Hard Going at Shawell Today

WStrong winds today kept the gulls on the move and only small groups were at the A5 lagoons. The wind in the morning made it very uncomfortable for the gulls that tried to rest on the bank. They weren't at the landfill site either, but I bumped into the manager and he told me that many gulls were in fields between the landfill and the M1 motorway. These are only visible from the high ground on top of the tip.

Amongst a small group of gulls that did pitch down at the lagoons was a third-winter Caspian Gull. Also a Norwegian colour-ringed Great Black-backed Gull put in an appearance and surrendered its code - JP600. In October and November 2012 it had been sighted on a couple of different oil rigs in the North Sea. Another colour-ringed GBBG was there but this one avoided having its colour-ring read. I did, however, manage to confirm the code of an adult Black-headed Gull that I first saw in December 2014. This one spends much of its time  around the Ythan Estuary in Aberdeenshire.

Third-winter Caspian Gull, Shawell A5 Lagoons