November 22, 2013, 1:37 pm
First-winter Yellow-legged Gulls are still showing up at Shawell A5 Lagoons, Leicestershire.
I may be seeing more 1st-year birds just because I've got my eye in, but it would appear that more of them are using the site this year than last.![]() |
First-winter Yellow-legged Gull
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The one above was present about a week ago. The typical features are on show: a shortish chunky black bill; a whitish head with streaking around the eye and on the crown; second generation mantle and scapular feathers with thick dark edges; dark brown coverts with a few new lesser coverts and darker brown tertials with white fringing on the tips.
The bird above is featured in the short video below. One off photos can give a bird a different impression to moving images, so its good to study videos as well as stills.First winter Yellow-legged Gull
I saw a second one on Wednesday dinner time, which I judged to be more robust with a different greater covert pattern.![]() |
| First-winter Yellow-legged Gull |
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November 23, 2013, 10:40 am
Herring Gull numbers have built up quite considerably since last weekend. I counted over 1000 today along with a maximum day count of 291 Great Black-backed Gulls.
Amongst the commoner species were three adult Yellow-legged Gulls including an intriguing dark mantled individual and a new adult or sub-adult Caspian Gull.
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Caspian Gull
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I have checked its trait score, which I scored as 7 (see below) and so within the range of pure Caspian Gull. The bill ratio was typical for this species, as was the primary pattern. Its leg length was quite short, but that isn't that unusual.
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| Caspian Gull |
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| Caspian Gull |
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| Caspian Gull |
P10, the longest primary feather, has a long white tip, less black than white and a pale grey tongue on the underside.These three features collect a trait score of 1. P5 has a bar across both webs, but thicker on the outer web, which scores 1. There is no sign of any black on P4, so that scores 2. The Iris is dark coloured, so that scores 0. The eye ring colour is not visible, so I've scored it 1 instead of a likely 0. The bill is slim with a ratio of just under 2.8, so that scores 1. Finally the legs were quite short, but not as short as the nearby LBBG and so I've scored it 1. That gives a total of 7. A total of between 4 and 9 is the necessary result for Caspian Gulls.
I hope you followed that.
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| Caspian and Lesser Black-backed Gulls |
This is perhaps not a classic individual, but I can't find any reason to not call it a Caspian Gull. The main challenge with gulls is that there is quite a lot of variation between individuals. Females can have short legs and bills, so perhaps this one is a female - hard to tell, but it looks quite small when side by side with the LBBG. Females are quoted as looking a bit like Common Gulls, I think that description fits this bird?
The value of video is demonstrated by the fact that the hanging rear belly is not always visible, but if you watch it does appear. It is best seen towards the end of the sequence when it walks on to the shore. This feature was not obvious on the still images I took of it on the shore. Therefore it is not safe to assume that Caspian Gulls don't have a hanging rear belly if you only see the bird out of water for a short while.
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November 30, 2013, 12:47 pm
For a change I spent some time at Shawell again today. The area that is being landfilled is visible from the roadside along Gibbet Lane again. No good for reading rings due to the distance, but I did pick out an adult and a second-winter Caspian Gull amongst the thousands of feeding gulls.
In the end I saw two second-winter Caspian Gulls and both were present at the A5 Lagoons at the same time during the afternoon. I'm pretty sure that one of them was the bird I spotted at the landfill site earlier in the day. The one below appears to have quite pale eyes. Seen closely they are coffee coloured.
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Second-winter Caspian Gull
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As well as the Caspian Gulls, at least five Yellow-legged Gulls (four adults and a fourth-winter) were in the area. Numbers of LBB Gulls have fallen at the moment, but over a thousand Herring Gulls using the site.![]() |
| Second-winter Caspian Gull, Shawell A5 Lagoons |
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December 1, 2013, 12:08 pm
I have just reached the grand total of 200 successful colour-ring readings at Shawell A5 Lagoons. The 200th was a 3rd year Herring Gull which was ringed last year at Pitsea Landfill Site, Essex.
The most numerous species encountered wearing colour-rings was Lesser Black-backed Gull.
