11 February 2024 - Hollingworth Lake

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Mediterranean Gull

Had a late start this (Sunday) morning, and set off for a walk around the lake with Joanne.  I decided to leave my camera at home, not having seen anything interesting of late.  Mistake!  No sooner had we arrived at the bustling car park area on the lake front, than a splendid adult Med Gull flew across the road in front of us and landed on the roof of the Riva Restaurant!  Joanne kindly volunteered to head back for my camera while I kept an eye on the bird, and it was still on the roof when she reappeared 10 minutes or so later.  We repositioned ourselves to get a better angle and I was able to get some nice shots of it on the roof with Black-headed Gulls.

After a few minutes it flew down, back across the road and landed on the water near the jetty, where people were feeding the ducks and gulls.  From here I was able to get some more nice shots and some video.  I put out the message on the group chat (though most of the rest of the group had gone to Parkgate) and then the bird flew out towards the middle of the lake, so we continued our walk.  We didn't really encounter anything else of note, although by this time the lake path was teeming with people.  Checking the car park again on our return, there was no sign of the Med Gull.

 

Med Gull , 1/500 sec, f/7.1, 500 mm, ISO 800 (view full size image)

Med Gull, 1/500 sec, f/7.1, 500 mm, ISO 1000 (view full size image)

Med Gull , 1/60 sec, f/7.1, 500 mm, ISO 125 (view full size image)