There is nothin' like a dame gull,

        Nothin' in the world

                  There is nothin' you can name

                           That is anything like a dame gull!

Well, I wouldn't go quite that far but regular readers may no I rather like gulls, especially rare ones. Saturday took me to Barmston in hope of catching up with the returning Kumlien's gull.

A word of cynical caution [not written by me]:

Some say that Kumlien's Gull is a subspecies of Thayer's Gull. Still others say that Thayer's Gull, Iceland Gull, and Kumlien's Gull are all a single species and we all are kidding ourselves by pretending otherwise....

Nice bird anyway! Some birders on the beach were looking the wrong way when I spotted a bright white object well out on the water...

Kumlien's Gull It flew in closer.

Kumlien's Gull Kumlien's Gull

Then it flew all over including pretty close to where I was...

Kumlien's Gull Kumlien's Gull Kumlien's Gull Kumlien's Gull Kumlien's Gull Kumlien's Gull Kumlien's Gull

From there I went to Flamborough for another try for the Richard's pipits. Funnily enough I saw the three of them straightaway down in the bottom right corner of the first field east of South Landing. Scope job as they landed on a ridge in fairly long grass. An american wigeon alerted me to head for Scalby Mills but the bird had hidden among the rocks. Kingfisher and lesser black-backed gull were adequate compensation and I was glad to escape the cold gale and get back inside Tiggy.

High tide Sunday morning saw the wigeon in full view thanks to Mark who had it in view. On his advice I picked up manadarins on the way home at Hackness Lake.

135 UK 2016