Patchwork Challenge Trip 6 (14th February) 54 Birds

Valentine's Day saw me getting up early for two things: flowers for the wife and a chance to spot the Fieldfares that had been spotted by Martin at Longham Lakes.

I headed right over to the usual spot, spying one lone Great White Egret, around 21 Pochard and a small group of Tufted Ducks and Great Crested Grebes, but very little else.

See if you can spot the two rarer gulls here.

It was quite windy and there wasn't a lot of bird song around. As it turned out there weren't any Scandinavian thrushes either and despite checking several key areas for extensive amounts of time I found nothing other than Blackbirds and the odd Song Thrush.

Martin's gap has been slowly increasing over the last few weeks so as I walked along the back of the lakes I was scouring the reeds and the skies for Water Rails and Falcons of any description. I came up short and the back fields were also light on action, with a large group of Carrion Crows being the only notable action.

A harsh crop showing the different between the two gulls. The Mediterranean is far white with no black on the wingtips.

I found my new birds over the far side of South Lake but I really had to work for them. Martin had already seen some Mediterranean Gulls, so I scoured the large group of gulls that were floating around and causing a ruckus. I counted 127 Black-Headed Gulls, two of which were Mediterraneans, Success!

New Bird Total = 54