Candles, 6th March 2013

After a day and a half waiting for the fog to clear around the Humber, I gave up and headed home via a few hours at the tip. The active tip-face creeps ever closer, and the views were superb, almost too close. There were also c1,500 large gulls loafing in the field all afternoon, but despite the numbers (maybe 2,000 in total split roughly evenly Herring/LBB, with mainly immatures of the former and adults of the latter), scarcities were hard to come by. I didn't see a white wing at all, and for a long time it was just a 2cy mich in the field to show for my efforts.

Later on I added a 3cy and adult mich on the tip, and eventually the day's highlight appeared: a 2cy Caspian Gull preening non-stop in the field. It was picked out by the gleaming white uppertail with just a neat horsehoe of black spots above the broad black tail-band, and the incredibly worn wings (that "old leather" look) and quite plain mantle identified it as another new bird, suggesting there's a real movement going on at the moment.