The totals for all the gull species recorded with colour-rings is:
174 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
18 Herring Gulls
3 Black-headed Gulls
3 Great Black-backed Gulls
1 Common Gull
1 Hybrid Yellow-legged x Herring Gull
The locations where they were ringed and the totals for each are:
Belguim 3
Channel Islands 6
Croatia 1
Denmark 5
England 115
Germany 8
Iceland 2
Netherlands 23
Norway 25
Poland 1
Portugal 1
Scotland 3
Spain 3
Wales 4
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Colour-ringed Herring Gull
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The oldest colour-ringed gull was a Lesser Black-backed Gull ringed on 12th July 1992 in Suffolk. This 21 year old was re-caught in Holland during 2011 and a colour-ring was fitted then.
The furthest south one of the Lesser Black-backed Gulls has travelled was to Mauritania; others have travelled to Western Sahara and Morocco. Many of the LBB Gulls that visit Shawell have previously been seen in Spain and Portugal during winter.
The furthest travelled Herring Gull was a first-winter that was ringed 2186 kilometres away in Tromso, Norway.
Quite a few have been seen on more than one occasion. My favourite is a female LBB Gull - Blue JL67 - a Norweigian ringed gull that I have seen on seven different occasions so far.
One of the Black-headed Gulls was ringed in Croatia in 2010. As far I know, this is the first record of a Croatian colour-ringed BH Gull to be seen in Britain.
My target now is to find both a colour-ringed Caspian Gull and a Yellow-legged Gull. Considering the amount of Yellow-legged Gull legs I've check this might not be that easy - oh well!
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the ringers who have provided me with the life histories of the colour-ringed gulls.
I've added a link below to a map of the Shawell area showing the lagoons near the A5 and north of there the landfill site.
For a Google map of the Shawell area click HERE
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December 2, 2013, 1:25 pm
I have put together a collection of my best images of the Azorean Gull that I saw in Portugal during October. I am still awaiting confirmation on whether the Portuguese rarities committee considers records of this sub-species from mainland Portugal. If they do, they ask you to provide a link to any images taken of the bird. So I've prepared some just in case - enjoy.
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December 14, 2013, 2:40 pm
After reading Andy Mackay's post 'Killed by the Internet?', I found myself reminiscing about the 'good old days'. Receiving a copy of Birding World used to be one of the highlights of my month. Like others I cancelled my subscription a few years back when I stopped regular twitching (I found a cure). Whatever the real reason is for the Birding World team to call it a day, they must surely have been affected by the myriad of websites and blogs covering the same subject for free.
This is the end of an era as far as I'm concerned, but those guys were very instrumental in ending another great chapter in the history of twitching by starting Birdline. I am old enough (just) to remember the birding grapevine. If you were lucky you would have a mate in the know who would ring you with bird news and then if you had another mate you would pass it on to him and so on. I also fondly remember the days of Nancy's Cafe in Cley-next-to-Sea, Norfolk. As a poor teenager I would dig deep in my pocket to purchase food in the cafe, not necessarily because I was hungry but so I could read the log book and pass on or receive bird news via the old fashioned telephone. The anticipation of entering the cafe to find out the latest news was one of the highlights of visiting norfolk, so was scanning through the log book - a page from the log book can be found HERE. I was quite nervous the first time I went in, but I'm glad I made the effort and got stuck in. I can still remember the beans and well buttered toast as if I'd only just cleared my plate. On one occasion news of a rare bird at the Weaver Bend, Frodsham broke whilst I was in the cafe and I was offered to lift. No mobile phones in them days, so I had to call my Mum from a phone box and tell her I wouldn't be home for tea. Getting home proved to be quite a mission as my driver wasn't going back my way, but that's another story. Amazingly I can remember all that, but I haven't got a clue what the bird was.
