manflu gulls

with a particularly bad case of manflu I certainly did not feel like getting out of bed this morning but the northerly wind had been howling all night accompanied by heavy rain which must have produced something on the Humber? so at 07:30 I was in position and by 08:00 was certainly wishing I had stayed in bed with nothing to put in the notebook in spite of the conditions; Two Common Scoter tried to liven things up but it was still dire until a juvenile Kittiwake took the patch list to 177; an expected addition it was not accompanied by any auks, grebes or divers but a Bonxie then moved up and back out along with a passage of big gulls mainly GBB's -- and as can happen a totally unexpected bird appeared in front of us and duly landed on the Humber for about 30 minutes before flying around for another 15 minutes - a third winter Iceland Gull was most unusual on this date and a rare addition on the patch year lists so this one was most welcome --a flock of 27 Common Scoter a drake Goosander and another Bonxie added to the day tally before the flu forced an early retirement leaving the patch year list on 178 still a long way from the record 184 in 1996 but there must still be a chance of an arctic blow with a wad of auks and divers, Slav and Red-necked Grebes and some wild geese, Bewick's Swans or even a Spotted Redshank