Good Snow

It stayed up in the air, where it can't cause trouble...

Today I went back to have a look for That Gull. Unsurprisingly, despite hours of searching I couldn't find the little git. 'Gull sp.' it is, then. ::Mutter mutter::

I did see lots of gulls, some of which were very nice indeed! Well, two were lovely and one was probably very good too, though as for the rest.. Oh dear, shall I just get on with it? Having mentioned the probable Y-l with the dark alula, there were promptly three, yes three Herrings on the pontoon showing the same thing. ::Mutters Ancient Devonian Swear-words:: The proper one was there too, and later popped up at Torre Abbey, messing around in the surf as the tide dropped and looking better and better. :) There was no sign of crazy-legs crane gull or the big dark one, either.

Some idea of the gull cycling that goes on on that little pontoon; first look had 37 Herrings and a Geeb, plus Y-l. I moved around to the next side and there were 51 gulls. After my next move 67. After I had a look from Haldon Pier and came back there were 70 gulls including now 2 Geebs and the ratio of adult to immature Herrings had gone from 40:60 to 70:30 The highest count of Herrings in the Harbour as a whole I got was 120, when something put them all up; how much throughput there is from surrounding areas I can't begin to guess, but I doubt it's zero. GBB minimum count was 11, btw - there's usually a few around, but rarely the numbers you get at Brixham or near their colonies.

Getting back to an account of sorts.. It was overcast, cold, trying to snow now and again, and the wind was very lazy. Just nice for standing around staring at gulls and stuff on the sea. I did try to vary it with looking for the Blackstart that often winters around Rock Walk, but only found a Blackcap! Other gulls of interest were about 200 BHGs; split between sitting in a bunch by Princess Pier, sitting on the rocks at Corbyn's [when the tide had dropped] and messing about at Livermead. The group by the Pier was easily the best as they had with them a superb adult Med Gull! :D Very nearly in full s/pl, it really put the brown 'eads to shame. Further out, a clump of 32 Common Gulls were nice to see, and briefly on Torre Abbey beach late on was a cracking adult LBB showing characteristics of intermedius. I say briefly as a frickin' dog walker detoured to be sure to flush it and the other gulls well out into the Bay... [[Yup, yet more Ancient Devonian Swear-words were uttered...]] I had been hoping for a Little Gull frolicking above the surf, but only got 9 surfers and 3 punt-surfers instead.. Oh well, it was more a hope than an expectation.

More enjoyment came after counting the Commons from the lee of the ticket booth; a lone Mallard had been swimming up and down beside Princess Pier and Gardens and I was looking down at it when suddenly up popped a frickin' Black-necked Grebe - right next to the Pier and maybe 20' from my astonished eyes! It proceeded to fish it's way along the Pier side, at one point catching a small flatfish, with me only stopping watching when I saw what else was close by.. Great Northern. [[Could this be what flew into the Bay yesterday?]] After legging it along Princess Pier to get closer, I plonked down on one of the nice benches, feet up on the rail drinking it in as it preened and gradually drifted further out. The diver was an immature [2nd or 3rd winter], holding up one of those very pale bills that annoy the Irish.. ;) [[To be honest, I don't pay super levels of attention to GND bills - if they're nice and daggery that'll usually do - and without [{In}Famous Irish Birder]'s recent comments and blog entries I'd have probably let it slide altogether as natural variation..]] [[Isn't the internet a wonderful thing?]]

Also on the sea were 17 GC Grebe and 2 Slavonian [these sat quite close in, with a single GC], plus 2 adult Razorbill on the sea and 2 1w preening inside the outer Harbour, as well as the usual plethora of Shags and Cormorants. Three Turnstone and three Rockit were around the Harbour [the former circling an angler, hoping for bait] and 4 Oyks around Corbyn's Head. The rugby pitch had 61 Redwing and a Mistle Thrush, with the newly-scrubbed 'ponds' having 37 assorted Mallard and a handful of Moorhen.

Swinging past the Downs, I was a little surprised to see 35 GC Grebe riding the big swell off Blackball - normally with weather coming onshore there's nowt there.

PYL: 85