Stewchat...

Today came in like a lion and went out like a lamb. A proper 'game of two halves'. This morning was windy again with a strong NW6, but at lunchtime the wind had dropped considerably to a W3 decreasing further, with warm wintery sunshine all afternoon.

I started off by going back to Amble to try a shot at the Med Gulls. On the way two nice Foxes were sniffing after each other between Hipsburn and Warkworth, both looking in fine fettle.

As the weather was quite inclement I thought I would do some drawing from the car at Amble. Despite scattering a few slices of Warburtons, the Meds chose to stay away. After all of the bait had been eaten the adult Med Gull flew over head and off towards the town. Typical.

I stopped at Warkworth - Amble braid to view the Coquet from the car. Drew the Lapwing sheltering behind a seaweed covered stone before heading to Boulmer



I carried on checking gulls from the car at the seawatch seat, but they were distant feeding in the surf. I thought I had found a juv Glaucous in with them but something didnt look right in the bins. A closer look with the scope showed the bird to be a strange mix of Glaucous and Herring Gull. At range it looked good for a coarsely marked Glauc but better views showed that it had dark (ish) primaries at rest. The bill pattern was not as clear cut as expected either. It was probably either a Glauc x Herring hybrid ( Viking Gull, FFS!)or may have been just a paler 'argentatus' Herring Gull.



In the spring like weather this afternoon we all walked from home to Boulmer via Lowsteads and back by the RAF Base. Pleasant but relatively bird free.