Gulls and Ducks and Crappy Weather. Saturday 22nd February 2020

After a heavy night we were not up and about early. Birding wasn't that appealing I the gale force winds anyway, so we lingered over breakfast, finally leaving the hotel around 10.30.

'Gulling' of the birding kind was our chosen activity, specifically Redcar Tarn near Keighley. This small reservoir had held both Iceland and Caspian gulls over the last couple of weeks and apparently both were approachable.

We stayed for a couple of hours, armed with bred and sheltered from the wind in the warmth of the cars. The Iceland Gull failed to put in an appearance, but the 1st.w Caspian Gull showed exceptionally well, coming to bread with it's commoner cousins. I've generally lost interest in looking at large gulls, but have to admit I really enjoyed it here. Perhaps I would feel differently if there was such an easy place to observe them as here nearer home. Regardless, the Caspo was a very distinctive and smart bird. 

 

From here we decided to head west over to Martin Mere WWT, partly to fix my scope bracket after it fell over yesterday and partly as it offered a little shelter from the gale. We spent our limited time in the 'In Focus' score where Tony Disley kindly sorted the scope issue as we enjoyed the point blank wildfowl. I really should come here more often (it's probably been 15 years!).