Windy day, Thursday 26-10-06

Howling winds all night continued through the day and strengthened towards evening. Shipping forecast suggests going NW and pressure map suggests that it could be ok for Little Auks tomorrow.
Sandsend today was pretty uneventful - Mollie and Rosa enjoyed their apple pie/custard lunch (with bacon buttie to polish it off) Ellen required a carry all the way to the cafe - no change there then. A few things were struggling in/off (surprising in the strong winds), 4 Skylarks, 1 Blackbird and 3 Lapwings. A rapid charge to Scaling Dam for the gull roost proved more interesting. Peter rather enterprisingly found a duck that neither of us could immediately id in amongst the Teal. A large generally rather nondescript teal type thing with a round head, dark speculum and (fortunately) a somewhat striking yellow and black bill. (Reference to the web on our return indicated Speckled Teal). Not to be outdone your correspondent finally picked out a 1stW Med from the c5,000 Common Gulls. Also of note was the first Goldeneye of the autumn, 2 Shoveler and good numbers of Teal and Wigeon. The 120+ GB-bGulls might perhaps be attributed to the high winds sending these inland?