no wind, no gulls however i did see this at west rise today. surely a great black-back x glauc hybrid?. also 2 water pipits there.

today with the return of strong southerlies there were lots of gulls on the go, my visit to west rise only produced 2 yellow-legged tho. the smew has been showing well in the northeast arm of the lake. yesterday i went down the cuckmere again but the wind had changed to the northeast, the worst direction you want for gulls and they were all out on the sea and along the undercliff. there were obviously loads of lbbg still about, frustrating knowing there were record numbers of caspo's around at the weekend. i still managed to see 3 each of caspian and yellow-legged. the 2 wintering firecrests were along the path just south of the pub.

a repeat of two weeks ago. i was sitting in the car at west beach waiting for a decent gull to appear, there were lots of herring but nothing else, disappointingly no lbbg which wasn't giving me much hope, but then out of nowhere there was a white winger! in my head i'd already dismissed it before i got it in the scope. i've only seen a handful of juv iceland before but they've had the same 'pure' look, almost pinkish cream with white primaries. this bird looked dark, with a brown wash on the primaries and coarse markings on the gc's and tertials. i wondered if it might be a diddy nelsons gulls or some uber pale argie at first, but there was no denying that iceland jizz. i dont have enough experience on these gulls but i've seen photos of kumlien's with similar plumage, however after having a look on the net it seems most features point to this being a well marked iceland. it looked rubbish in flight, didn't stick out like a sore thumb like a white winger should.

brief look at west rise at lunch produced a 1st-w caspian and 1st-w and adult yellow-legged gulls. more distant views today as they have been flushing easily in this high wind so didn't want to approach too closely. no photos.