Little gull passage at Pennington Flash

I was a little worried that I might miss out on the recent spectacular Little gull passage having been working away from home for most of this week, but fortunately it continued into today. I arrived at the east end of the Flash at about 8:30am and almost immediately watched in amazement as around 50 birds just dropped out of the sky and started to fly around the the end of the spit. One of the most incredible sights of my life! 

By the time I got to the car park I could see birds apparently leaving to the east, they flew high up right over my head, yet when I got to Horrock's hide there were still at least 20 birds present and more seemed to be arriving. By this afternoon there were still 27 birds off the end of the spit, almost all of them adults in full summer plumage. 

From looking at the reports from today it would seem that the best estimate for the day is 88 birds, but because birds were coming and going with at least one flock of 44 seen to apparently leave east, it's perfectly possible and even likely that around 120 birds passed through today. To put that into context, my previous best day total for the flash was four. 

This is part of a large little gull passage that has been happening over the past few days, particularly in North West England, however I haven't heard of any other site holding as many birds as those seen at the flash today.

Also today, arctic tern, 5 common terns, whimbrel, 2 common sandpipers and my first swift of the year. Oh, and bird of the day, my first linnet at the flash this century 😆. What a day to be alive!