Friday 4 October 2013

Candles, 4th Oct 2013


Tried for a more thorough visit today in superb light, but on arrival c1,200 gulls, virtually all LBBs, took to the air and only a fraction landed in view. A desperate hour resulted in a big 1w mich and a remarkable 4 adult hybrids, all Herring x LBB types, a scarily dark juv LBB and an intriguing dinky fuscish thing...


 

Wednesday 2 October 2013

Candles, 2nd Oct 2013

Autumn does tend to get in the way of the gulling. A week in Co.Clare for a big NW blow mid Sept was great, and a couple of visits to the east coast have coincided with a few bits of drift too. So it's suddenly been three weeks since I visited the tip - anything could have happened!

Super smart, shame it was so misty
Unfortunately an opportunity to have a quick look coincided with low cloud, the cloudbase sitting just below the level of the tip (Candles sits at 220m above sea level!). A glance from the bank produced a mere 40 LBBs loafing on the top, but with them was the 1cy Caspian Gull, looking smarter than ever! Awesome. Just a shame the visibility was so poor...

Check out that underwing (horribly tweaked for contrast!)
Probably c300 large gulls in total, and a 2cy mich but impossible to check them properly.