On one occasion I had been in Wales scuba diving. On my return my Mum passed on the news that a Little Whimbrel had been seen near Salthouse in Norfolk. I quickly changed my clothes; begged my Dad to lend me his car and off I went on another great adventure - I must have caused my Mum a lot of worry in those days! The bird eventually showed well, I had a great time and made some new friends. Sometime around then, or a few years later, Steve Gantlett, Richard Millington and others started a venture called Birdline. Basically this was a recorded message, which contained all the rare bird news for Britain with the important stuff first. You accessed this by ringing a premium rate phone number and if you mis-heard a part of the message you had to re-dial and pay again. Spy like tactics were needed to record the news, so you could keep playing it over and over again. There was none of this SatNav stuff back then just rough directions and a map. However, it was perhaps at this point that some of the innocence in birding was lost if innocence is the right word. Any Tom, Dick or even Adey could get bird news then (sorry Adey I couldn't resist that one).
Pagers were the next great thing in twitching. I couldn't justify the cost initially, as I had a young family to feed. I eventually trained them to eat less, so I could afford the monthly direct debit. Before I had one I noticed that the owners of these devices were quite skillful, they could remove them from their pockets really quickly and read the information without giving anything away. If you asked if there was any good news most pager owners would look at you with pity in their eyes, but still give little away.
Of course twitching was made easier by Birdline and even more so by pagers, but I can't help looking back nostalgically to the days when we actually stopped to ask each other 'if there's owt about? '. The days when Norfolk was the hub of the British birding were special. It was always worth going on spec even if you didn't see anything good. Nights in the George at Cley were great as an eighteen ish year old. Lots of beer and birding talk or at least trying to listen to the great tales being told - not many girls there though? The walk down to the 'Coastgaurd's Hotel' was fun after a few drinks, as it was very dark. On one occasion I remember sleeping in the beer garden, because I was a little worse for wear - Greene King was the root of the problem.
The 'Coastgaurd's Hotel' or 'Beach Hotel' was, and still is I think, a four sided bench with a roof in the beach car park at Cley. We were hard in them days, so we slept on or under those benches. I used to bus and hitch hike to Norfolk before I passed my driving test. After passing your test you could benefit from the shear luxury of sleeping in a car. Many years ago after twitching the summer-plumaged Ross's Gull at Cley, I bedded down for the night under a bench when I was rudely awaken. A big bearded bugger said 'any room under there kid'? Reluctantly I made room for him and he promptly fell asleep and snored that loud that he scared off all the birds in the marsh including the Ross's Gull. Needless to say I had a very poor nights sleep.
The 'Scilly Season', another big part of the British birding scene, appears to be going the same way as Birding World from what I've read. I haven't been to the Scilly Isles for a few years, so maybe I'm part of the problem once again. Over pricing and the discovery of other places seem to have reduced the amount of visiting birders. The lack of headline grabbing birds is another reason, but that's more likely the result of less coverage. It is a great shame as I'm pretty sure that the social side of the 'Scilly Season' on St Mary's hasn't been repeated elsewhere. The birds were great, but my fondest memories are the nights out and the sight of an army of green clad birders pushing shopping trolleys around the mini-supermarket in Hugh Town.
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| Birders on the Scillies (I can't remember what we were watching this time either) |
I've had many great days on the Scillies, but the standout day for me was when the eagle landed. I was on Gugh having just had reasonable views of a male Siberian Thrush when the shout went up 'EAGLE'. Looking up I saw a large bird of prey overhead. I wasn't even sure what species it was at that point. We raced after it and realised that it was a Short-toed Eagle - a first for Britain. The day continued with a wealth of good birds and finished with another tick. I was just heading back to the airfield when the birders in front of me started to run. They had spotted a wader that they thought might be an Upland Sandpiper. I could see the direction they were heading and realised I was closer to it. Off I ran towards the nearby field and as I looked over the wall I saw a really close Upland Sandpiper - they were correct. I had missed the White's Thrush that day, but I caught up with it the following weekend. I can't even begin to contemplate how I used to get away with these antics. To be honest its better to be hung for a sheep than a lamb. I get in as much trouble going up to Shawell for a spot of gulling, as I used to do for travelling to the far corners of Britain at the drop of a hat.
