10th May

The sea salvaged some respectability today in an altogether more promising brisk southwestly, that saw 6 each of Pomarine and Arctic Skua, 4 Great Northern Divers and a Red-throated Diver logged at Chesil/the Bill; closer scrutiny of the large numbers of gulls continuing to assemble off the Bill also revealed 3 Yellow-legged Gulls in their midst. The overcast sky and spitsy rain at dawn offered hope for the land, but this came to nothing with little more than odd singles of routine fare grounded at the Bill; overhead passage was more conspicuous with a steady if always rather light passage of incoming Swifts and hirundines at the Bill.

After yesterday's damp squib of a Pom Day today was a little more rewarding: these three fine specimens passed Chesil Cove and only a few minutes later were spotted flying high over the Bill lighthouse © Jodie Henderson:



This altogether less impressive dark morph individual was sufficiently small, slight and subtle that, had it not been for the photographs clearly showing the spoony tail - a feature that wasn't at all apparent in the field - it was within a hair's breadth of being passed off as an Arctic Skua - Tim Cleeves' fabled Black Wanger it certainly wasn't © Martin Cade:


For the first time in a while small gulls were a feature of the day's seawatches at the Bill, with multiples of both Black-headed and Mediterranean Gulls passing © Martin Cade:



Little Egrets have long been oddly frequent at this time of year - why aren't they off breeding somewhere? © Martin Cade:


And if mostly squintingly distant views of seabirds in shoddy conditions aren't your sort of thing you can always rely on the Ferrybridge Little Terns to entertain at point blank range - we counted nearly 80 there this evening so the colony must be up to nearly full complement © Ken King:


I finally got to the Bill flock this morning. A few Yellow-legged Gulls as hoped. Here is a 2cy / 1st summer. (Legs look short as it's stood in a dip.) Pics of some 3cys also, coming up later. pic.twitter.com/XpgKoebDzV