September 30th

This evening there were more than 200 little gulls about a kilometre out from Crail. A long way out perhaps but it was a perfectly still sunlit evening so they were easy to see. They were dipping and hovering above the sea characteristically, flashing their black underwings, with an occasional black-headed gull or kittiwake giving me a scale. It’s been a slow autumn for seabirds so far – few skuas, shearwaters and no little gulls until now. I suspect little gulls are always out there this time of year, but too far out most of the time.

Little gull – passing Fife Ness a couple of days ago