So what of the future - well don't ask me I've become a recluse in a hedge at Shawell trying to read colour-rings and identify gulls. I'm sure that the 'cheque book birders' or more aptly the 'credit card birders' will continue to charter helicopters to far flung islands in their bid to join the 600 Club of the future; the dudes will continue to visit RSPB bird hides and talk noisily; good birders will find the birds for the previous two groups and we will all continue to be sucked in by the Internet and new technology - 'Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing'.
Of course I readily use the Internet and many of the things it offers, but be warned by the words of one of the people who commented on the end of Birding World - will we end up sitting at home watching virtual birds on a screen?
Of course the Internet aids us in many ways. I'm impressed how I can report birds straight to the BTO via an 'App' on my phone and how I can report a colour-ringed gull to a Norwegian website whilst I stand there watching it. I do think some of the magic of seeing rare birds was lost, however, when websites like Surfbirds gave us the ability to check the birds out before leaving home.
I'll finish my waffle by saying well done to everyone involved in Birding World over the years and wish them luck for the future.
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December 15, 2013, 12:00 am
It was an odd day at Shawell today. There didn't appear to be much activity at the landfill site, so the gulls had dispersed far and wide. I could see many of them flying to a distant field near to the M1. During the morning good numbers gathered on the bank between the two A5 lagoons and amongst them were over 300 Great Black-backed Gulls. Only one colour-ringed gull was seen today, an adult Herring Gull with an orange ring and the code 1416.
The afternoon was a bit slow, but I know that good birds can appear at anytime and today was no exception. Gulls often hang around at the landfill site all day only coming to the pools for a wash and brush up before going off to roost. Amongst the last group arriving for a clean up was a second-winter Glaucous Gull. However, it was almost blink and you'd miss it - a quick wash and then off.
It was an interesting bird in the fact that some of the coverts had pale grey vermiculations, which created a slightly uneven pattern across the folded wing. I considered the possibility of it being a hybrid, but dismissed this after looking at a selection of photos at home. Otherwise it had typical off-white primaries, a faded pink bill with a black tip and pink legs. The primary projection was short and although it was probably a female it dwarfed all the other large gulls close by. Luckily it was in no rush to fly away and circled the lagoon before flying away into Warwickshire.
Below is an image of a second-winter Glaucous Gull that I photographed in Lincolnshire. This one is very similar to today's version. The photographs I took today confirm the ID but are not good enough for publishing on my blog unfortunately.
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| Second-winter Glaucous Gull, Donna Nook, Lincolnshire |
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December 15, 2013, 12:29 am
You can bet it does, but this isn't about what some of you might have thought.
I've noticed that some birders are surprised by the difference in size of gulls of the same species. There can be a massive size difference between the sexes. Some female Herring Gulls are only slightly larger than Common Gulls and males can be almost as big as a Great Black-backed Gull. The Glaucous Gull I saw yesterday was probably a female, because although it was bigger than the other gulls it lacked the brutish appearance of a large male. The photo below demonstrates the difference between the sexes very well.![]() |
Male and Female Glaucous Gull, Spitsbergen
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The variation between the sexes can also make interpreting field guide information difficult. Particularly if the features illustrated are of a male rather than a female. I have found myself confused by the appearance of a Caspian or Yellow-legged Gull only to realise later on that the females are slightly different structurally. Of course this comes about when you micro inspect the rarer individuals rather than just going through the common ones looking for something different.
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December 21, 2013, 1:30 pm
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December 22, 2013, 11:20 am
Merry Christmas and a Happy Bird-filled New Year.
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December 22, 2013, 1:42 pm
December is supposed to be a good month for Caspian Gulls, but they have been noticeable by their absense at Shawell. That all changed this weekend when I managed to find four, although one of them may not have come from pure stock. It was a 3rd-winter, but there is no real criteria yet available to separate birds of this age that look good but have just a couple niggling issues. This bird had amber coloured eyes rather than dark brown and compared to the other three it was a little shorter winged. Neither of these issues rule it out from being a pure Caspian Gull though.
