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Black-headed Gulls

July 27, 2015, 11:35 am
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So the Black-headed Gulls arriving in Leicestershire are not necessarily local breeding birds despite the fact it is still July.

At Shawell there has been a steady build up of Black-headed Gulls. At the beginning of July there was just four, then 32 appeared including a few juveniles, then 200 and by the 25th over 1000 were present. It is easy to think that the first small group had come from a local source. However, amongst the small group seen on 11th was one ringed in Poland and another ringed in Croatia.

So far this month I have recorded five colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls: three from Poland and one each from England and The Netherlands. This is not bad considering I've only successfully read 23 at Shawell since 2012. They are quite distant and the codes are very small. I have treated myself to a new scope with 70x magnification, so hopefully the extra 10x will improve my strike rate.

I have sightings of colour-ringed BHGs from Croatia, Denmark, England, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Scotland and The Netherlands. 

It just goes to show that a species we generally take for granted can turn out to be interesting.


TNCT Originally Ringed in Southern Poland was at Shawell on 25/07/15. Photo Tomascz Iciek
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Update on the Breeding Gulls in Leicester

July 31, 2015, 12:23 pm
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As you know, I have been keeping an eye on the gulls breeding at the old British Shoe warehouse in Leicester. I've also been worrying about the threat of the building being demolished during July. Well the building is still there and the gulls have had a successful breeding season much to the annoyance of some people. I counted around 80 juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gulls last night although the total is higher as this is just juveniles resting on lower roofs. I still can't see much of the roof the gulls are nesting on. I estimate that there is about 50 pairs of LBB Gulls and between 10 and 20 pairs of Herring Gulls.

I have enjoyed photographing the gulls flying between the buildings:

Juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull

Juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull

Juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull

Juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull

Adult Lesser Black-backed Gull

Adult Lesser Black-backed Gull (colour ringed  blue JMH, Gloucestershire)

Third Calendar Year Lesser Black-backed Gull

Second Calendar Year Lesser Black-backed Gull

Adult Herring Gull

Adult Herring Gull

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The Return of Caspian Gull PADZ

August 4, 2015, 10:45 pm
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I decided to try Cotesbach Landfill Site again yesterday evening in the hope of bagging a 'classic' juvenile Caspian Gull. I didn't get what I went for, but I did spot an old friend. The gulls were mostly distant, probably trying to get some shelter from the strong wind, but even so I spotted an adult Caspian Gull amongst them. Although it was at least 400 metres away, I could see it had a yellow colour-ring. Straining my eyes and fighting the wind, I managed to read the middle letters - AD. Surely it must be my old friend PADZ, but before I could work on the other letters it wandered behind some tall plants.

Eventually I turned my attention to the gulls feeding on the tip and, you guessed it, PADZ appeared amongst them and posed well enough for me to confirm my fourth sighting of this bird.

Adult Caspian Gull PADZ - Polish Ringed
PADZ

I first saw PADZ almost a year ago - see HERE. 

It obviously likes Leicestershire as it is building up a nice set of records for Albion Landfill site and the Shawell area.
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Just Can't get Enough

August 5, 2015, 11:56 am
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Another season this evening at Shawell netted me another adult Caspian Gull. This one has a very distinct look about its head and its bill, so much so that I think I may have seen it before. It was distant, but my trusty new scope performed really well. Below is an image taken from about 400 metres away from the bird.

See if you can spot the adult Caspian Gull and the juvenile and adult Yellow-legged Gulls.

I've also included a photo of a smart juvenile Yellow-legged Gull. There are loads of juvenile YLGs around at the moment. 

Spot the Caspian and Yellow-legged Gulls
Juvenile Yellow-legged Gull

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Pied Flycatcher

August 7, 2015, 10:23 am
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Its funny how things turn out, I was due to pick my daughter up from work at 5 o'clock today, but I managed to mis-read the time on my phone. I arrived at 4 o'clock and only realised my mistake when I pulled into the car park

So I had an hour to kill, but I wasn't going to waste it. I turned straight around and headed to Croft Hill. A Blackcap shot out of the hedge and landed close to an adult Spotted Flycatcher that was feeding two fresh juveniles. The adult flew towards some dead branches and another slightly smaller bird followed it. I was pleased to see it was a Pied Flycatcher. 

It continued to show well returning to the same dead branches after each sortie onto the ground in search of insects.

I would never have seen it if I could read the time - lucky!

