Not Just Gulls

 Since late July this year, encouraged in part because of limited opportunities, I have been paying close attention to gulls in Cork city, originally near the sewage outflow and mud at Tivoli and, from mid September on, at the city  quays. As ever during the midsummer lull, and more so this year once passerine song had started to die off, my main targets were Mediterranean and Yellow-legged Gulls. While I did succeed in seeing some of the former, of various ages, numbers weren't impressive by any means, especially when compared to the large counts routinely made in the Whitegate/Aghada area of Cork Harbour. However, as the season went on, impressive numbers of Yellow-legged Gulls were noted, at least by local standards here in Ireland.  I made a valiant attempt to count the number of individuals earlier today, aided by my written notes from the time and the fact that I managed at least record shots of most of the birds, but I failed to arrive at a confident tally. Nevertheless, the