The smartest bird was the 1st-winter - these really have to be seen to appreciate how smart they are - flying rats they are not! The photo below demonstrates the four colour scheme that makes them look so smart.![]() |
| First-winter Caspian Gull |
The first one I spotted was an adult. This one was very long winged and was most likely a male.![]() |
| Adult Caspian Gull |
The first two images are video grabs because they were distant, but it shows you can still get reasonable images.
I appear to be seeing two types of Caspian Gull, the text books elegant, small headed and long winged version and other more robust, shorter winged and less obviously small headed ones. My recent review resulted in me rejecting one that I now consider a Herring Gull x Caspian Gull, but others still meet the standard for Caspian Gull. Chris Gibbins has pictures on his blog of Caspian Gulls from the Ukraine that appear larger headed and shorter winged. Other images of gulls he photographed further to the east look more elegant. Whether it is a geographical variation or is there some Herring Gull genes in these western birds I'm not sure. One thing I do know is that Caspian Gulls are fully absorbing.
The third-winter below is a striking individual especially as it stood between a pack of scruffy looking Herring Gulls. Its bill colour is good for Caspian Gull, as are its long legs and its plumage. The white mirror on P10 at this age is also a good feature. However, its eyes are quite pale and its wings were shorter than the other three Caspain Gulls I saw this weekend.
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| Third-winter Caspian Gull, but does it have a few Herring Gull Genes? |
I saw another third-winter and that one was a classic. It flew off before I could photograph it, but I did get chance to share it with a couple of budding gull enthusiasts.
Comments are welcomed especially on the third-winter in the photo above.
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December 26, 2013, 9:04 am
I fancied a bit of fresh air after eating far too much yesterday, so this afternoon I headed off to Swithland Res in search of the immature Black-throated Diver that had been there a couple of days. It was still there and it came in close occasionally. However, in sunny conditions the light is a bit harsh near the dam and today it was sunny.
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Black-throated Diver
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It was feeding on small fish although it had to compete with a pack of Great Crested Grebes to get the fish.
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| Black-throated Diver |
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December 27, 2013, 2:02 pm
A chance meeting at Swithland Res yesterday brought me out of long distance twitching retirement. A storm driven Brunnich's Guillemot had taken up residence in Portland Harbour near Weymouth. I made arrangements to meet Colin Green at his house at 04:15. My alarm went off at 03:00 and it took me a few minutes to remember why I had set it for so early in the morning. I can remember a time when I wouldn't have slept with the excitement of it all!
Dave Gray and John Waters and I arrived at Colin's place at the pre-arranged time and Colin soon had us on our way to Dorset. We were down in Dorset for first light and the storm that had been forecast was raging. This did not deter us and we were soon bracing ourselves against wind that was strong enough to pick Colin and myself up - that's a strong wind.
The twitch started with what looked like a sketch from the 'Benny Hill Show'. We all raced around like fools "Its over here", "no it's this way". Eventually Allen Pocock wandered up and confirmed it had been seen, but it had flown behind the new breakwater. We took shelter and waited it out. While we were waiting we enjoyed good views of a Black Guillemot and a couple of Great Northern Divers.
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| Adult Great Northern Diver |
At last an auk species flew from behind the breakwater and landed distantly but in view. Once it had been scoped and seen to have dusky cheeks pandemonium broke out. Everyone jockeyed for position and for some it was just too much, the excitement made them forget to hold their scopes tightly - you can imagine the outcome in such strong winds!The star of the show did a swim by and despite the really strong winds I did manage to get a few shaky images.
There was a good crowd watching it and amongst them were many familiar, but older looking, faces.
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| It's Between The Two White Boats |
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| Brunnich's Guillemot, Portland Harbour |
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December 28, 2013, 12:37 am
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December 31, 2013, 4:00 pm
Here's wishing everyone a Happy New Year, good health and hopefully lots of great birding and wildlife adventures during 2014.Sunrise Over Caerlavarock
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January 11, 2014, 12:26 pm
It has been a few years since I last saw Parrot Crossbills - 29 to be exact. As a young chap I visited Wells Woods both in 1984 and 85' to see the ones that were breeding there at the time. After all this time I was ready to have another look at this bull-necked beast of a finch. Luckily, as you probably know, there is a small flock of them at Budby Common, Nottinghamshire at the moment.
