The Laughing gull was again showing well at Reading Gate. The overcast weather brought out all the DIYers to buy provisions at B&Q and I had to queue to get into the retail park.

As usual there were a few birders there including the laridophile guru himself, PB-T. Sadly Paul doesn't have the stupidity patience of the true digiscoper and so he didn't get any pics of the bird (leaving before it posed properly).

It came down for the tinned pilchards  I offered and showed how close it is now to full Summer plumage - another week I'd guess. The lack of light made for small f-stops, high ISO and low speeds, so I had to pan some of the flight shots!

There were 3 or 4 photographers with Canon 500mm f4 IS lenses (including Mike McKee) and so I'm sure they got some excellent pics of the bird. My tiny 70-200 was a bit of an embarrassment in such company ....

Canon 10D, 70-200 f4 L
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Larus atricilla, Reading - March 12th 2006