I got surprise when I found this 4th winter Caspian Gull at Hortonwood, Telford with 2 adult Yellow-legged Gull
This afternoon, I was on my ways back from the shops in Donnington and thought that I would check out the gulls at Hortonwood. It's kinda of hit and miss here as I found out when I looked in November before I went to Morocco and there was not one gull in sight! However, last winter when I looked there were the odd Yellow-legged Gull there. The gulls hang outt on the roofs at the south end of the industrial estate and on arrival I could see Lesser-black backed gulls. I parked and immediately found a adult Yellow-legged Gull followed by another. You can't see all the gulls as they can hide on the otherside of the roofs out of sight. I was just leaving after ten minutes and the 60+Lesser-black backed Gull got up to come back down again. With my naked eye I could pick out the 2 YLG and then I spotted what I thought might be a hybrid until I put my bins on it. Bloody ell! A Caspian Gull! It took me totally by surprise! It stayed front on for a while until pushed off only to return and settle down again. The light was crap and at 16,00, I thought I'll drive just two minutes up road to Trench Pool to see if it roosts there. It didn't but I'm guessing, that the adult Yellow-legged Gull that did roost on the pool was one of the birds from Hortonwood. There were also over 600 Black-headed Gull roosting, 2000+last night, and 10 Goosander.
Earlier on the day, there were 20 Redwing in the garden and a new species for the garden, 2 Jay. Although I did have two fly over high nearly thirty year ago.
2 adult Yellow-legged Gull
This 4th winter Caspian Gull was a surprise while coming back from shopping in the bad light and it was always distant!
There were some 60 Lesser-black backed Gull also hanging out on the roofs
Adult Yellow-legged Gull roosting at Trench Pool
At Bury Ditches nearby, I immediately heard and then saw 7 Crossbill in flight. They kept to the top of pines with 30+Siskin and the odd Lesser Redpoll and at least 3 Willow Tit moved through with a large tit flock
There were only 7 Crossbill at Bury Ditches and as you can see, they stayed pretty high. As I expected, I didn't get what I was looking for but hopefully someone else will this winter.
I saw more Red Kite than Buzzard!
Did anyone watch Panorama last week? What a load of rubbish!! It was about 'Where's our aid money going?' They focused on the large company 'Global Fund' who have spent almost £15 billion fighting Aids, malaria and tuberculosis. But its inspector general was sacked for 'unsatisfactory' performance after exposing corruption, and reports revealing how aid money went missing have been delayed. Well of cause there's corruption involved, Bono, Clinton and Blair were supporting it!! It's funny how they're involved in it! You got corruption written all over their three faces! I'm surprised that Kofi Annan wasn't taking part as well. But t
hat's not my point. When I read the title of the program, I thought, are they going to talk about the 200 million that goes to The White Helmets and Syrian Police in Syria? That we, the tax payer funds and those funds have gone missing and our government and BBC promote The White Helmets. The UK government is heavily involved in where that money goes! But, no, instead the BBC Panorama choose a big wealthy company instead of where are tax money is disappearing to! Your tax money goes to jihadi groups including ISIS! The White Helmets is also a scam!! The Guardian logo
BBC in row over 'false claims' of cash for Syrian police being paid to jihadists
The Guardian 3/12/2017 5:00:00 
© ReutersAl-Nusra Front members near the northwestern Syrian city of Ariha.
The BBC is facing a backlash against what are said to be false claims to be aired by Panorama that British taxpayers' money intended for the unarmed western-backed Free Syrian Police force has ended up in the hands of jihadis linked to extremist groups.
The report, Jihadis You Pay For, will claim that Foreign Office money paid to the FSP reached people with links to the extremist group al-Nusra Front.
The allegations have been described as "entirely inaccurate and misleading" by Adam Smith International (ASI), which manages the British-funded Access to Justice and Community Security (Ajacs) scheme that supports the FSP in rebel-held areas of Syria. An internal review found that of $20m in funds for the FSP, only $1,800 unwittingly fell into the hands of FSP officers with links to extremist groups, and the cash was not British taxpayers' money but from other state donors.
ASI has called on the BBC to amend the title of its programme, which has been described on the corporation's website as an examination of "how some of the cash has ended up in the hands of extremists and how an organisation we are funding supports a brutal justice system".
Andrew Mitchell MP, the former international development secretary, said it was inevitable the FSP would come into contact with extremist groups and that complexity should not deter the UK from involvement.
Mitchell warned against the BBC jumping on an "anti-aid bandwagon" and not taking into account the risks and difficulties faced in trying to offer communities policing outside of the control of the Assad regime.
"This is an extremely important project devised with the aim of strengthening the FSP in dangerous areas where jihadi groups are in operation," Mitchell said. "That is the whole point. The people involved in the project are extremely brave and should be praised, not pilloried. The BBC have been told that there is no evidence of British taxpayers' money going to jihadi groups.
"I hope they reflect on the information provided to them ahead of broadcast and don't fall into the trap of criticising something without understanding all the facts and complexities of the area and the work being done. This work is too important to fall victim to an anti-aid narrative."
Panorama is expected to claim that ASI failed to respond quickly enough when links were discovered between two FSP stations and courts run by al-Nusra. It is claimed that two officers were present at a stoning in 2014. ASI says the incident cited by Panorama occurred five weeks after it started working on the scheme in October 2014, and that the two men at the stoning were not formal officers and had not received any cash through the scheme.
Support for the police stations in the area was suspended the following February because of the heavy presence of extremist groups, ASI said.
Among Panorama's other claims are that stipends paid to officers have continued even when they have died, the money going to the men's families or relatives who replaced the officers. ASI says that a review last year found that this had happened in 14 cases.
General Adeeb al-Shallaf , founder of the FSP, a force of 3,300 mostly unarmed officers in the rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Idlib and Daraa provinces, accused Panorama of irresponsible journalism.
Al-Shallaf , who once held a senior position within Assad's Syrian government police force before defecting when his superiors ordered him to shoot at demonstrators during the popular uprisings in the country, said: "We, the Free Syrian Police, are present on the ground despite all the challenges, be it the armed groups and the daily shelling - in the last shelling they hit our police centre in Al-Atarib and killed 13 police officers, in addition to civilians."
The Foreign Office, which funds the Ajacs with five other governments, said the scheme was important for Britain's national security but that it had suspended the funding while investigations continued. "These schemes, also supported by international partners, are intended to make communities in Syria safer by providing basic civilian policing services," it said.
"We believe that such work in Syria is important to protect our national security interest but, of course, we reach this judgment carefully, given that in such a challenging environment no activity is without risk."
The BBC said it "is confident in its journalism and the investigation will be broadcast in full".
UK Colunm News goes into more depth about 'Where's our aid money goin' and this was shown the day before the Panorama program. Well worth watching as they take on 'Fake News' including the BBC.
