs and a few Commons. Only 2 Herring in with the LBBs, one of which was an adult Yellow Legged(michahellis) in the waters edge then later picked up by BV on the shore. Good to bump into Brian whom I havent seen for quite a while.
Otherwise it was down to the usual species and once again nothing moving in the skies.
Visible Migration has been a washout this year over this area and now dependent on the arrival of winter thrushes as well as swans, geese and wildfowl.
Mid afternoon was still very windy with torrential showers so it was back on gull watch, a species that dont bother about the weather.
Ten Yards Lane just held a dozen Black Headed so on to find KMs Cullingworth birds which was,nt disappointing with a field heaving with around 400 gulls, 25% being Black Headed with good counts of Herring and LBB along with several Common.
Luckily the gulls were settled and busy feeding, though difficult to scope through due to the frequent heavy showers and the distance of the majority of gulls being in the distance.
Nothing special found but good to see so many big gulls together and I,m sure some specials will turn up here in the coming months.
Many thanks to all my blog watches for just taking me over one and a half million page views.
BS