Peregrine takes Kingfisher

17th September 2014 - Topsham

It was a standard morning at Topsham Rec, I was checking the gulls and examining a fairly obvious hybrid - more of which later - when a couple of agitated and noisy Kingfishers shot past me. A few minutes later they were calling again, now accompanied by anxious Black-headed Gulls and Redshanks, when a Peregrine appeared over the reeds carrying one of the Kingfishers. I grabbed a few shots, my camera was on my 'gull setting' so the results were seriously underexposed; still, it's not something I've ever seen before and I'm pleased I got anything.

Peregrine with Kingfisher - 17/9/2014 Topsham

Peregrine with Kingfisher - 17/9/2014 Topsham

Peregrine with Kingfisher - 17/9/2014 Topsham

Meanwhile back to morning's real business, the gulls.

A fairly obvious hybrid was in evidence again. The legs are pink - with a slight hint of salmon perhaps - and the head and neck are moderately streaked so no chance of mistaking this for a michahellis. The primary pattern would seem to rule out a northern argentatus Herring Gull, the only other possibility.

Hybrid Gull - 17/9/2014 Topsham

Hybrid Gull with argenteus Herring Gulls - 17/9/2014 Topsham

Hybrid Gull with argenteus Herring Gulls - 17/9/2014 Topsham

Hybrid Gull with argenteus Herring Gulls - 17/9/2014 Topsham

Hybrid Gull - 17/9/2014 Topsham

Just to make things even more interesting this juvenile Great Black-backed Gull dropped in briefly. I took a few photos and only when checking them later noticed the yellow leg ring. It's D:DB I think which would mean this bird was ringed in South Wales but I'm waiting for confirmation.

Great Black-backed Gull juv., colour ring D:DB - 17/9/2014 Topsham

Great Black-backed Gull juv., colour ring D:DB - 17/9/2014 Topsham

Great Black-backed Gull juv., colour ring D:DB - 17/9/2014 Topsham

Update 17/9/2014 Just had a very prompt reply from Richard Clarke of the Goldcliff Ringing Group, the GBB Gull was ringed on the nest 8th June on Denny Island in the Bristol Channel, Monmouthshire (actually right in the middle of the Bristol Channel). This is the first subsequent sighting.

Plenty of Chiffchaffs and some Gull Movement

Cornwall and Devon 25th-27th March 2013

Sometimes you've really got to feel sorry for birds. A few days ago there was a massive arrival of Chiffchaffs - OK, sounds good so far - signs of Spring and all that. I first noticed them in numbers Marazion in Cornwall on Monday afternoon, there were dozens of them feeding frantically along the water edge. I felt a bit guilty grumbling that the pasty shop had just sold out. Over the last few days I've seen them just about everywhere, in my garden, by the river even at the roadside when waiting at traffic lights (I was waiting, not the birds). And that's the problem, they should be finding territories, singing from the treetops and getting ready to breed, instead they're desperately searching for food on the ground. Apparently this has been the coldest March since 1962, bad for us but potentially catastrophic for insectivorous birds - there are hardly any insects on the wing yet. This morning I watched a Chiffchaff chase a bluebottle around the garden, I felt like cheering when it caught it.

Here's one from Marazion a few days ago, thinking about diving for tadpoles.

On a brighter note there are signs of gull movement (put like that it sounds like an unusual bowel complaint). The Common Gulls have mostly gone and I'm seeing a few intermedius type Lesser Black-backs each time I visit the river. I suppose you can never be sure that these are definitely Scandinavian birds, but they mostly look as dark as this bird, as dark as the two Greater Black-backs squabbling over a Cormorant's stolen lunch.