... during a rather typical Workington seawatch which produced 3 Gannets and 17 Sandwich Terns I looked south and saw another adult Med. Gull on the beach ...
... Siddick Pond was more productive with 4 adult, 1 2ndW and 3 juv/1stW Med. Gulls loafing in the far SW corner ... that seemed more promising ...
... just to the north in the St.Helens - Flimby area the tide was rising ... and the rocks and shoreline were scattered with Med.Gulls ... along with a smaller number of Black-headed Gulls and Sandwich Terns ...
... as the tide rose the gulls flew backwards and forwards along the shore ... some landed on the sea ...
... these three adults demonstrate the variation in head pattern with none really conforming to the ' highwayman's mask that I think of a typical ' ...
... these three were largely in juvenile plumage with only a small amount of moulting towards 1stW ...
... while this one was a little more advanced ...
... the juvenile birds on the rocks showed up their lovely scaly mantle and scapular pattern ...
... contrasting with the adults ... which were well into their primary moult ...
... and some juveniles gave nice fly by views ...
... these two show the nice clean pale under-wing ...
... while this bird showed more dark at the bases of the greater coverts ...
... the least common age was, as usual, 2ndW ... but these have a rather appealing subtlety to the wing pattern ...
... there were 8 of this age group while the adults were predominant with 44 birds ... the 42 juveniles must reflect a good breeding season ...
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