Local gulls, Waxwings and more

I did quite a bit of local birding over the weekend. No fewer than three visits to the WWT produced two Caspian Gulls - the usual 2cy bird on Sunday and a very smart 4cy bird that I'd not seen before. It was on the grazing marsh on Friday (when the shots below were taken) and then briefly on the reservoir on Sunday, before flying off upriver. I also saw the 2cy at Hammersmith Bridge and later Chiswick Eyot before it flew off upriver towards Barnes - on both occasions it was showing brilliantly but was flushed by insensitive members of the public!

4cy Caspian Gull, WWT London, 3 February 2017

My Saturday visit produced my first Green Woodpecker and Greenfinch of the year. The latter has declined everywhere in Britain but it's become a seriously difficult species to find in many parts of London - this (and the two I had on Sunday) were the first I can remember seeing in months. My first summer migrants came in the form of a pair of Shelduck, freshly arrived on Saturday. Another year tick was Mandarin - at least two fully-winged, unringed drakes were in the Asian pen with the captive birds.

On Monday I took a cycle up to Gayford Road in Shepherd's Bush - the rowans that line this road are still stuffed with berries and I've been checking them regularly since Waxwings started pushing south just after the turn of the year. What seemed like yet another blank visit was suddenly enlivened as I cycled past the penultimate rowan and a distinctive trill greeted my ears - looking upwards, there was a silhouette with an unmistakable crest. The Waxwing dropped back down to feed, so I parked the bike and got my camera out to reel off a few shots. It quickly became apparent that two birds were shuffling around in the trees but as I lifted my camera, they burst out from the branches and bowled off eastwards. Two subsequent hours of searching plenty of likely spots in Shepherd's Bush and Hammersmith drew a blank - very frustrating!

Final stop before work on Monday afternoon was the River Thames at Fulham - my usual gulling spot. About 75 Herring Gulls was the best number I've seen here for a while (numbers have been low over the past couple of weeks) but I was pleased to see a familiar face rock up - a 3cy Yellow-legged Gull which I last saw here back on 17 December and, I think, I also recognise from back in September. It's well on its way towards second-summer plumage - the bare parts are really beginning to colour up.

3cy Yellow-legged Gull, Fulham, 6 February 2017