windy morning at Porthcawl

After spending Thursday stuck in the house waiting for phones calls and the thought of Friday being wet and windy I felt I had to get out and see the sea. So I did my usual thing, got a loaf of bread and a big box of custard doughnuts and headed to Salt Lake Car Park in Porthcawl. When I got there were no gulls in the car park, it was high tide and I thought this is strange. I walked along the harbour wall and found about a dozen Turnstones and a rock pipit and I also checked around the lighthouse and apart from big waves it was quiet. So I returned to the car and found the Gulls where back. I found some Black headed Gulls and about a dozen or so came close with the bigger Herring Gulls keeping their distance. I found the only ringed bird was the practically resident Herring Gull SO32. There was only one Lesser Black Backed Gull present and that was it.
So next was Plan B and I checked the shelter at Iron Gate point, had a look over the sea and the same thing lots of Turnstone, I counted 35, a Common Gull and loads of people taking photos of the wave but no sign of any Med Gulls. My next stop was Rest Bay car park where there were about 150 Black Headed Gulls and about 30 Common Gulls but still no Med Gulls, last stop was Kenfig Pool. I was going to have a quick look for the Bittern but when I got in the hide and saw the water level and decided it was way too high. The pool was fairly busy and I counted 50 Pochard and also present were Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Mallard, 6 Teal, 1 Shoveler, Wigeon, Canada Goose, 1 mute swan, 6 Cormorant, lots of Herring Gulls, 12 Black Headed Gulls, 2 Great Greater Black Backed Gulls. Common Gull I found about 6 and I also found this one with it's upper mandible missing and makes you wonder how will he survive. Well thats my yearly trip to the sea over and it's back to the hillls for me .