Caspian Gull, Little Gull, Kittiwake, Dungeness, 5/1/14

Dungeness, by the fishing boats !

A slow start for me !
Then, after our breakfast, it's about midday, high tide is at about 13.15 hours

The light has been good but cloud cover is advancing, it becomes rather grey !
The South wind has strengthened and the sea now is quite rough !

There is a huge amount of food debris on the high water mark, scoured from the seabed in the storms and thrown up on last nights tide, all morning there had been very little Gull activity, no gulls fed on this endless line of food of queen cockles, razor, fish left overs from the fishing boats, etc

Kittiwake are feeding close in, many !

Kittiwake, 1st winter

13.30 hours, its high tide, the pounding waves are dragging the food debris back into the sea.

a 1st winter Little Gull comes close feeding, it is dip feeding on bits of the queen cockle !

it's approaching us, flying into a strong Southerly, dip feeding, passing by us very close, then 25 meters past us, turned and flew back 200 -300 metres to begin a return feeding pattern approach back to, and in front of us. Several of these flyby !

then an Adult winter Little Gull appeared, same approach, same feeding pattern,

We are now treated to 40 minutes of many flyby's of both the 1st and adult winter Little Gull !

The light is not good, there is very little contrast and its difficult to get focus on this tiny Gull

Little Gull, 1st winter 1/1600 f4.0 800 ISO

Little Gull, 1st winter

The light is deteriorating ! now down to 1/800 f4.0 800 ISO

Little Gull, adult winter

Little Gull, 1st winter

Little Gull, adult winter

A ''Crazy'' 40 minutes and it was over, the Little Gull did not return, they must have been full up !

The light has gone ! It is now very grey sky !
You cannot get better than what we have just seen !
I return to the car, pack the camera, change my clothes, boots ''off'', carpet slippers ''on'', heater ''on'' !

Mick is still out there !

15.14 hours, my phone rings, Mick Southcott, ''there's a Caspian Gull flying straight towards you'' !

Coat on, still in slippers ! I am out there in a flash !

this cracking 2nd winter Caspian gave several flyby's, backwards and forwards past us, close !

the light suddenly gets better ! brighter !

Caspian Gull, 2nd winter 1/1250 f4.0 800 iso

1/1250 f4.0 800 iso

The light drops !

1/640 f4.0 800 iso

1/640 f4.0 800 iso

Luck was on our side !
The Caspian was using so little effort to fly into the strong southerly wind that it appeared quite slow motion, enabling to take flight shots down at 1/500 sec shutter speeds.

1/500 f4.0 800 iso