Little Gull, adult hawking for insects over Alston No.#1 reservoir CLICK IMAGES FOR LIGHTBOX — *Little Gull, adult hawking for insects over Alston No.#1 reservoir* **CLICK IMAGES FOR LIGHTBOX**

GULLS WERE THE MAIN FEATURE OF A BRIGHT AND SUNNY SPRING DAY and I saw seven species within 5km of Ribchester! The highlights being the lovely adult Little Gull at Alston, found by Gavin Thomas and a second calendar year Iceland Gull that flew east at Red Bank at 1046 (a new patch bird for me, identified later from photos with help from Pete Morris, Gavin Thomas and Bill Aspin). There were at least three adult Mediterranean Gulls in the Red Bank area today, no doubt attracted by a combination of slurry spreading and a huge insect emergence on the river. A Peregrine was in the Ribchester area this morning. Unfortunately it was a bit of a mess and showed some ‘non-physiological’ feather damage, which is being scrutinised. A Reed Bunting flew north during a small movement of Meadow Pipits at Red Bank - the first on the Ribchester patch this year.

It was great to see around 60 Sand Martins too, excavating nest burrows and getting back to normal after the Arctic weather last week. There was only a handful of swallows today though. Buzzards were again well into double figures and included one kettle of 8 birds mixed with gulls at Red Bank, an awesome sight!

At Alston there were also two Black-tailed Godwits, two Redshank, three Little Ringed Plovers and a drake Gadwall of note on a splendid day on the local patch that resulted in 63 species. Other stats are now Ribchester 2021 (88) and all time (116), Ribchester April 2021 (74) & Ribchester April all time (82), making April the most productive month of the year.

GULLS!