Sabine's Gull

failed to get up early this morning and it looked like we had missed the northward moving adult Sabine's Gull that had passed Chapel and Huttoft earlier - the latter place at 08:15 so while scanning south at 10:05 it was a real surprise to see an adult Sabine's coming up the tide edge; or so I thought because having grabbed the camera when I looked back all I could see were two Sandwich Terns on the beach! then it reappeared hanging over the terns and I set off in the rain and wind running the 1000m or so down the beach - it landed but not for very long before lifting up and being caught by the wind it drifted out towards the sea -- shame it didn't linger longer and the light wasn't better but small mercies -- otherwise a steady 7 hours with 6 juvenile Long-tailed Skuas, 56 Arctics but only 4 Bonxies, a couple of Black Terns, Little Gull, 4 juvenile Arctic Terns, one Sooty north and 4 Curlew Sandpipers north the best of a bevy of waders mostly Red Knot and Dunlin.

First view below as it came onto the beach

Sabine's Gull

somehow not quite right at an inland location away from their pelagic / tundra homes but beggars and all that -- presumably an advanced 2cy or retarded 3cy with the extensive dark mottled, shawl and nape, the marks on p5 and the decidedly scrappy head -- the yellowish staining is presumably from the base of the floodwater pool --

hardly dare say Sabine's Gull

I do not think that there could be a greater contrast between the beautiful arctic tundra where this bird fledged and the stinking cess pit of a landfill site there it ended up in Lincolnshire -- with so many nice bodies of water why did it have to land in this one? dire light and all from great distance with 500 and 2x converter prior to some of the worst rain I have seen in years