Pied Flycatcher, Croft Hill, 07/08/2015

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Weekend Report

August 9, 2015, 11:51 am
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What a great weekend, unless you're an Australian Cricket fan! I enjoyed Saturday morning sat in my deckchair at Shawell enjoying the cricket and watching the resident pair of Red Kites and the numerous Common Buzzards. I'm not always a fan of the large birds of prey at Shawell, as they scare my gulls. However, the gulls were sitting along way off, so there was nothing else to do apart from enjoy the raptors.

Wing-tagged Adult Red Kite 
Adult Red Kite
Adult Common Buzzard
Juvenile Common Buzzard

The juvenile Common Buzzard above is very inquisitive/hungry and often flies around just above me whilst giving its begging call.

The gulls eventually appeared at the tip when the workmen packed up at 11:30, but frustratingly most of them landed out of view. Amongst them were two adult Caspian Gulls: the one from Wednesday and a new one that was in active primary moult. I was only quick enough to get a picture of the one from earlier in the week.

Adult Caspian Gull (partially hidden)

This morning Adey Baker and I decided that we should do Croft Hill & Quarry after seeing the Pied Flycatcher there on Friday (Adey and his son Ross managed to see the flycatcher, which saves me having to write a description, as they are on the three observer list). No flycatchers but we did get a Wheatear, which are quite rare at the site these days).

Wheatear, Croft Quarry

The large bird of prey theme continued as several Common Buzzards were soaring low over the embankment.

Common Buzzard, Croft Quarry

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A First For SW LEICS and the 200th Species

August 17, 2015, 11:24 am
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I had recently predicted that the 200th bird for the south-west Leicestershire list would be Cetti's Warbler. Well on Sunday morning I got a call from my wife saying there was a Cetti's Warbler at Brascote Pits. Adey Baker and I were at Croft, but hearing the news we decided to cut short our walk and head to Brascote. As we neared the tree where I had seen a Pied Flycatcher nine days earlier, I saw a small bird near the tree trunk. The sun was in our eyes, but I was sure it was another Pied Fly and I said so to Adey. Luckily it turned sideways on and I got a good view of its blackish wings with lovely distinctive white wing flashes. By the time we had messed about trying, but failing miserably to get a photo of it we had run out of time for a morning visit to Brascote.

After dinner I made my excuses and headed off to Brascote where I met Colin Green. Colin had glimpsed what he thought was the bird but he hadn't heard it singing. I persevered after Colin had left and at 16:00 I saw the bird in one of the small willow trees and it gave a short but powerful burst of song - get in there!

Nick Sharpe had found the bird earlier in the day. Nick arrived just after I had seen it and he told me about the fantastic views he had of it -well done Nick!

Colin returned to the site and got to see it later that evening.

LINK TO SW LEICESTERSHIRE LIST
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201st For SW Leicestershire

August 18, 2015, 11:33 am
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After the excitement of adding the 200th species to the South-west Leicestershire list I settled down to do the office work. Whilst looking up some information in 'The Birds of Leicestershire & Rutland' I came across a sighting of a Marsh Warbler at Shawell GP in 1982, which is number 201. It didn't take quite as long as finding the 200th to add another to the list.

I have also updated Redstart and Pied Flycatcher with some historical records.

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Shawell Update

August 25, 2015, 1:27 pm
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Juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls (Larus michahellis) are still occurring at Shawell although many of them are well on their way to attaining their first-winter plumage. This summer the influx of juveniles has been on a larger scale than in previous years.  Presumably there will be even more Yellow-legged Gulls of all ages visiting Shawell in the years to come.

A mixture of plumage characteristics and jizz make most juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls fairly easy to identify. Some are real monsters, but many don't stand out amongst the juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gulls on size alone. I saw the first juvenile Yellow-legged Gull at Shawell on July 4th and my best count so far is eleven at one time.

Juvenile Yellow-legged Gull, Shawell A5 Lagoons

The juvenile below has been present for a couple of weeks. It has already moulted its scapulars and as you can see its coverts are very pale. It is a real eye catcher as it really stands out because of the amount of pale feathering and its large size. The short thick bill and large heads of this species are obvious on most juveniles, as are the really large lower scapulars of fresh juveniles (see image above).

First-Calendar Year Yellow-legged Gull Moulting into First-Winter Plumage

On Saturday August 22nd the gulls were quite distant preferring to sit on a large mound in the quarry. Many were hidden from view, but the Caspian Gull in the image below wandered in to view. It is most likely to be a third-summer (4CY), as it appeared to have some remnant black feathering on the alula. Although it is said that this can be present into adulthood.

