Iceland Gull in Peterborough

I don't think I've seen many (if any) white-winged gulls in Peterborough in April before, which I guess is quite surprising - that said, I probably haven't spent too much time looking at gulls here in previous Aprils. Both Glaucous and Iceland Gulls had been lingering at Dogsthorpe Tip throughout March and so I popped in on Thursday morning to see if either was still around - the Iceland was.

There doesn't look to be much food waste going in to Dogsthorpe at the moment and, with the incinerator in full effect just a few miles away, I guess gull numbers will dwindle here. Then again, I've been uttering that threat for the best part of a decade and yet still the area still draws in thousands of birds in winter, so hopefully the end is not nigh, even if gulls can't be expected to feed successfully on sofas, sawdust and various other bits of dry waste. The tip really must be close to completion, though - there is hardly any room to put more waste now.

juvenile Iceland Gull, Dogsthorpe, 6 April 2017

April arrives - yet I'm still looking at gulls

I managed to get out a fair bit over the weekend and logged a few migrants, but once again it was the gulls that provided the bulk of the entertainment. A leisurely walk around Chiswick House & Gardens on Saturday morning produced a Nuthatch and my first Swallow of the year zipping over, as well as the usuals. I've recently bought the Canon 100-400 ii zoom, and I must say image stabilisation has changed my life - my hands aren't very steady and I was amazed at how good the IS is at minimising my wobble! It seems pretty sharp too.

Mistle Thrush, Chiswick, 1 April 2017

The river produced the usual assortment of gulls as well as four Shelducks along the Fulham stretch and a Meadow Pipit over. A mid-afternoon visit to London Wetland Centre failed to produced G0UT (which had been seen in the morning) but a white-winged gull was picked up in flight at 15:30. It was distant and high up, but I managed to get it in the scope and confirm it was the Iceland rather than the regular Glaucous Gull that has been knocking around. The Iceland had been seen here again on Thursday and was presumably making the most of the warm conditions of Saturday to drift around West London after having been seen at Beddington that morning.

Juvenile Iceland Gull over London Wetland Centre, 1 April 2017

One each of Fieldfare and Redwing were the highlights of another early traipse around Chiswick House on Sunday morning, although it was clear that there had been an increase in singing Blackcaps overnight - in fact that species seemed to be very common everywhere on Sunday.

After brunch I saw a BirdGuides message that the Glaucous was back at the WWT for the first time since Thursday, so I cycled down there and finally enjoyed prolonged views of this bird - my second local white-winged gull in as many days. The sharp contrast between the pale head/upper neck and darker body seems to suggest that it is Beddington bird #2 (see Pete's blog). I wonder why it's suddenly decided to change its behaviour and spend most of its time around the river?

Juvenile Glaucous Gull, London Wetland Centre, 2 April 2017

In the afternoon I went to watch the boat race with my housemates, only for the Glauc to come steaming up the Thames by the Old Ship pub at 16:45 in hot pursuit of the women's event - my third sighting of this monster in a week. And then, on Monday morning, it was back at the WWT, performing well but generally being lazy - seems hard to avoid it at present. Who'd have thought white-winged gulls would routinely figure among my early-spring birding highlights in West London? Not me!

From white to black ... I was almost as excited by this Rook, which flew over the WWT at 10:15 on Monday morning. For those living outside the capital, seeing a Rook inside Zone 4 (i.e. Central London and the 'inner' suburbs) is a genuine challenge, and you have to hope for the occasional flyover like this. Needless to say it was a first for me here.

Mega! Rook over London Wetland Centre, 3 April 2017

Pre-Christmas Iceland Gull

Best bird of a couple of days' searching around Peterborough was this juvenile Iceland Gull at Dogsthorpe Tip on 23rd. I was genuinely surprised to see it drop in to the pit given how scarce both white-winged gulls have been up to this point. Despite good numbers of gulls, nothing else of note seen - not even any Casps.

Iceland Gull in Hammersmith!

I went for my first bike ride along the Thames for a couple of weeks this morning in the hope of finding a Caspian Gull. I had a Lithuanian Black-headed Gull at one of my usual spots in Chiswick (I'll blog about this bird at a later date) but only about 30 large gulls, so decided to continue east past Hammersmith Bridge and down towards Fulham.

This turned out to be a good move as I stumbled across a juvenile Iceland Gull among about 80 large gulls on the river adjacent to the Wetland Centre. This was actually the first time I'd biked down here this winter and it was nice to find a new spot for loafing gulls at low tide - Chiswick has generally been poor for numbers of large gulls in the past month.

Initial views of the Iceland Gull, Fulham, 2 December 2016

Eventually the bird showed pretty well, although steadfastly refused to show any interest in the four loaves of bread I threw at it. As such the scope for flight shots was minimal (I only grabbed a few as it flew past me towards Hammersmith) and I had to make do with perched shots at an awful angle and against a typically grubby Thames background.

After about half an hour the bird decided to fly off west upriver, over Hammersmith Bridge (thus in to my regular 'patch'!) before turning north and disappearing off over the West London skyline. It turns out that this is the same bird seen by Pete Alfrey at Beddington on 24 November and then by Dave Harris in the Island Barn Reservoir roost on 28th - not that that's surprising, given that there are so few Iceland Gulls in the country at present.

A white-winged gull with Hammersmith Bridge in the background - the stuff of dreams

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.

King's Lynn Iceland Gull

The drizzle was falling and the light absolutely atrocious when I called in at Fisher Fleet, King's Lynn, late morning on Saturday. The Iceland Gull was on view instantly so I fired off a few shots before jumping back in the car. Barely more than records, the flight shots were taken ISO 1000 and probably should have been higher - though this bird could be great for pics if we ever get a properly sunny day.