More Yellow Legs

10th June - an early evening visit in poor light and a little drizzle.  The summer doldrums are beginning, with 2 LRPs being the only waders of note.  5 Shelduck remain and the hybrid Ruddy Shelduck x Shelduck has reappeared.  2 Little Egrets were present - 1 on the back of the spit and the other perched low in a willow on the island.

I wandered round to the southern bank to view the few LWHG that were on the back of the spit and mainly obscured by vegetation.  1 of these was a 2s (3cy) Yellow-legged Gull and following a quick scan, another 2s (3cy) bird was found.  1 of the birds had a dark iris, whilst the other had a lighter iris and a small amount of dark streaking around the eye.  They remained separate for much of the time, but when they did meet up, they adopted a head down parallel walk for a little while.  A few poor record shots below - the auto focus was struggling to work in the poor light!

Bird 1

Bird 1

Both together

These 2 birds were part of a flock of just 37 LWHG, though this had risen to 50 when I left - I'm not sure whether they are the herald of the usual summer build up, as they are slightly early for this and there was also a 2cy bird here a few days ago.  There do seem to be more Yellow-legged Gulls reported now in what was classicly a period when they were absent, so maybe its a sign of a more general spread of the species.

The 2cy LBB Gull with the white darvic and black lettering was present again, but I still could not read it - maybe third time lucky!

The Bar-headed Goose that is present on and off with Greylags appeared - it seems to spend its time between here and Dorney and probably places inbetween.  Also the large brood of 14 Mallards, still following mother even though they are now the same size.