Caspian Gull, Shawell, 22/08/15

To give you an idea how good my new Swarovski scope is, the Caspian Gull in the picture above was on top of the mound in the photo below. As you can see using a 50mm lens you can hardly even see the gulls. I could even read colour-rings at that range. Sadly this is the typical distance I have to work with at present.

Shawell Quarry
The only other birds of note recently were a pair of Ruff at the A5 Lagoons on 19/08/15.

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Black-tailed Godwits

August 29, 2015, 1:58 pm
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Steve Nichols and I were at Shawell A5 Lagoons this afternoon and a group of 11 Black-tailed Godwits flew in. Only minutes before we were discussing the lack of wading birds. They were quite nervous, which was lucky as they flew around for quite a while before they landed. We got excellent views of them in flight as they got lower and lower.

Sadly they were spooked by something not long after they arrived and flew off east.

If I've got it right, they are of the sub-species L. I. islandica.

Video of the Black-tailed Godwits
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Adult Baltic Gull?

August 30, 2015, 9:31 am
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Yesterday morning at Cotesbach landfill site I came across a gull that looked good for a Baltic Gull. It was an adult, it was jet black and its jizz seemed spot on. Unfortunately one of the machine drivers started working in front of the gulls and flushed them.

Later on that afternoon I spotted it again and this time it was at the A5 Lagoons. I scanned through the gulls on the shore and then BANG!!! It stood out like a sore thumb due to its jet black upperparts. I told Steve Nichols that I had the Baltic Gull contender that I first saw in the morning and got him on it. Steve relayed the features to me as he saw them and he picked up on all the features that a text book adult Baltic Gull should show. He then added 'it's a shame it hasn't got a colour-ring'. A colour-ringed Baltic Gull will come to Shawell eventually, but until then this is as good as it gets.



This is the second Baltic Gull candidate I have had this summer/autumn. However, unlike the first one, which was a second-calendar year, this one might be a none starter without a colour-ring. Second-calendar year Baltic Gulls have a different moult strategy compared to Lesser Black-backed Gulls, which makes them identifiable in summer. There is also some evidence to suggest that autumn adults can be done on moult too, but this may need further research.

Below is a video of the adult - enjoy 


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Another Video of the Possible Baltic Gull

August 31, 2015, 3:03 am
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Going through the video of the adult Baltic Gull candidate I found on Saturday, I noticed this section of video. As you can see a couple of intermedius LBB Gulls sail past it on the water and you can clearly see it is blacker than them on the upper parts. On a normal day they would stand out as being distinctly darker than the graellsii LBB Gulls.

Also look how long its wings are.


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First-Winter Already

September 6, 2015, 1:19 pm
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I have been working hard this summer at Shawell to pick out a juvenile Caspian Gull, but it has not gone to plan! In July I thought I'd got one, but that one turned out to be most likely a hybrid. Another one in August proved to be even more challenging. On Facebook's European Gulls it was given the thumbs up, but its coverts were quite fussy. I would like to see the coverts being a bit plainer. That said I favour Caspian Gull rather than a very skinny long legged Yellow-legged Gull.


Caspian Gull, First-Winter, Cotesbach LF site, September 2015
Yesterday I spotted a young Caspian Gull, but rather than a pristine juvenile it was well on its way to its first-winter plumage. It was at least 200 metres away, so my camera struggled to record a prize winning shot. Nevertheless you can see that it has a grey saddle. Most of the mantle and scapular feathers have been replaced with pale grey feathers. Faint dark markings are visible on most of the scapulars, but 
these are much less distinct than those of the first-winter Yellow-egged Gulls that are present at the moment. Its coverts are plain brown with fine pale edges and the inner greater coverts are solid brown with faint buff edges. Its tertials had white thumb nail like tips, which again is different to YLG's of a similar age. Its head was white with no sign of a dark mask.

Below is a similar looking gull from December 2014.


Polish Ringed Caspian Gull (16P4) Shawell A5 Lagoons, December 2014

Another juvenile gull was causing quite a stir, as its white primaries seemed to scare the other gulls. Its a good job its not a young Herring Gull, as it might be mistaken for a 'white-winger' as an adult. 


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Caspian Gull

September 16, 2015, 1:08 pm
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I spent a short while at Shawell at lunchtime today and amongst several thousand gulls was a nice second-winter Caspian Gull. As normal the falconer was there so the gulls were quite distant. Taking photos of gulls at this range with a strong breeze blowing is quite a mission, but I was able to get a few record shots.



