The weather forecast for today was for bitterly cold easterly gales and snow showers, it was very much spot on with a bone crushing wind blasting in from the east, which made birding very uncomfortable and having decided yesterday that there may well be a decent gull movement I headed, painfully, to the hut at Palm Bay as this would give at least a little shelter from the freezing wind. I could see masses of gulls hovering over Cliftonville and they were slowly making their way eastwards towards me. Good numbers passed through and coupled with a later afternoon visit the final totals were approx. 1 Glaucous Gull (2CY), c90 each of Lesser Black-backed and Great Black-backed Gulls, c500 Herring Gulls, 43 Kittiwakes and 2 Mediterranean Gulls. Quite impressive to watch.
Spring migrants were the last thing on my mind to be honest but I was surprised to find two newly arrived Black Redstarts along the stretch around the bowling greens, one a handsome male.
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| 2CY Glaucous Gull Foreness 11th March 2013 |
Nice one Barry, just reward no doubt for going out in those temperatures.
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