Impressive haul at Stewartby roost this evening

No not an April Fool's joke!!! A call from Neil Wright at 7.30 had me dashing over from Kempston to join Neil at the roost, beating Keith Owen's arrival by a couple of minutes.

Quite a good sized roost, especially so on recent numbers. And what a great collection..... a juvenile ICELAND GULL was in the same 'scope view as a juvenile GLAUCOUS GULL and, as well as the usual 5 species, we found 3 Yellow-legged Gulls as well - an adult, a second winter and a first winter. I was there from c7.45 until c8.05 but the light was fading very fast and Keith and I were unable to relocate the first-winter Med Gull that Neil had seen a little earlier.

In fact Keith had seen the Med in Rookery earlier this evening (JTRS and DF had seen it there this morning) when there was an excellent Red Kite on close view, still 3 Black-tailed Godwits, 10 or so Redshanks, a couple of Ringed Plovers and 3 Red Crested Pochards. Keith added that John Francis (?) had seen a summer plumaged Brambling with the Chaffinches, Yellowhammers and Linnets along the entrance track too.

Earlier I had spent some of late afternoon visiting Willington sheep fields near the Dovecote Lake with Pip Housden and Jim Gurney where we had a pair of Oyks, 8 Pied Wagtails and a stunning male Yellow Wagtail - Lee your 'phone was permanently engaged! - we then went for a stroll round the new heath at The Lodge where there were a few Redpolls coming to the feeders by the hide and a Nuthatch by the shop feeders but little else of note - a nice Jay, two or three Great Spotted Woodpeckers and a Buzzard over.

Keith confirmed that DF and JTRS's Common Tern in Rookery this morning had gone and JG said he had failed to find the pair of Garganey seen by Peter Soper et al at Cainhoe when he called past.

Not a bad start to the month!

MJP