Twitching

The twitchers

The twitched (the bird directly behind the Carrion Crow)

Ok, there's a proper picture of it here.

I know why I don't often do this, it seems more like stamp collecting than birding (no doubt I'll be in trouble for that remark). However, part of me likes to see a rare thing occasionally. I can excuse myself with my interest in gulls and not having seen this species before, how could I find one if I don't know what to look for?

The Glaucous-winged Gull was smaller than I expected, the tertial step was not as pronounced as I expected and the bill was not as heavy as I expected. At rest and at range it was hard to be certain always that the primaries were indeed grey rather than black. The dark, blue, grey mantle was distinctive and allowed the bird to be picked out at range. The tertials formed a very broad white band on the closed wing and in flight the grey rather than black primary tips were very evident. An interesting bird. I should have been more patient and waited at the ploughed field further in to the afternoon as it later gave very good views there, but I spent about an hour sifting through the gulls there and wanted to see other things. Other nice birds of the morning were Little Egret, a flock of Black-tailed Godwits, Red-breasted Merganser and I heard Spotted Redshank. I somehow managed to avoid any other interesting gulls except a leucistic Herring Gull (well that's what I thought it was) that roosted briefly with the G-wG.

Interesting twitcher moments - someone shouting repeatedly that they had it in flight when my understanding was it was half a mile way at the time. This caused a stampede of twitchers and then considerable bewilderment. Shortly after this the word was spread quietly that the bird was elsewhere, this resulted in one of the most thoughtless and stupid pieces of driving by one individual, a grey Renault Megane estate to my recall. This individual needs help, seeing the bird is not more important than the life of the many birders on foot between yourself and the bird, let alone other road users. Rather sad, as everyone else I came across was polite, friendly and helpful.

No visit to Teesmouth is complete without a ride on the Transporter Bridge (note the sign)

I then went to a place I've never been before, South Gare. The most north-easterly bit of vice county 62 (North Yorkshire). There were Sanderling and delight, Grey Plover, a bird I see most infrequently.

Sanderling

The South Gare, looking south to Kettleness (I think) in the distance