Darvic rainbow

Having a rare opportunity to spend a few minutes on the Seton shore free of kids (daughter at ballet) arrived there and quickly found 2 colour-ringed Meds amongst the gathering by the burn, almost certainly regulars red-7P8 (Polish) and green-3LV5 (Belgian). Also, some darviced Shags on rocks offshore, so had to prioritise - stalk the gulls to reconfirm the Meds or go for the Shags. Went for the former and got close enough to confirm Cherry Blossom (red-7P8), also managed a pic (above) on old video camera showing much more mask on right of head (compare left). The other Med was clearly 3LV5 and seems to have recovered from limp, poor pic below.

Then, with both Meds in same scope view, something much more interesting popped up between them, a yellow darvic BHG! Had seen one here previously on 15/12/07 but really tough to get digits on a very narrow ring and failed on that occasion. A chance to get one back - at that point the battery ran out on the camcorder :( Knew I needed to be very much closer so stalked some more, trying camera again managed to get one more shot out of it just a couple of seconds before the whole flock flew - with the darviced bird never refound. Remarkably, the image could be read as "N141" [later confirmed to have been rung at Salamanca rubbish dump on 28/1/07!]

Having "completed" gulls, went for Shags and got 3 darvics (green-SPJ Isle of May 2nd-win, red-PUS Forth islands juv, blue-JLB Isle of May) in 10 birds on the "Shag rock" at Wrecked Craigs, the latter 2 being new and taking total to 29 individuals since August.

Others there - 2 Arctic Skuas (dark + pale ads) came in chasing a large gathering behind a fishing boat - one retrieving something to eat from a Herring Gull which it pursued into the sky, also Sandwich Tern past and a Sanderling on the shore amongst Dunlins; so quite a productive hour overall! Earlier, 4 Swallows and large numbers of geese over Longniddry on the school run, though looks like I missed the Snow Goose which was seen to the south near Gladsmuir - can't win them all...