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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?

Following information from the LROS website the previous day that a 1st winter Iceland Gull had been seen at Shawell tip near Lutterworth I decided to nip out late morning to see if the gull was still around? Getting to the tip just before the morning shift had finished I parked up in a nearby lay-by and watched the gulls by the roadside. Scanning through the large number of gulls I could not pick up anything which looked like an Iceland Gull. At this point most of the gulls got up and flew off in a southerly direction, Bugger!! Checking the fields just east of the village there still no sign of the Iceland Gull but a good assortment of the commoner gulls. From here I moved on to Stanford Reservoir which was just down the road. Parking on the roadside, I walked down to the dam and noted that most of the reservoir was frozen. In the free bits of water were good numbers of Pochards, Tufted Ducks and 8 Goosanders. Scanning further right over a mix of large gulls standing on the ice I no...