TRICELAND GULLS

Over the farm with Dodge and Bulldog today, the Kumlien's Gull appeared on the lake. We have a new, temporary assistant to Clippy the site Ecologist, Stuart 'Stewpot' Elsom, whom I've know for about thirty years and he was on site doing his first census so I alerted him and he was soon with us. Pyro also turned up, having not caught up with the Kumlien's yet, but alas it had buggered off.

While we were scanning for it I picked up the 2w bird so that was a bit of compensation. However, whilst we were watching it, I heard Stewpot exclaim 'another white-winger coming in'. I thought it was going to be the Kumlien's but, amazingly, it was another 2w Iceland Gull. We enjoyed this new bird and it eventually disappeared, with the other one, to be replaced again with the Kumlien's, much to Pyro and Stewpot's relief. This is the first time we've had three Iceland Gulls in one day and there's plenty of time for more. Later on, Canons Farm crew member Ian 'Eagle' Jones turned up and picked up one of the 2w birds for his Surrey list. A good day but no Caspos seen.

The Kumlien's digiscoped

The latest 2w Iceland Gull digiscoped. It has more browny patches on the mantle than the other, whiter, bird

The original 2w bird. Distant as usual, I was going to digiscope it when the second bird dropped in

I found this cheeky Wood Mouse in our seed bin this morning