I had to work all last weekend, but fortunately I was off yesterday, as I needed a change of scenery. I spent the morning holding my car's hand whilst it was serviced and then took it for a test drive up the A5 to Shawell A5 Lagoons.
Winter now appears to be here judging by the masses of gulls that were present around Shawell. Hopefully the first white-winger will arrive soon.
Many gulls were congregated around the lagoons including three Caspian Gulls. A new third-winter and two that I've seen previously.
The third-winter was a smallish gull and its eyes were quite pale, but other than that it was an obvious Caspian. On the water it had the typical profile: long bodied and winged plus it sat low on the water. On land it had nice long thin spindly legs.
The others were an adult I had already seen a couple of times and the sub-adult that I saw on the 22nd.
The Caspian Gull above looks like a full adult, but the dark markings on the bill are signs of immaturity, so it is likely that it is a fourth-winter.
The adult was the last to appear, but it showed very well. I saw it both on the 18th and 22nd and both the previous times I failed to see the pattern on P5, but this time I saw it well and it had a dark marking across the feather. This gull scores very well on the trait scoring scheme and is without doubt a pure Caspian Gull. The wings look a little short in the photo below, but that is the angle of the bird and also the longest primary feather is still growing.
Winter now appears to be here judging by the masses of gulls that were present around Shawell. Hopefully the first white-winger will arrive soon.
Many gulls were congregated around the lagoons including three Caspian Gulls. A new third-winter and two that I've seen previously.
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| Third-winter Caspian Gull |
The third-winter was a smallish gull and its eyes were quite pale, but other than that it was an obvious Caspian. On the water it had the typical profile: long bodied and winged plus it sat low on the water. On land it had nice long thin spindly legs.
The others were an adult I had already seen a couple of times and the sub-adult that I saw on the 22nd.
 |
| Sub-adult Caspian Gull (Probably Fourth-winter) |
The Caspian Gull above looks like a full adult, but the dark markings on the bill are signs of immaturity, so it is likely that it is a fourth-winter.
 |
| Adult Caspian Gull |
The adult was the last to appear, but it showed very well. I saw it both on the 18th and 22nd and both the previous times I failed to see the pattern on P5, but this time I saw it well and it had a dark marking across the feather. This gull scores very well on the trait scoring scheme and is without doubt a pure Caspian Gull. The wings look a little short in the photo below, but that is the angle of the bird and also the longest primary feather is still growing.
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| Adult Caspian Gull |