Mediterranean Gull - Pennington Flash, Greater Manchester

With an afternoon off work, I decided to spend a few hours at Pennington Flash Country Park, Leigh. My main reason was an Iceland Gull which had roosted the previous night - the first local one for a while.

I entered the site via the canal from Leigh, where I had good flocks of Siskin and Redwing in the surrounding trees.

The Siskin flock along the canal was distant, but showed well 

Arriving at the Country Park, I decided to try and squeeze in a full loop of the hides and car park before the gull roost. There wasn't a massive amount of activity anywhere, but I picked up plenty of species. Ducks were plentiful, and included 46 Gadwall, 30 Shoveler, 25 Teal, 31 Goosander, 26 Goldeneye and 56 Tufted Duck. Unfortunately, no sign of the recent Shelduck or Pintail. 2 Little Grebes were seen, with more heard. On the spit, at least 6 Oystercatchers were visible despite the hide being closed. 2 Little Egrets were seen from Ramsdale's Hide.

The resident Oystercatcher (above) was joined by 5 more today

Bunting Hide seemed to have developed a Brown Rat infestation since my last visit, but still held 2 Willow Tit, Nuthatch, Bullfinch and Reed Buntings, with Jay and Coal Tit on feeders nearby.

Elsewhere I had a few Greenfinch, a Mistle Thrush, Treecreeper, Goldcrest, 2 Raven over and a brief Kingfisher.

At about 4pm I made my way around to the south of flash, finding a bench close to where the gulls were congregating. At this point, they were mainly Black-Headed. It didn't take long before a darker-headed, pale-winged bird stood out - a sleeping adult Mediterranean Gull! This bird has apparently been roosting at the flash all winter, so it was good to catch up with it.

Sleeping Mediterranean Gull, centre

I waited until close to 5pm when most of the larger gulls were arriving. There were lots of Herring, with smaller numbers of Great Black-Backed, Lesser Black-Backed and Common. I couldn't see the Iceland Gull but, by this point, the gulls had moved further away from me and it wasn't easy to scan through them.

I finished with 59 species seen plus Great Spotted Woodpecker heard - despite nothing crazy this was my highest total at the flash.

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