Natural Selection

I agreed to count Blackpool beach for the Wintering Gull Survey. All the Ribble Estuary sites were supposed to be done last Sunday, but it was biblical then so it was moved a week.

The title refers to the fact that I didn’t quite appreciate what I’d got myself into. For a couple of reasons.

Firstly the count unit was from the go kart track in North Shore to opposite the airport beyond Starr Gate. Eight kilometres of beach, and no other volunteer so all for me to deal with on my own. Mission Impossible…

Secondly I stood off Starr Gate as the instructions were to be there two hours before dusk to count the roost, and that was the place most likely to have a roost. Today the gulls were having none of that malarky – as dusk was increasingly approaching it was clear they were making the most of the feeding and not going to roost until after dark. So I headed for the car and scanned the Prom at all the points I could conveniently stop as far as Gynn Square.

The upshot was that there were about 4000 Herring Gulls, but that’s very approximate. The bounty of storm driven marine life was also attracting good numbers of Knot, Turnstone and Redshank. When I went past North Pier it was heart warming to see a small crowd watching the Starling murmuration. I’ve never seen a crowd, however small, watching this spectacle and it certainly deserves one.

Here’s a picture of a gull from earlier in the day at the waste transfer station ringed somewhere fairly locally, details to follow.