The 70 x magnification, or power as the Americans seem to say, of my scope makes it possible for me to read colour-rings at distances of up to 400 metres if the codes are clear. One of my old (less of the old) favourites was there today - third calendar year Lesser Black-backed Gull C+F.  I have now seen C+F on 14 separate occasions. C+F is almost in adult plumage now, which is quite a transformation  from what he looked like back in January - see HERE
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Another good day at Shawell

September 19, 2015, 11:59 pm
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A clear blue sky greeted me yesterday morning as I set off to Shawell, but mist soon hampered my progress. By the time I arrived at Shawell the morning mist had thickened considerably leaving me no option but to have a snooze in my car. The gulls had somehow managed to navigate from their night time roost site, as once the mist began to clear I could see thousands of them on the bank opposite me. At first the visibility was too poor to identify the species, but as it improved I managed to spot the second-winter Caspian Gull I first saw on Wednesday.

Second-winter Caspian Gull

As you can see the stand out feature is a small white head and a longish thin parallel sided bill. The plumage is typical of a second-winter: a grey mantle and a mostly grey median covert bar on the closed wing. The greater coverts are mainly dark greyey brown and the lesser coverts are brown and dirty white with a slight chequered pattern. The tertials generally stand out as being blacker than other similar species at this age and the white tips show a finger nail type pattern. As you can see this gull shows the typical tertial pattern. The tail had a lovely black band across its complete base. Its legs don't look exceptionally long in the photo above, but in other poses they look thin and long. It can be difficult to assess leg length and shape from photographs, as they can alter from one photograph to the next. The thinness is often only obvious when the gull is facing you, as their legs are not round. Its 'Persil' white head stood out a mile amongst all the other gulls.

I had a great day searching for colour rings, as several thousand Lesser Black-backed Gulls were present. In the end I read 26 colour-rings including some for the first time. Many of them were intermedius LBB Gulls from Norway.

The colour ring on the one below was a challenge to read, as the ring was obviously quite old and starting to wear. It looked like KLAS. This is from the Netherlands.

LBB Gull Green KLAS

There are still plenty of Yellow-legged Gulls at the site although fewer first year birds than last weekend. They are not quite so easy to identify now as the juvenile Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls are moulting their scapulars and mirroring some of the features that helped separate the young YLGs only a few days ago. Generally the YLG have whiter heads and shorter, thicker and blacker bills, but it can be fun.

A large third or fourth winter YLG caught my eye at the lagoons and stayed around for a while.

Yellow-legged Gull

Yellow-legged Gull

Yellow-legged Gull - note the adult like P10 that is just growing

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First year Caspian Gull

September 22, 2015, 1:06 pm
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The timing of my arrival at Shawell mid-week was spot on. I always enjoy it if I get the opportunity to time my lunch break to co-incide with me being near Shawell. This week a massive wave of gulls came rolling in from the nearby landfill site just as I arrived. At least 18 Yellow-legged Gulls pitched down amongst the 1000+ gulls. However, the icing on the cake was a first year Caspian Gull - I never tire of seeing these beauties.




The main stand out features are its very long and flat backed profile and its white head. It has already replaced its mantle and scapulars feathers with pale grey ones with faint dark markings. The black marks on the same feathers on the young YLGs are much more distinctive. Its coverts are brown with very little else apart from pale edges. Its tertials are typical for this species showing the white 'finger nail' pattern at the tips.

Its bill is not exceptionally long or thin, but this is typical of this age. Once the feathers near the bill start to wear the bill should take on a longer appearance.



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Autumn in the Algarve

October 8, 2015, 11:00 am
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I have been away on my annual pilgrimage to the Algarve. The weather was fantastic, so was the local beverage - Sagres larger. Oh and the birding was excellent too.

It will take me a while to catch up due to loads of photographs to review and 104 gull colour-rings to process. As normal the harbour at Portimao was excellent for gulls as was the beach at Praia da Rocha. Elsewhere the birding was great and I managed to add some new birds to my Portuguese list. These included two Spanish Imperial Eagles, a Black Vulture and a smart Lesser Yellowlegs.

Below are some of the photos I've edited so far:

Black Vulture

Hoopoe

Audouin's Gull

Juvenile Audouin's Gull

Balearic Shearwater

Cory's Shearwater

Sooty Shearwater

Great Shearwater

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Another Azores Gull

October 8, 2015, 1:20 pm
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After finding what I considered to be an adult Azores Gull (Larus michahellis atlantis) at the fish harbour in Portimao, Portugal I have been very keen to find another. In 2014 I drew a blank, but during my latest trip to Portimao I scored again.

