Forster's Tern in Essex

For anyone who took up twitching after the early 2000s, Forster's Tern has been a real British blocker. This bird, found yesterday on the Stour Estuary, is the first to linger anywhere in Britain since 2003 - and in fact the last widely twitchable bird was a couple of years further back than that. As such, this bird attracted quite large crowd on a bleak November day.

I've seen two Forster's Terns in Ireland (the regularly returning bird in Co Galway and a first-winter in Co Mayo in February 2014) but it was hard to ignore the temptation of heading up to Mistley this morning for a British tick, particularly given how well the bird was reported to have shown on Saturday afternoon. Eventually it did one close fly-by but in my haste I didn't notice my camera settings were a little awry and the meagre offerings below are about as good as it got for me. Weather conditions and light were absolutely awful and as anyone with a camera will know, photographing a grey bird on a grey background is never particularly easy - particularly as it bombs past at high speed.

Forster's Tern, Mistley, Essex, 20 November 2016

First tip visit of the season

A Saturday morning spent at Pitsea produced a fairly meagre scattering of gulls - a little disappointing after Rich Bonser had visited over the two previous Saturdays and enjoyed excellent numbers, including several Caspian Gulls. Highlights were limited to a tame fox, the returning leucistic Great Black-backed Gull (and, incidentally, its normal-looking sibling for its first time at this site) and 10+ Yellow-legged Gulls. With tipping activity at a minimum, we'd called it a day by late morning.

A couple of adult Yellow-legged Gulls among the detritus - quite amusing how well camouflaged they can be

Yellow-legged Gulls of various ages

'Big White' the Norwegian Great Black-backed Gull - back again!

A surprisingly smart Red Fox - you tend to see really mangled individuals here

Another Saturday morning of gulls

Went back to the tip in Essex with Steve on Saturday morning - best birds as follows.

Adult Caspian Gull - same individual as that seen last week and regularly at this site for several winters now.

Second-winter Caspian Gull - a nice, distinctive bird showing small white mirrors on p10.

(Presumed) Iceland Gull - the third-winter bird seen here for a few weeks running (and on several dates last winter). Opinion still seems divided on the ID but personally I can't get past it being an Iceland.

Here's a pic of it alongside Herring Gulls:

Adult Black-headed Gull with extensive blue dye staining - this was by far the worst-affected individual but several stained birds were seen on Saturday including a couple of pink Great Black-backed Gulls!

Saturday at the dump

A very decent morning with Steve and Rich in blustery (but thankfully dry) conditions in Essex on Saturday. A reasonable number of gulls were present around the tip but the wind was making them quite restless - not least because large bits of rubbish were almost constantly blowing across the site and disrupting roosting birds. In total we recorded four Caspian Gulls throughout the morning - two adults, a near-adult and a first-winter.

The first to appear was this impressive adult - a big, rangy bird that towered above most of the Herring Gulls present. It showed a couple of times during the morning; the final shot below was taken on its second showing.

The second adult is a returning bird that has been seen regularly at this site since 2009. It's quite a small, pale-eyed bird with a distinct red eye ring and yellowish legs.

Unfortunately the near-adult flew almost instantly after Steve picked it up, but here's a flight shot for the record.

This distinctive and snouty first-winter also appeared on the edge of the melee for a short while before flying off.

A few other bits of interest were seen including numerous Norwegian-ringed Great Black-backed Gulls - part of a good influx of this species to the dump. Among these was J5493 or 'Big White', the leucistic Great Black-backed Gull which is back for its third consecutive winter at this site.

A bird that I'd really been hoping to see was a white-winged gull that reappeared at the tip last Saturday after having been seen here on several occasions last winter. It troubled various observers in early 2015 but looks a more typical dark-end Iceland Gull this year - although it is quite a large and robust bird and its moult seems a bit retarded for a bird of this age. Unfortunately it appeared for just a couple of minutes and was largely obscured in the flock - hoping to see it again before the winter is out.

An adult white-winged gull was also picked up in flight and watched drifting around for a couple of minutes, but unfortunately it wasn't the hoped-for Glaucous/Iceland and in fact either a white-winged Herring or Glaucous x Herring - in flight it looked like the outer webs of p9 & 10 had some mid-grey markings on them.

Thanks to Steve and Rich for having me along - a very enjoyable morning despite the gale blowing bits of rubbish in to the Land Rover. It's always hugely entertaining watching the gulls go about their daily lives in this unique environment, and I'll leave you with a couple of photos of a Great Black-backed tackling a large flatbread.

Day at the dump

Abhorrent weather conditions on Saturday and I very nearly got back in to bed at 6am having had little more than four hours' sleep and hearing the rain splattering against my window. Glad I gritted my teeth and got through it though. Steve Arlow kindly invited me along with him and Rich Bonser for a new experience for me - actually spending time on a dump looking at gulls.

Despite the absolutely disgusting conditions it turned out to be a successful few hours until a puncture curtailed our efforts. Highlight was a juvenile Glaucous Gull which unfortunately didn't perform closely for the camera, but three Caspian Gulls (two first-winters and a third-winter) showed at point-blank range and we also had a few Yellow-legged Gulls. Light was terrible for photos though.

 Big juvenile Glaucous having just swallowed something large and nasty.

 2cy cachinnans with pale, almost whitish scaps.

A pathetically small 2cy cachinnans with tiny bill.

A couple of leucistic birds concerned a Herring and a returning Norwegian-ringed Great Black-backed that had Richard unnecessarily excited, having first seen it on the dump last year. Also a couple of presumed Glaucous x Herrings (or perhaps just pale Herrings).