16th-18th September 2016 - Topsham
I'll start with a couple of dreadful photos of Friday evening's Lesser Yellowlegs, found on Goosemoor by the indefatigable Keith Birchall - pure jam or real talent, take your pick. A nice bird which showed well while the light lasted, sadly iso800 and 1/80 sec didn't really do it justice.
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| Lesser Yellowlegs juv - 16/9/2016 Topsham |
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| Lesser Yellowlegs juv - 16/9/2016 Topsham |
Saturday I worked (apart from and hour or so pottering around to see if the Lesser Legs was still about - it wasn't) so on Sunday I indulged myself with a bike ride down the Exminster side of the estuary. My normal cycling speed of just fast enough to avoid falling over is perfect for birding, not that I found much, just a few Chiffchaffs and Meadow Pipits and one each of Wheatear and Whinchat. Just past the Turf I noticed this Osprey hunting, it eventually caught one - Mullet, I think - and headed off towards Powderham for breakfast.
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| Osprey juv - 18/9/2016 Exe Estuary |
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| Osprey juv - 18/9/2016 Exe Estuary |
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| Osprey juv - 18/9/2016 Exe Estuary |
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| Osprey juv - 18/9/2016 Exe Estuary |
The outer primaries are a little tatty but, amongst other things, the dark streaks on the crown and the pale fringes/tps to all the upper wing coverts make this a juvenile.
Later, back at Topsham Rec the gulls assembled for their daily ablutions. Something over 300 were bathing, preening and loafing (sounds like general idleness but it's vital to keep feathers in usable condition) when a couple of numpties in a canoe sent the lot flying. A few resettled, the rest were gone for good, including this intriguing bird.
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| Yellow-legged Gull? - 18/9/2016 Topsham |
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| Yellow-legged Gull? - 18/9/2016 Topsham |
The grey is obviously darker than argenteus and the legs are sort of yellow - but are they yellow enough? Certainly michahellis often do seem to show duller, less saturated yellow legs after the breeding season and this is probably about as weak as it gets. The fine head streaking, bill shape and the red gonydeal spot bleeding into the upper mandible are supportive but not diagnostic; the orbital colour is just not discernible unfortunately. A look at the primary pattern on the spread wing would have really helped but I missed it as the whole lot took flight when the canoists disturbed them.
I see nothing in this bird to rule out Yellow-legged Gull, on the other hand, I'm not entirely happy about calling it such without seeing a good black band on P5 and the amount of black on P8 and 9.
19/9/2016 - Update
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| Yellow-legged Gull adult - 19/9/2016 Topsham |
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| Yellow-legged Gull adult - 19/9/2016 Topsham |
To show just how washed out yellow legs can get post-breeding, here's an adult Lesser Black-backed, same place and time.
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| Lesser Black-backed Gull adult - 19/9/2016 Topsham |
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