I parked up at Budby and headed to the last area they had been reported from. However, it took longer to find the location than I would have liked, but eventually I managed to get good views of them feeding in the pines and drinking from some small puddles.![]() |
Male Parrot Crossbill
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| Female Parrot Crossbill |
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| Male and Female Parrot Crossbills |
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| Male Parrot Crossbill |
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| Parrot Crossbill |
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January 12, 2014, 12:33 am
A trip to Norfolk on the 1st was a perfect start to the year. The early start was worth the effort, as the waders on the Wash put on a great show. As normal during January I did a bit of walking in the snow in the Peak District to get me ready for a full on winter expedition to the Cairngorms. ![]() |
Red Grouse
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As always it was the Cairngorms that were the focus of my attention during February. This trip overlapped into March and, as you almost certainly already know, I managed to successfully track down a Snowy Owl that was wintering on Ben Macdui. It was only seen by only a handful of observers, because the weather turned really bad after my holiday and it had gone by the time things calmed down. It was bitterly cold throughout March, but I stuck it out at Shawell and was rewarded with some 'white-winged gulls' ![]() |
| Snowy Owl |
Strong winds during the second and third weeks of April grounded quite a few migrants and the large flock of White Wagtails that I saw at Brascote Pits was particularly impressive. I had played it cool as far as the Siberian Chiffy at Barrow upon Soar was concerned, but I hadn't realised until later just how laid back I'd been, because my sighting on the 14th was the last time it was seen (the same bird may well be back for now for its second winter). A Ring-billed Gull at Melton Country Park had me out, not once but twice, in the land of the pork pie.
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| Ring-billed Gull, Melton CP |
May and June were, for me, best remembered for my adventures in the rugged mountains of the west side of Scotland. Ridge walks on Beinn Alligin, Liathatch, Beinn Eighe and others was really exciting. Exhilarating stuff especially when a large rock hurtled down An Ruadh Stac heading towards me.
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| The Horns of Beinn Alligin |
A warm dry July was quite a surprise, as was a Night Heron that was just up the road at Thornton Res. Early in the month I spent sometime with a local Little Owl family and I managed to get one of my favourite images of the year. A Black-necked grebe and a Turnstone at Shawell A5 lagoons were local area ticks for me, but once again it was Scotland that beckoned. My son Sam and I went off to the Cairngorms where we tackled some great walking and scrambling routes. We had a blast when we hired a couple of mountain bikes and hurtled along a track that led into the heart of the mountains. Dotterels, Ptarmigan and Snow Buntings were found and added to the data for the BTO 'What's Up' survey.
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| Little Owl |
Gulls and waders were the order of the day in August. Hot on the heels of the first Turnstone at Shawell was a second one and then a couple of days later two Black-tailed Godwits were at the same site. Amongst the gulls at Shawell was a photogenic third-winter Caspian Gull. They are generally too distant at this site for decent images, so this one was pleasing to see.
Seven Bar-tailed Godwits over Croft Quarry were a south-west Leicestershire tick for me and also my local highlight for September. A bit of autumn sun was the plan at the end of the month, but we were treated on arrival in Portugal to weather that had a distinctly British feel about it. Yes it was stormy - the Med looked more like the North Sea. Eventually the sun came out as did the migrants. It seemed really odd to see Pied Flycatchers and Wheatears feeding amongst deck chairs.
At the beginning of October, I was still away in Portugal. As well as the migrants and the typical 'Steppe' species, Dawn and I enjoyed a 'pelagic boat trip'. Actually I don't think Dawn enjoyed it as she looked a bit green during the 'chumming bit'. The seabird spectacle of hundreds of birds wheeling around a trawler didn't materialise due to the trawlers be to far out to sea. However, we did see small numbers of all the birds hoped for apart from Wilson's Storm Petrel. Gulls also featured in my trip, as if you couldn't have guessed. I read a great many colour rings at the Portimao fish harbour, mostly on Lesser Black-backed Gulls and also Yellow-legged Gulls. The star was one that I identified as an Azorean Gull L. m. atlantis. I have now submitted this sighting to the Portuguese Rarities Committee and eagerly await there opinion, although I will have to be patient.
