Of Geese And Gulls.

On my way to Heysham on Friday, I pulled off the by-pass to park up and walk down Imperial Road leading to the 'Waste Technology Park'. This is at the eastern boundary of the Heysham Obs recording area, and was the location of an exceptionally early spring Stonechat migration in 2019, when up to a possible seven were seen on 17 February. I was hoping I'd picked the right day, right time for a repeat this early March, but the visit drew a blank.

Eight Brent Geese had made a return to Heysham on 27 February, a visit today was rewarded with 6 Brent Geese seen off the promenade by the children's play area, but flew off a little north towards Sandylands, 77 Eider were off here.

A 50 sec snatch of at least 2,000 gulls on the Lune Estuary late afternoon.

View Full Screen

I had been at the bowling green about 45 minutes when Pete Crooks joined me. I had already noted a number similar to that of the gulls, c.1,500 Black-tailed Godwit and 500 Bar-tailed Godwit, and an adult Mediterranean Gull, Pete found another one later. A Buzzard flew low over the river, putting everything in sight to flight. 

But the interest over the course of an hour, was in eventually finding nine darvic ringed gulls, listed as.... 

Five Common Gull, all with right leg rings, three White, a Green, and a Red.
Two Lesser Black-backed Gull, Yellow left leg, and Black left leg. 

Two Black-headed Gull, Yellow left leg, and White right leg.

Though frustration was equal to the interest, in that, because of distance, no readings could be made to add to the colours, the gulls being on the opposite shore below the south end of Colloway Marsh, this was an excellent and rewarding exercise between PC and myself.