Another visit with Paul, another mix of excellent gulls. Best of all not one but 2 adult Caspian gulls. Again we were really lucky to get excellent views in perfect conditions – flat calm, against a dark background, the first bird was alongside an adult Yellow-legged gull, giving us a great opportunity to compare the mantle tones, superb. That’s 13 gull species in the last week or so. 

The juv Glaucous gull was opposite the eastern arm at dusk, despite the failing light it gave us great views. We spent so much time enjoying the Caspians we didn’t really cover the rest of the roost as thoroughly as we could have, so no doubt we missed stuff. 4 Yellow-legs, 6 Meds. A GC grebe the first this winter. A marauding adult GBB was putting everything on edge and there were a couple scuffles as it roughed up anything that looked vulnerable. Footnote: whilst concentrating on the Caspians we heard some bugling close by, we couldn’t see anything overhead so may have been coming from the field just to the east (Whooper swan(s) possibly).