A quieter weekend

I covered the Thames between Barnes and Fulham daily over the weekend without any decent reward. Gulls numbers were in the main quite low, even on Sunday, and the often awful weather conditions didn't help for seeing anything else. The best thing I could sift from among the gulls was this presumed hybrid Herring x Lesser Black-backed Gull - it looked more obvious in the field, but you can still see the tepid yellow leg colour and slightly darker mantle than argenteus Herring, as well as the typical black bills markings that you often see on hybrids of this age (rather similar to in LBB).

Herring x Lesser Black-backed Gull, Fulham, 15 January 2017

I decided to join the WWT this weekend, primarily so that I can have regular access to the London Wetland Centre. My first visit, in the rain on Sunday afternoon, produced the same first-winter Caspian Gull I saw on the Thames last week (I suspect it's spending most of its time in the immediate area) from Peacock Tower as well as singles of Bittern, Water Pipit and Jack Snipe - the latter was often swimming around in the open, quite strangely. Other notable local birds included a drake Pintail and male Stonechat.

First-winter Caspian Gull, London Wetland Centre, 15 January 2017