Gosford Sands

As the seasons change and returning waders, terns and gulls ramp up it's probably time for a new blog post. I've been going to Gosford for my daily circuit, trying to read gull and tern rings - too many darvics to include full details (~50 Sandwich Terns so far, most c/o Billy at Port Seton) but will mention a few, adult Mediterranean Gull white-32A4 here which has returned for 10th year running, ringed as a chick at Ijsselmeer in June 2010 and seen many times since, including twice in a gull colony at Antwerp. One of five adult Med Gulls on shore on 23 July.

Very different weather the previous evening the first juv Med Gull bore a left-leg yellow darvic, from plumage match seems this is saem as yellow-2X7R seen at Seton 7 & 24 August, per Billy & Scott - in order to try to read it I ventured out onto the sand for this photo and found it quite disorientating, also if you stop moving you begin to slowly sink.

Also BHG darvic yellow-2C07, from NTGG (ringed as a chick at Fishers Green, Lee Valley and spent it's first winter in Portugal, down at the Gulf of Cadiz: http://www.southern-colour-ringing-group.org.uk/index.php/recoveries/black-headed-gull/bird/GBT-EZ70129) - same was still here on 27/7 but has since reappeared in London 22/8!

High tide on 8 August saw ~600 small gulls on the shore - 3 darvics: yellow-2ER6 shown below (ringed as a chick on the Ythan in 2017, and likely now a Caithness breeder), white-2BCB (ringed as a chick in the Moorfoots on 17/06/2017, and now resighted ~10 times here) and yellow-2BRT (another from North Thames Gull Group); a total of 6 Med Gulls, 5 ads (1 possible sub-ad with hint of faint band near end of primaries, dull leg colour, shown below with a comparable ad) and a 1st-sum, and 2 more juv Sandwich Terns with Dutch rings (white-VUF, white-VRM, photos below latter begging for food), as well as a few locals.

Short of time for further visits, but in late August another surge of terns with 1,980 Sandwich on 29 August with perhaps 100 Common Tern, then a new high of 2,420 Sandwich to roost on 30 August (possible Lothian second highest total, peak remains 3k Musselburgh 18/8/99, other site records seem to be 2,400 W in 2hrs at Gosford on 31/7/84 and 2,300 dusk Aberlady 8/8/00; also noteworthy 2,200 Muss 21-22/8/97), then a drop to 850 on 31 August but with a Black Tern amongst them; a new spectacle at dusk on 3 September when found a huge influx of Arctic Tern, c. 560, with a juv Black Tern in their midst and 700+ Sandwich; on the falling tide, parts of the flock repeatedly flew out over shallows but returned, then at 20:32hrs (35 mins after sunset) the first batch left to the west flying low over the sea into a strong W4 wind, two further batches left in next 10 mins but 1200+ terns remained on shore an hour after sunset. Checking database it seems this may be the second highest Lothian count, after the massive one day total of 3000 at Aberlady on 23/8/12 (had dropped to 400 by 25/8/12). Some short videos (expand to fullscreen):

Black Terns appeared from 31 August on with a peak of 5 juvs in the roost on 11 September and an ad Roseate on 13 September, ad+juv on 16 September:

The scene on 17 September was simply magical, with 3k birds on the sea and around 5k on the sands, including 1k terns, thousands of gulls, hundreds of waders and a group of Greylags, Heron fishing as usual in the shallows:

Just one week later on 22 September there were no terns at all at high tide, and only c. 40 at Seton, a huge clear out in a week!