Seghill tip / Holywell Pond/ Blyth Harbour

Today I tried another session at Seghill tip area at least that was the plan but actually very few Gulls around , the field that held the huge gull roost now had 70 Greylag , checked the area for gulls and counted 19 Moorhen on a pool then headed down to Holywell Pond . Walked down to the east end first nothing at all on the shore an ice shelf held about 60 or so gulls and I was surprised to see two Whooper Swans at the west end and I could also see two juv Mute. So at the west end the two Whoopers where not far from the hide , I can only assume they are the same two from the weekend ?, the two juv Mute Swans where the only two around so the adults and other young had left. The Whoopers took off and headed east neither had any problem flying but they soon returned and dropped in near the hide again, a huge amount of gulls most at the east end due to ice but again nothing unusual that I could find, the cold overcome me so time to head down to Blyth Harbour to find an assortment of rare gulls !!!! . First I had a good look for the Black Redstart but no sign for me two RTD and numerous Cormorants and Shags in the bay Guillemot on the river,probably a couple of hundred gulls around but well spread out , the light already poor even at 3'oclock time for home  !!!.  

As I said I presume these are the same two from the  weekend one of which was unable to fly , but they seemed fine now

 Wigeon just outside the hide

with empty feeders birds looking on the ground for fallen seed (the nut lady arrived as I left)

Juv  RTD Blyth Bay never see more than a couple of Red throats in the bay

Blyth River

Seghill Tip

Had a couple of hours in the area of Seghill Tip trying to find a good vantage point to scan through the thousands of gulls , a large group of  mainly Great Black backed /and Herring gulls had settled on the north edge of a field with winter wheat  , its not only being able to scan them but also getting the light especially this low winter light which can be very strong behind you , so scope set up, first scan to look for obvious "white wingers", many of the gulls tightly packed and at lot lying on the ground  but no sign of any, so next checking them very slowly for anything that stood out from the rest hoping for Caspian which I confess I have not seen yet . Have been thinking about going to an area that has frequent sightings of  YL/Caspian which looks like Seaton Common is the nearest, one juvenile bird caught my eye nice clean white head with a beady eye, no sooner had I got onto it when it lifted and settled in the back of the flock only showing its head . I also check for leg rings but could only find one Orange ringed bird  in a flock of Herring Gulls /BH and 3 Common Gulls . So it was rather disappointing ,a freezing wind and distant birds, but I still enjoyed it. Ended the day at Blyth South Harbour hoping the fishing fleet ? had perhaps brought some gulls in with them but very few around no Snow Buntings and only one colour ringed Shag as most where on the river.

 Even failed to get the ring clear enough to read !!!!!!

Colour ringed Shag Blyth Harbour looks like TUZ ?