A wild morning with a strong SE>5 gusting 7 and increasing during the day to gale force 8.
Keeping dry and very mild at 10 degrees with full dark cloud cover, not a morning for photos again.
Lower Laithe had very few gulls in the strong wind with a first Curlew and 2 Oystercatchers along with a single Cormorant.
Leeshaw was very active though well down on gulls with around 200+ small gulls and only 3 Herring, plus all the nearby gull fields were empty.
The first Curlews have finally arrived with 9 present but dropping down into distant fields whilst 18 Oystercatchers were mobile around the banking.
A pair of Teal were on the new exposed banking along with Lapwings and the Red Necked Grebe was still present, which was lucky for a Preston birder that had turned up to see it.
Starling were the star turn with a group of around 100 very mobile, moving around the surrounding fields. Very few geese this morning but plenty Jackdaws, Woodpigs etc in the fields.
Leeming was a disappointment with a few Herring gulls overhead but none on the water. Just 10 Canadas and a few Mallard. A very hard work morning with that strength of wind blowing.
A bit better weather -wise tomorrow with cloudy sunshine on a moderate SW at 6 degrees.
A couple of days ago I called at Leeming on the way back from Leeshaw to find 72 Herring gulls on the water. One very bright headed gull with a slender bill stood out from the group so I took several photos of it but at distance and in very poor light. I suspected this as a Caspian but had'nt as yet got chance to scour through the photos and partly dismissed it, going by my record of not quite rights.
Luckily hawkeye MC picked it out from a single photo on my Wednesday blog and confirmed it as a 2CY Caspian gull, possibly the same bird as he had seen a few days previous at Redcar Tarn.
Few distant shots :-