These are very distinctive gulls, so much so I picked both out with the naked eye. 


Third-winter Azores Gull
Third-winter Azores Gull

The tone of grey is very distinctive on its own, but add the dark hooded effect created by the dense head streaking and you have a very unique looking gull. In addition the short legs and the robust body help to distinguish these gulls from other species. Though I'm not qualified to suggest that Azores Gulls should be treated as a separate species, I do think that from an identification point of view that they have a good claim to be treated as a full species.

The Algarve is a 'melting pot' for Yellow-legged Gulls and a mine field for anyone delving into the subject. Most of the Yellow-legged Gulls around Portimao are of the type we associate with the Mediterranean: large brutes with squarish heads and the typical tone of grey. Amongst them are some that you think hold on a minute that one doesn't look quite right. However, go as far south and west as you can go on the European mainland and things get more difficult. On the harbour wall at Sagres was a whole gang of adult Yellow-legged Gulls that were smaller, less brutish and probably paler than the typical Yellow-legged Gull most of us are familiar with. This for me is an on going challenge.

Below is one of the less typical gulls Yellow-legged Gulls that can be found amongst the ordinary ones. It has a hood that catches the eye, but the grey tone is too pale for an L.m. atlantis


Yellow-legged Gull
Third-winter Azores Gull
Third-winter Azores Gull
Third-winter Azores Gull
Third-winter Azores Gull
For images of the previous Azores Gull click HERE
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Another Update From Shawell

November 7, 2015, 1:45 pm
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Apologies for the lack of posts recently,  I have been busy working and trying to catch up with all the paperwork generated by my trip to Portugal.

The highlight at Shawell last month was a female Pintail, which I saw on the October 8th. This is only the second record for my recording area. 

Due to the re-siting of the landfilling area at the Cotesbach LF site, I have struggled to get good views of the gulls. At Shawell A5 Lagoons I have experienced mixed fortunes due to the complete absence of gulls at times. A German colour-ringed Caspian Gull refused to give up the code on its ring despite me seeing it three times. The green German colour rings are not easy to read when the gull is distant.

Most of the Caspian Gulls I've seen recently have most likely been hybrids. The one below was a strange looking beast - Herring Gull body and legs with a Caspian Gull head.

Presumed Caspian Gull x Herring Gull

The next one, an adult, was not quite right. Its primary pattern seemed OK, but not perfect and its jizz was not quite right. 


Presumed Caspian Gull Hybrid

The next one was a giant, which looked OK at times but at other times it looked odd. Of course it may be within normal variation, but I wasn't fully convinced.


First-winter Caspian Gull or Hybrid

Today was a day for ducks, but I braved the rain and set out for Shawell A5 Lagoons. The rain had stopped when I arrived, but only until I had set up my scope. As soon as I started to search through the gulls the rain got worse. As I struggled to set up my umbrella something scared the gulls and most of them flew off. About ten brave Great Black-backed Gulls soon settled back down on the bank between the lagoons and with them was a gull that was not much smaller than its larger cousins. Increasing the magnification on my scope I realised it was a young Caspian Gull. Better still it had a red colour ring, but the ring was almost completely hidden in the grass. The rain had got even heavier so I hunkered down under my umbrella and waited for the gull to move. Eventually it ran towards the shoreline and luckily it paused long enough for me to read 10P6. This is from a Polish ringing scheme and hopefully I will get a reply from them early next week.


First-winter Caspian Gull Red 10P6
First-winter Caspian Gull Red 10P6









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Caspian Gull Red 10P6

November 9, 2015, 12:30 pm
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This morning I received a reply from the POLRING website (thank-you) about the colour-ringed first-winter Caspian Gull that was at Shawell on Saturday. They confirmed that the colour-ring reading was correct and that red 10P6 was ringed in a Caspian Gull colony in south-west Poland. It is always comforting to know you are on the right track and there's nothing better than confirming the origins of a bird with a colour-ring. It was ringed on 21/05/15.

First-Winter Caspian Gull Red 10P6

 I would very much like to organise a trip to this area to see the Caspian Gull colony - watch this space eh! This is the second colour-ringed Caspian Gull from this colony that has graced the shores of Shawell A5 Lagoons.

In a straight line its natal island is 799 miles - see below.



The Site of the Caspian Gull Colony Red 10P6 Originates From

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