Monday 6 April 2009

Larus minutus




South-easterly wind? Early April? The signs were looking good for a Little Gull today. Sure enough a text from northern rustic at 0900 revealed there was one at Stoke Newington Res already. As soon as I was free, about 1200, I headed off to my nearest large body of water, Lockwood. Sadly no joy here, but I did bump into Lol Bodini, so we headed off and gave the whole site a quick once-over.
Highlights included a nice female Wheatear on Lockwood and Common Sandpiper there. Cetti's Warbler and Sand Martin were noted on the Southern group.

Not quite satisfied yet I decided it was time for the big guns, so I headed off to KGV.
It looked good and I pretty much ran up the embankment! Sure enough a quick scan revealed a couple of Little Gulls out in the middle. Excellent! Then a few more... and another party. I ended up with a maximum of 22 birds! Most of them were adults in varying staes of 'hoodedness' plus 2 first summers and 1 second summer. In amongst them were 2 Common Terns, my first of the year.

Little Gull 22
Common Tern 2
Goldeneye 3
Teal 8
Sand Martin 4



Apologies for the crap photos!

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