Friday 24 October 2014

Yellow-legged Gull - likely as not?

23rd October 2014 - Topsham


I'm fairly sure this is the bird that I first saw in September, I wasn't entirely convinced by it then and I still have suspicions. The only thing that's not quite right is the thin and slightly broken black band on P5 (not visible on this shot unfortunately). Given the variability in all large gull species, it's surely possible for pure michahellis to show such a pattern. It's just odd that it's so frequent in Topsham birds.

Yellow-legged Gull ad. (prob.) - 23/10/2014 Topsham

Wednesday 22 October 2014

Water Pipit

22nd October 2014 - Topsham


After a very uneventful October, finally a bird worth a post. Most winters see a Water Pipit overwintering at The Rec, this year's turned up today. I've no idea whether it's the same bird as last year, from the pattern of the median coverts I suspect it's not a 1st winter but that's all I can say. A nice bird and behaving in the usual way, always keeping it's distance and spending a lot of time on the shingle in mid river. Maybe high tide might give better views, but then there's be no gulls to look at...

Water Pipit - 22/10/2014 Topsham Rec

Water Pipit - 22/10/2014 Topsham Rec

Water Pipit - 22/10/2014 Topsham Rec

Water Pipit - 22/10/2014 Topsham Rec

Saturday 4 October 2014

Midlands (Gull) Road Trip

1st-2nd October 2014 - Northamptonshire


This week, having decorators in painting the house, I saw little chance of getting any work done. I therefore decided a short birding trip was in order and so, accompanied by my good friend - and this blog's official gull consultant - Martin Elliott, I headed for the gravel pits and landfills of Northants.

Stanwick Lakes near Wellingborough regularly holds 100's of Yellow-legged Gulls - and usually a few Caspian Gulls - in late summer and early autumn. The attraction is the nearby landfill, birds feed on the tip in the morning and drop in to the lakes during the afternoon to bathe and loaf. It seems the tip had lost some of its attraction to the gulls recently as numbers were very much down on recent weeks. Still, 20-30 michahellis and at least a couple of cachinnans wasn't bad.

Yellow-legged Gull 2/10/2014 - Stanwick, Northants.

Yellow-legged Gull 2/10/2014 - Stanwick, Northants.

Yellow-legged Gull 2/10/2014 - Stanwick, Northants.

Yellow-legged Gull 2/10/2014 - Stanwick, Northants.
No 1st years were close enough to photograph but I did get shots of one or two 3rd years.
 
Yellow-legged Gull 3cy 2/10/2014 - Stanwick, Northants.

Yellow-legged Gull 3cy 2/10/2014 - Stanwick, Northants.
Yellow-legged 3cy Gull 2/10/2014 - Stanwick, Northants.
Sadly, no Caspians came this close, but here's a long distance attempt of a classic adult cachinnans - now I need to find another of these at Topsham Rec.

Caspian Gull 1/10/2014 - Stanwick, Northants.

Martin runs regular Gull Identification Workshops at Stanwick (also at Hayle, Cornwall), see here or here for more details, also Mark Avery has a very nice review of one of his first sessions.