probable 'argentatus'
A decent start to the morning at Leeshaw with full cloud and light showers on a SW>4 at 5 degrees then heavy rain by 0945 hrs and wind increasing.
Other than a distant pair of Teal and several Mallard it was all down to gull watching with a constant
flow of gulls through, mainly continuing straight through >W whilst some settled briefly on the water before moving on. Plenty Herrings among the Black Headed and Common but only a low count of LBBs and no GBBs.
A good check through for Iceland, Caspian and Med gulls to no avail, the best I could find was a much darker mantled Herring gull with a head which looked good for Yellow Legged until it lifted out of the water to reveal pink legs so I,m assuming argentatus Herring.
The wind peaking at midnight tonight but looking like a very windy do over the next 3 or 4 days.
A text and video from MC in Oxford at his local patch with 912 Pintail, wintering Dunlins and 100s of other ducks, then nearby, more Dunlin, 1 Ruff and c 400 Goldies, and I got excited with 1 Pintail this year and 1 last year!!
BS