Caspian Gull X574

My fourth Caspian Gull of the season (adopting Rich's 1 July - 30 June cycle) was along the River Thames at Fulham late morning on Sunday 22nd. Like several other Casps in London in recent times, it bore a German ring and originates from the famous Grabendorfer See colony, where hybridisation with Herring Gull is quite prevalent.

The ring read X574, which quickly confirmed it as the same bird seen by Jamie Partridge over at Thames Barrier Park the previous day. Ironically, while watching X574, I received a message from Jamie to say he'd got the first-winter I saw in Fulham back on 19 September! A fair swap, I'd say.

Although some of the 'Casps' from this colony can look pretty questionable, it's fair to say that X574 looks fine for a pure bird. A big and aggressive beast (presumably a male), it was very vocal and gave a full range of classic cachinnans calls, which made it very easy to pick out as it swooped in to the melee attracted to my wholemeal bread offerings.

1cy Caspian Gull X574, Fulham, London, 22 October 2017

So, as mentioned previously, my fourth Casp of the season here. Though I'm already well behind Rich, Dante and Jamie's nine (as of 23/10) in the Thames Barrier/Greenwich area, I can't ever really expect to keep up with this East London hotspot given the greater number of gulls moving up and down the Thames Estuary. However, I'd be very happy if I make it in to double figures by spring (last winter I had a total of four, although at least a couple of extras were recorded by other birders).

Also on show on Sunday were at least five Yellow-legged Gulls, a very decent tally for October given that there were 'only' about 150 large gulls present (100-200 individuals is about average here at weekends). Monday's session was nowhere near as impressive - reduced numbers included 'just' three Yellow-legged Gulls and at least one Lesser Black-backed x Herring hybrid.

1cy Yellow-legged Gulls, Fulham, 22 October 2017 - the top bird has a distinctive bill and should be easy to track around London this winter. The bottom bird is regular along 'my' stretch of the river at present.

X307 reappears in Hammersmith

While watching the Rock Thrush at Blorenge, Gwent, on Saturday morning, I was a little bit gripped to see a tweet from BTO head honcho Andy Clements that he was watching a second-winter Caspian Gull circling Hammersmith Bridge - argh! Fortunately the tides were good for an afternoon's gulling session and so Rich and Dante dropped me at Baron's Court on their was back through to east London, and I hired a bicycle to get down to the Thames. One of the first birds I looked at was a 2cy Casp, which quickly transpired to have a yellow ring. The bird's demeanour looked quite familiar, and it was no real surprise when close views revealed it to be X307.

Caspian Gull X307, Fulham, London, 14 October 2017

I've seen X307 here on one occasion previously, in late July. As can be seen in the above, X307 is a quite demure and 'cute' bird with a dainty bill and lightweight structure. So, presumably a female. Curiously, there is only a tiny hint of the 'diagnostic' p10 mirror, which is just about detectable on the left wing. Perhaps not too surprising for a bird from Germany. Plumage otherwise looks pretty good.

The odd Yellow-legged Gull was seen over the weekend, including a couple of 1cy birds and this regular near-adult.

First Caspian Gull of the season in Hammersmith

The first Caspian Gull of the season appeared on my regular Fulham/Hammersmith stretch of the Thames on Sunday evening. Tides weren't exactly ideal and with low tide well after dusk, mud was only just appearing as I arrived at 17:00 and consequently gull numbers were pretty low, with only about 50 large gulls. That didn't stop this beauty dropping in during a heavy rain shower, and it remained present until I left over an hour later, coming to my offerings and flying past within just 10 metres or so. Not being the biggest bird, it's not the most structurally outstanding Casp you'll see but plumage is pretty nice with a very pale underwing.

Unfortunately the light is never great here in the evenings as you're looking in to the sun, and changeable conditions (showers and low sun) only allowed for half-decent images.

1cy Caspian Gull, Hammersmith, 17 September 2017

Both of the regular 3cy Yellow-legged Gulls were again in residence; their respective plumages have come on quite a bit in recent weeks and one posed nicely during a calm and sunny spell.

3cy Yellow-legged Gull, Fulham, 17 September 2017

More gulls, I'm afraid

Unless I go to the wetland centre, the mid-summer period totally lacks in decent birding opportunities in West London. Apart from the gulls, of course.

The first juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls have started to appear. Each session on 'my' stretch of the Thames between Craven Cottage, Fulham, and Chiswick Pier produces up to five michahellis, usually always involving a different selection of birds. I've had at least three different juveniles over the past couple of weeks, although most of the birds seen have been 2cy and 3cy, with the one or two older birds thrown in for good measure.

