lots of good gulls!

Ever since the big storm clobbered northern Spain nearly four weeks ago, the lucky folks in northern Spain have been inundated with rare gulls, basically Iceland and Glaucous, these both beating all previous numerical records, as well as thousands of Kittiwakes, some being blown across from Biscay to Cataluña and with many being found dead in the lower Pyrenées.
Here in the south, we felt that we would see little of these, in spite of the large numbers of Kittiwakes which entered the Strait of Gibraltar. There have been plenty of records of Kitts. along the coast and in harbours and Paco Ríos has seen plenty off Calaburras and there have been sightings in Fuengirola harbour.

Above left: adult winter Kittiwake (behind) and 1st winter Mediterranean Gull, of which there must have been a couple of hundred in the La Caleta harbour.
So, when reports came in a couple of days since of a 1st winter Iceland Gull in the harbour at Caleta de Vélez, east of Málaga, there was a general excitement amongst local birders and then one of a Ring-billed Gull too (right, by Ángel), as well as up to 40 Kittiwakes around the harbour.
I had already seen a 1st winter Ring-billed at Tarifa last Friday, as well as a very nice Caspian Tern.
But, being just as prone as anyone else to seeing a really good gull - my last Iceland Gull was seen probably about 30 years since! - on Tuesday afternoon Angel García and myself went off to la Caleta de Vélez, he to photo and twitch (he got two new species).

We saw the Iceland Gull, a stunning bird, as the photos here show, and at least one and probably two 1st winter Ring-billeds. Photos of the Iceland by Angel (L) and myself (R).

PS: Today, Wednesday, a 2nd winter Laughing Gull was seen!!!!