Not a sketching day, more nature walk as a half day out. The little gulls butterfly flapping, seeming almost in slow motion alongside black-headed gulls. Only 2 with completely smoked dark underwings, the other 2 younger birds. The garganey was in evening light right in front of the hide…looking quite different from the chocolate brown and grey model I had in my mind. The foreparts looking more of a raw umber with fine dark striping on the neck and face, changing to spotting lower down. Seeming quite exotic.
Both species seem like markers in the ornithological calendar… little-ringed plover would have completed the set for me.

ink pen, c.A6 sketchbook