Juvenile Yellow-legged Gull, Fulham, 23 July 2017

2cy Herring (left) and 2cy Yellow-legged Gulls, Fulham, 23 July 2017

You don't really expect to see Caspian Gulls in July but I've been fortunate enough to be blessed with two scraggy first-summers on the river near me over the past two weeks. The first was a bird I've not seen before, German-ringed 'X307' - this bird having been noted regularly in East London since it was first seen by Jamie Partridge at Thames Barrier Park on 25 September 2016 (here are a couple of nice photos of it taken by Rich in March). It's from a mixed (predominately Caspian) colony on the Polish border but to me this bird doesn't obviously stand out as a bird of mixed heritage, I thought it looked fine as a first-winter and still think the same looking at it now.

2cy Caspian Gull 'X307', Fulham, 21 July 2017

The second bird, first seen just two days after X307's appearance, was a more familiar face - 'G0UT', a Thames-ringed Casp that first visited this stretch of the Thames back in late March, a few days after it was ringed at Pitsea. Here are a few pics of it from back then. I'd say this one is a bit less impressive than X307, showing a few more hints that Herring Gull might be mixed in somewhere down the line. A few images from recent visits below, it seems pretty regular at the moment so here's hoping it hangs around here for a while.

 23 July

31 July

And a few bits of 'interest':

4cy Herring x Lesser Black-backed Gull, 29 July

Juvenile Great Black-backed Gull, 29 July. This species must breed somewhere along this stretch of the Thames - I see at least one pair of adults throughout the year and two youngsters present last week were very fresh. There are usually a few immatures hanging around as well.

Grey Seal at Hammersmith Bridge

The river was particularly busy with rowing and kayaking crews out in force today. The crowded water, combined with a large volume of Fulham fans walking up to Craven Cottage for their FA Cup tie against Hull, meant the number of birds was well down on what it can be - Teal, for example, were more or less non-existent between Hammersmith Bridge and the football ground.

Most of the gulls were floating around aimlessly overhead - even my bread wasn't enticing them to linger long. Curiously, I noticed the birds suddenly go absolutely mental just upstream from Hammersmith Bridge but nothing big was flying over. The birds were circling low over the water and it was instantly apparent why - a seal's head had popped up mid-channel!

It was a big beast, a male, and looked like a Grey Seal - confirmed by experts on Twitter. It seemed a bit perplexed by the large numbers of rowers going past almost constantly and ended up lingering just downstream of the bridge - it was still there, and showing well, when I came back past the bridge an hour later. It was surfacing about once every five minutes and I managed some decent photos after jumping down from the river wall and sitting by the edge of the water.

Looking at sightings of marine mammals in London on the ZSL website, it seems this isn't quite as unexpected as I'd anticipated. Indeed one individual (possibly the same) was seen as far up the river as Richmond on Saturday.

Otherwise, a couple of NTGG rings were as good as it got - P2MT (4cy) and R5ZT (2cy).

Mid-January patch efforts

It remains cold across much of Britain, particularly the south-east, and such conditions usually mean winter birding is at its most productive in London.

It was grey and misty when I headed out late morning. An impressive flock of Tufted Ducks has formed on the Chiswick-Barnes stretch of the Thames, although the amassed group of 101 failed to throw up anything more interesting.

The wetlands centre was pretty decent - great views of two Bitterns including the below individual, which bizarrely stood more or less motionless on the frozen ice in front of Headley Hide for 10 minutes, before slinking off back in to the reeds. A Jack Snipe was flushed by crows just before Wildside Hide, flying around my head a few times before dropping back in to the reeds. I glimpsed a Water Pipit on the grazing marsh and heard the Bearded Tit pinging in the reeds on one occasion. Nine Pintail included six drakes but wildfowl numbers seemed slightly down on my visit the previous week, presumably because of the freeze. A flock of Fieldfares moved through and both Cetti's Warbler and Water Rail were new for the year for me. About 40 Herring, 10 Lesser Black-backed and a few Great Black-backed made up the gull flock.

You ain't fooling no-one, pal ...

That's more like it.

A check of the Hammersmith-Fulham stretch of the River Thames revealed my first Yellow-legged Gull of the year, a rather smart adult, among just 30 or so Herring Gulls. A Little Egret was at Chiswick Eyot mid-afternoon, another new bird for the year for me.

Adult Yellow-legged Gull, Fulham, 23 January 2017