Patch Tick

Very crisp, bright, still and cold today - superb. Just the sort of wintery weather that I actually enjoy - or would if I wasn't spending some of it at work. I dropped off Alex at his Karate class and then headed to work via Enderby. This caused me to drive through the Grove Park area within my wider Soar Valley South patch, and happily it meant that I noticed lots of gulls standing on the part-frozen balancing pool. I made a mental note and went back for a proper look after a couple of hours in the office.

With all the white-wingers flooding into the country, I naturally expected to easily pick out an Iceland or Glauc amongst the loitering Lariids, but no such luck. BHG, CG and LBBG were all I could muster. As I scanned through though I noted something else that I couldn't recall ever seeing on the patch before, and given the lack of open water it wasn't a surprise to check and find it was a patch tick. Click on the photos and see if you can work it out (it's not a gull, obviously). First one to comment the correct answer gets a self-congratulatory pat on the back for being the first one to read this post .......