Iceland, Glaucous and Med Gull passed Whitburn Obs by 10.35 this morning in an amazing white out. I had hoped for white wing gulls yesterday in the stronger southerly so today when i sat down on a misty morning i wasn't sure what to expect, but it was all about the gulls. As yesterday big gulls were moving from first light tho today i didn't to any large gull counts. I was checking out the Black heads that were moving south in bigger numbers than recently and saw large gulls beginning to roost on the rocks just north of the Obs. The 5th bird i looked at was a juv Glaucous Gull, back of the net. I managed to get some video and put the news out before my phone died, and when the local fishing boat called to check his pots they were off heading south. PTB just happened to be passing and headed off to look for it at the Steel
The Med Gull was expected with that number of Black heads going south but the Iceland was not. I Popped out for a call of nature as you do and saw a white winger going south over the obs, got my scope and managed to nail it as it went south over the range.
This is what i saw in order of appearance
Friday 16th December 07.55-10.35 S2 cloud 6/8
Black h Gull 15n 172s
Common Gull 1n 69s
Gannet 7n 7s
Cormorant 1n 10s
Fulmar 2n 4s
Curlew 67s
Eider 2s
Glaucous Gull 1s juv 09.10, flew south 09.20 ish
Shag 2s
Red th Diver 3n 1s
Scan Herring Gull 1n 2s
Common Scoter 5n
Med Gull 1s ad 10.00
Iceland Gull 1s ad 10.10
