Loafing Gulls

6th June - between the showers it was quite pleasant this afternoon.  Yesterday, I had popped down in the late afternoon, which was my first visit for some days and seen a summer plumaged Dunlin, a Redshank wading near the island, 2 LRPs and a pair of unseasonal Shoveler.  Also of interest was a brood of 14 almost full grown Mallard accompanying their mother - a very high count and presumably zero mortality rate, which is quite remarkable.  I haven't seen these before around the lake, so they may have flown in from elsewhere.

Today, apart from the usual pair of LRP, the other waders had departed and with no new arrivals, the main interest was the loafing LWHG on the spit - these come and go from various feeding locations, but around 100 or so birds may be present at any one time.  Not too surprisingly, amongst the flock this afternoon was a 2cy Yellow-legged Gull.  It had very bleached coverts, but stood out from the crowd - I particularly liked its long fleshy pink legs.

There were also 2 colour-ringed birds - an adult LBB Gull with a black darvic and yellow 'GK' on its right leg and a 2cy LBB Gull with a white darvic and black letters - unfortunately this bird spent too long knee deep in water for me to be able to read the letters properly - maybe another day.

The 14 strong Mallard brood was again present along the western bank and 5 Shelduck were around the spit