Sabine’s Gull : Pennington Flash : 7th August 2015

Sabine’s Gull : Pennington Flash : 7th August 2015

A few days of continuous reports of a second-summer Sabine’s Gull proved too much to resist so on a beautiful, sunny morning we set of for Pennington and it didn’t take very long for us to locate the bird.

I don’t think I have seen Pennington so busy with a very large number of photographers dominating proceedings. Fortunately the bird which had been repeatedly described as showing from Horrocks’ hide, turned out not to be on the spit but was on the main body of water just before the hide and quite close to the shore. It look off a few times and gave fantastic displays. It was easily distinguishable from the multitude of Black-headed Gulls even when on the water where it appeared a little smaller than the Black-headed Gulls.

We had visitors coming soon so we didn’t feel like we could spend as much time as usual and rather hurried round the other hides. We did hand around long enough to see a couple of Green Sandpipers with a Common Sandpiper; this from the Tom Edmondson hide. We also got a single Green Sandpiper from the Teal hide.

A quick visit to the Bunting hide confirmed the desprate situation we have found there over the last few visits. The whole area in front of the hide is now turned over to Woodpigeons, Stock Doves, Magpies and Squirrels and there is hardly room for the other birds we are so used to seeing there. Be that as it may, we did see a Nuthatch and a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Bird Sightings : Pennington Flash Environs

Bird Sightings : Pennington Flash Horrocks Hide

Bird Sightings : Pennington Flash Tom Edmondson Hide

Bird Sightings : Pennington Flash Teal Hide

Bird Sightings : Pennington Flash Bunting Hide