Very windy at Fly Flatts this morning with a moderate SW>4 at 12 degrees with full cloud and damping in the wind.
A walk the full length of the west bank and a thorough scope of all the shores only produced 2 Common Sandpiper and 4 Oystercatcher, the latter probably being the family that bred at this site and seen recently at Ogden. All yesterdays Ringed Plovers had moved on and possibly the juv Dunlin also.
Around 7 Wheatear were on the shore along with 16 BH and 7 LBB gulls, otherwise it was just the usual species.
This morning MP text me to say some of the Thornton fields were cut and slurry was being spread, a good recipe for gulls. By late afternoon he had found a juv Med gull in among around 200 gulls. A quick dash over there in heavy rain found the gulls very flighty due to the strong wind so very difficult to pick out the bird. Mark got the gull in his scope and directed me onto it but 2 fields away and it soon moved off again.
Back home, then a call from Mark to say the Med gull had returned so it was another dash to Thornton for a second try. By now the weather was really grim with heavy rain driven by the wind and mist moving in.
Fortunately the gull had settled down about a third of the way into the field so I was able to get some photos in very dark light and a towel over the camera. By the time the bird flew to the next field Mark and me were dripping wet but worth it for another cracking gull, yet again found by MP.
BS