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| Cory's Shearwater |
I spent my time at Shawell during the weekends of November and also started doing a BTO Winter Thrush survey.
Early December saw me continuing in the same way as the previous month with a second-winter Glaucous Gull being my pick of the gulls. Interestingly at the end of the month I found myself back in twitching mode and went on a trip to see a Brunnich's Guillemot. A seemingly healthy individual had taken shelter in Portland Harbour to avoid the storms that were lashing Britain at the time. This species normally spends its time much further north in the Arctic and so it was welcomed by many birders who braved the windy weather to see it.
Hopefully I'll have many more adventures in 2014 and I look forward to telling the tales. It will be interesting where my subscription to Birdguides takes me as I haven't had up-to-date bird news since 2007.
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January 18, 2014, 11:52 am
I was hoping to see at least one 'white-winged' gull today, as there had been quite a few around the Midlands during the week. I went to the landfill site first and it didn't take me long to spot a Glaucous Gull. The light was quite poor, but I managed to get a few images of it. Ageing it isn't that easy and at the moment I favour second-winter, but I may change my mind. Its eyes are starting to look pale and the bill tip is no longer black. The plumage could match either age.
Later it was at the A5 Lagoons where it showed well as it preened.![]() |
| Glaucous Gull |
Shortly after finding the Glaucous Gull, I spotted a second-winter Iceland Gull. It also appeared at the A5 Lagoons during the afternoon and enthralled Dave Gray, Steve Nicholls and myself as it did several fly pasts.
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| Second-winter Iceland Gull |
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| Second-winter Iceland Gull |
As well as the 'white-wingers', I also found a couple of Caspian Gulls - an adult and a second-winter.
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| Adult Caspian Gull |
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| Second-winter Caspian Gull |
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January 19, 2014, 1:13 pm
After saying that I'd found a cure for twitching, I found myself lured, for the third time in as many weeks, out again. I had dipped a Buff-bellied Pipit on Scillies in the 90's and I didn't bother with the one down in London the other year, but this one attracted my interest.
As twitches go this one was very easy. Park your car and walk a couple of yards and view just over the fence. Not quite an epic, but it was a glorious day today. The light was poor first thing and in the afternoon the sun was in your face, so photography was challenging.
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| Buff-bellied Pipit |
It is an interesting bird, which to me had some pro Siberian Pipit (Anthus rubescens japonicas) features. In the dull light this morning, the median covert wing-bar looked white and the streaks on the underparts were quite bold and also the underparts only had a faint buff wash. The N American sub-species is said to have dark legs usually black or dark grey. Both sub-species can have light brown legs apparently, but there is no mention of Anthus rubescens having pinkish legs. This bird appears to have dark pink legs, but are they too dark?
I can't profess to be an expert, but reading various bits written by people with more experience I think it is worth considering whether it is actually a N American bird. That said the strong winds recently might lead one to consider a westerly origin for it, but when did it actually arrive here?
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| Buff-bellied Pipit |
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January 19, 2014, 11:30 pm
Now its out that if a Siberian Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita tristis)looks like a Siberian Chiffchaff it is one (amazing that) there seems to be more regular sightings. As well as the Buff-bellied Pipit, at least three Siberian Chiffchaffs were at the site today.
Two were really showy, but the constant procession of cyclists tried my patience, as the birds were trying to feed at the side of the track and were disturbed by the bikes. Even so I was pleased with the selection of photos I got.
They looked even paler grey as I watched them through my bins and the Bonelli's Warbler like green on the edge of the wing was quite distinctive.![]() |
Siberian Chiffchaff
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| Siberian Chiffchaff |
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| Siberian Chiffchaff |
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| Siberian Chiffchaff |
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