Another early start yesterday for my third and and final seawatch if the long weekend, and it was my longest of the lot from 06:25 - 11:15, however it turned out to be the quietest of the lot with reduced numbers of seabirds moving through however the vis was a bit better, totals were:
1 Arctic Skua (dark morph)
102 Arctic Tern
6 Sandwich Tern
5 Gannet
10 Red Breasted Merganser
1 Red Throated Diver
9 Shelduck
13 Whimbrel
1 Bar Tailed Godwit
2 male Whinchat on golf course (yeartick)
3 Yellow Wagtail over (fylde yeartick)
107 Swallow
4 Sand Martin
1 House Martin
1 Swift
4 Lesser Redpoll
41 Goldfinch
3 Wheatear
25 Meadow Pipit
3 Pied Wagtail
Also whilst the tide was coming in I picked out a very white gull roosting on the beach and got the others onto it, however it kept standing face on to us so they couldn't see any plumage details. Luckily after a while it walked a bit to the right and then flew a little further allowing us all to scrutinise its plumage, we determined it was a 3rd winter due to the bill pattern, and from the structure we believed that it was a leucistic Herring Gull. Paul Ellis went out onto the beach and got some shots which I haven't seen yet, however later that day it was put on the bird club website as a 3rd winter Iceland Gull! I haven't been able to confirm this but hopefully will be able to soon.
In the afternoon I made a visit to Freckleton where a surprise came in the form of 6 more Arctic Tern battling up river, 5 of which gave up and flew back downriver with the strong easterly wind behind them, a Little Egret also flew upriver. Then it was on to Preston Docks where 2 Common Terns were displaying over the pontoons, and 3 more terns were flying around which looked like Arctic however I couldn't be sure in the strong winds.
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