And another Iceland Gull

First and foremost, I watched the Jason Bourne films back-to-back last night, what a truly brilliant way to spend an entire night! If you haven't seen them (and why the heck not???) I urge you to give them a try. I thought the Bourne Legacy was just a spin off, so didn't bother with that. Now I realise I need to go back and watch it, so that's tonight's entertainment sorted. (Edit - shouldn't have bothered after all. Mediocre spin-off at best, though the wrestling with a wolf was kinda unexpected). I don't usually mong out in front of the screen, but the Bourne films are just so fantastic. Much better than my previous filmfest which consisted of watching the Matrix films back to back. Man, I must have been desperately bored on that particular night! 

Here's Bourne right at the beginning of the first film, after being plucked out of the sea, unconscious and with two bullets in his back, with no recollection of who he is, what he does, or where he's going next

And here he is nearing the grand finale of the final film, haggard, weary, worn but every bit as relentlessly unstoppable as ever

And no, I most definitely do not have a man crush on the Jason Bourne character. Even though he is kind of ridiculously amazing and I wanna be just like him. Ahem.

Meanwhile, back in the real world...

Nipped out to the beach after a sneaky half day at work (though I was soon roped into doing an evening shift, so it's all swings and roundabouts) and managed about an hour's worth of half decent light. A quick scan through the gull flock saw me quickly pick up another Iceland Gull, this one a first winter jobbie. I even managed a better than usual pic through the bins. Still crap, but better than I hoped for. 

Nice pale 1st winter bird, easily aged by virtue of the dark eye and mostly dark bill

I've tried to knock up some sort of a montage of all three Iceland Gulls that I've found here over the past fortnight. It hasn't really come out too well, the originals were all pretty poor, but it does at least show them side by side

L > R   1st winter (15th Dec), 2nd winter (21st Dec) and today's (27th Dec) 1st winter Iceland Gulls

All taken in different lighting conditions and at different distances, but I think the two 1st winter birds are clearly different individuals, the first one (left bird in the pic) had a noticeably dark breast which showed up in profile views too. Today's bird has a much cleaner-looking breast. 

Wigeon were up to 15, the highest count I've had here so far this winter, with not much else happening to sea. The overnight snow is still laying in the hills but has mostly melted and turned to ice down here at sea level. My first job this morning was to salt the driveway, car park, paths, steps etc and that'll be my last job tonight too, thanks to the midday thaw washing it all away again. Tomorrow is meant to be cold but dry, could well be worth getting out again.

Here's a Mottled Umber that I spied sitting beneath a security light a couple of days back, first one I've seen since February. I still find it weird that some insects have actually evolved to be winter active, just seems wrong.

Male Mottled Umber - the females are entirely wingless (though they can scramble very well indeed!)