Avez-Vous un Cuppa?

2nd Winter Kumlien's Gull at Shawell. Another shot of the Kumlien's Gull. 1st winter Iceland Gull at Shawell Balancing Lake. Another shots of the 1st winter Iceland Gull. Over the last couple of months it has been a great winter for seeing and finding white winged gulls like Iceland Gull and Glaucous Gull. As I normally recieved most of the local bird records for the fieldnotes in the LROS newsletter, it has been interesting reading over the last month or so. Up to the present day so far at least ten Iceland Gulls , 1 Kumlien's Gull and maybe 3 different Glaucous Gulls have been recorded in Leicestershire? With hopefully a couple of more weeks to check the local tips before most of the gulls disperse to there breeding grounds I would imagine a few more white-winged gulls maybe found?

2nd Winter Kumlien's Gull-Shawell Balancing Lake. More views of the Kumlien's Gull Following info via text message from John about Neil Hagley had found a Kumlien's-type Gull at Shawell Tip and Balancing Lake the previous day, I knew were I was going birding for the next few days. There had been a bit of a discussion on the gull via birdforum and by the locals about the photos of the bird. So arriving at the tip just after 9.30am I met up with Neil and Tim (from Warwickshire) who were watching a large group of gulls on the tip face. Neil had seen the gull around 8.30am feeding on the tip, but it had disappeared for the last twenty minutes into a large dip opposite the tip face. As Neil had to go to work, myself and Tim then walked down the nearby footpath opposite the gravel works entrance to view the tip. Scanning the tip for a few minutes we still could not see the Gull, so we then decided to check out the nearby balancing lake. Driving round to the balancing lake opposi...