Kumlien's Gull, Littlehampton,18/5/2014

Kumlien's Gull

Black-headed Gull, 1st summer

Herring Gull

Dungeness. MAY 2014

Dungeness, 3rd May

                         Common Whitethroat

                         Common Gull

Dungeness, 4th May,

Kittiwake

Great Black-backed Gull

Saturday, 10th May, an afternoon by the fishing boats,

Crow

Herring Gull

Herring Gull, adult

Herring Gull

Herring Gull

Saturday, 17th May
Common Tern, Dungeness, Kent

Ebro Delta, Spain, 26th April, 2014

Ebro Delta,     Day 4, (our last day)

We are at the Punta de la Banya at just after dawn, again !

Today, the wind speed is 33 km per hour,

No Slender-billed Gull

the day is for the Kite Surfers !
at least 20 Kite Surfers are zooming up and down the shore line at ''super speed''.

the strong wind kept a few Yellow-legged and Audouin's Gull
and a single Lesser Black-backed Gull grounded, hanging in /on to stop being blown away ! !


Audouin's Gull, 3c / 2nd s,

Audouin's Gull, adult s

Yellow-legged Gull, adult s

Lesser Black-backed Gull, adult s

Grey Plover

Kentish Plover

12.00 hours we move on towards Deltebre,

Feeding in the rice fields,Whiskered and Gull-billed Tern

Gull-billed Tern

Around 14.00 hours, we are at the most northern part of the Delta, looking out over Fangar Bay.

Down a dead end track we find a sluice gate with a tidal creek, the tide is coming in,

A Slender-bill Gull and 8 Sanderling are busy feeding on the rapidly disappearing sand bar.

Slender-billed Gull, 2c / 1st s

                         Sanderling

then following the track back towards Port d'Illa Mar

in Fangar Bay, Little Tern and Little Stint

                         Little Tern

                         Little Stint

It is now 16.15 hours, we have a deadline of 18.00 hours,    STOP everything !

To put cameras away and dash 50 miles to Reus Airport for the 21.00 hours flight home !

as we walked around the small harbour of Port d'Illa Mar (a very small harbour comprising of just two small jetties used by local fishermen) there was another sluice gate with another pool ! !

feeding in the pool was 

1 Greenshank and 4 Slender-billed Gull, 3 adults and a 2cy / 1st s.

I settled down for the ''last hour and a bit'' for what turned out to ''one crazy photo session''

Greenshank

then a pair of Black-winged Stilt flew in ! !

Black-winged Stilt, m

Black-winged Stilt, f

Slender-billed Gull, 2cy / 1st s

Black-winged Stilt, f

 Slender-billed Gull, adult s

Slender-billed Gull, 2cy / 1st s

Black-winged Stilt, f

Black-winged Stilt, m

Black-winged Stilt, f

Slender-billed Gull, 2cy / 1st s

There is 4 Slender-billed Gull, 1 Greenshank, 2 Black-winged Stilt 

and now 6 Little Tern come in to feed,

all birds within 7/8 metres coming as close as 3 metres ! !

Little Tern

  

The Little Tern are a bit to fast for me !

But there is plenty to point the camera at !

                         Black-winged Stilt, f

Slender-billed Gull, adult s

Slender-billed Gull, 2nd c / 1st s

Greenshank

Slender-billed Gull, 2nd c / 1st s

Slender-billed Gull, adult s

Little Tern

At about 17.45 hours, suddenly, all birds flew off !

The sluice gates opened, the shallow pool became a torrent of water !

Day over !

We packed our gear, set the sat nav, back to Reus for the 21.00 hours flight to Stanstead.

I dropped Mick of at Dartford at midnight and was home by 00.30 hours