A free afternoon, so started just after midday by deciding to check the various temporary small pools created after the recent rains. First pool I checked had about around thirty gulls in it: Mostly Black-headed Gulls, but a single Common Gull, and an adult summer Mediterranean Gull! Not a bad start. I watched it for about twenty minutes before it flew the entire flock took off towards Fowlmere. I noticed that some had come down on another pool in Fowlmere village, but not that bird.
The other pools held the usual common gulls, so I decided to carry on to Fowlmere. Very quiet. A large flock of Redwings, Fieldfares, and Starlings by the paddocks being the highlight. I then walked around to the old centenary hide a looked out into the fields. It was awash with gulls! The field was being ploughed and hundreds upon hundreds of gulls were following the tractor or sitting in the field. I struggled for five minutes to view them distantly but gave up and went back to the car to get my ‘scope.
Upon my return, a proportion of the flock had left, but there appeared to still be a reasonable number, including the relatively uncommon Greater Black-backed Gull and Herring Gull. After about thirty minutes of scanning I re-found the Med’ Gull from earlier. A major Fowlmere record, being only the first or second. The Gulls began to drift off between 3pm and 4pm until there were just a handful remaining, so I left for a quick check of the reed-bed which produced thirteen Teal.
