Stunning Ice and the Yorkshire Coast.....30.01.12.

A full day out today to the 'Homeland' to see if i could gain any decent images of the reported juvenile Kumliens/Iceland Gull at Barmston,saw me hitting the jackpot with this bird after a little patience was needed.On arrival at the less than impressive car park at Barmston,i saw the Iceland Gull straight away from the as i got my gear together,a good start.It was a tad windy to say the least as i made my way down the precarious cliff to the beach,incidentally for those who don't know this area,it is the fastest eroding coast line in Britain and it was pretty apparent today.At last i eventually made it down,but the Ice couldn't be seen anywhere,but i spotted a small flock of foraging Turnstone,so i had a go at getting some images of this,one of my favourite birds while the gull made another appearance.After about half an hour it appeared again from the direction of Fraisthorpe and flew in landing some distance from me and by now it was full sunshine,so i attempted to get around the other side of the bird so the light was behind me.I did this and just i got myself in position and began to kneel down,it didn't like this for some reason and flew off back in the same direction it came from....buggar!.This happened twice more,but after some perseverance it decided to let me approach it as it fed on mussels on the tideline.I then spent the next 2 hours with this cracking gull and eventually got pretty close to it allowing me to obtain some great photos...well great by my efforts.I was then joined by fellow birder and photographer Richard Willison and we carried on photographing this beauty.The possibility of this bird being a pale juvenile Kumliens were apparent,with dark feather shafts and greyish arrow shaped markings in each of the primaries,it looked pretty good to me for a Kumliens,but i don't profess to be any expert,all the same it was a stonking bird.After enjoying this beautiful arctic waif,i made my way up to Scarborough and parked in my usual spot on marine drive were the Pergs but on a fine aerobatical display as usual and 4 Harbour Porpoise showed well off the drive.Sadly this is all i saw here as several torrential showers passed over and i made my way back to the car and journeyed home from this superb area of Yorkshire.A superb day was had today and thanks to the confiding,in the end,Iceland/Kumliens Gull it was a special one.