Hot Mediterranean action

Adult Mediterranean Gull drifting over Langtoft Fen

I think I say it just about every time I blog about them, but adult Med Gulls are great. They're preposterously good-looking and sound the business too. On my old stomping ground around the pits at Langtoft, a pair or two can usually be found kicking about among the throng of breeding Black-headed Gulls every summer (though never yet confirmed breeding). That said, it's always great to actually see them and thus I was pretty chuffed to find a pair loafing around on one of the new roadside pits over the weekend. Disappointingly, though, there were no youngsters in tow despite some suggestive behaviour - for example, I got out the car and they decided to fly around my head, calling. Friday was a hot day, and the bird is actually panting in both images below, not exercising its vocal chords.

Mediterranean Gull

Is there a finer sight than an adult Mediterranean Gull against a rich blue sky with bright sunlight glowing through its primary tips? This was one of two vocal birds that flew over me in Norfolk at the weekend.

Ringed Med Gull in South Lincs

Each morning before heading over to Rutland, I spent half hour or so checking out some of the more likely spots around my old patch, Baston & Langtoft Pits. Despite some decent wader habitat, I managed nothing than a couple of Green Sandpipers. Wildfowl proved a little more dynamic, with nine Shoveler and a Wigeon on 19th, and five Teal in this morning (20th). Also this morning, among no more than 30 or so Black-headed Gulls, was this fine juvenile Mediterranean Gull:

As can be seen above, a white darvic was pretty obvious on the bird's left leg, with a small metal ring on the right. Creeping closer, it was possible to make out the code "E932". I'm guessing this bird will be from the Netherlands, but will confirm when feedback comes through.

Blogging from Bird Fair

I can't escape gulls. Adult Yellow-legged and 2nd-s/3rd-w Mediterranean on the dam at Rutland Water prior to the first morning on the BirdGuides stand at the British Birdwatching Fair, 17th August. Lovely stuff.

Summer gulling...

... had me a blast.

Great morning down at Coldharbour Lane, Rainham yesterday morning (21st). Rich B and I had originally intended to spend the morning at Cross Ness but, on waking up and hearing news that that bloody torch was in Greenwich, we diverted north of the Thames and headed east for Rainham. What a good decision that turned out to be.

Having grown up gulling in Peterborough, I'm used to larids being challenging to see and, when you finally get in a good position to look at them, you face the probability of flushing the lot as they're inevitably both wary and flighty. As I've said before, you rarely get a good view of the majority of gulls present in a session; most of the sites they frequent are private, difficult to get in to, or both. I would say that in an average session I manage to check less than 50% of the gulls, with this total particularly low in summer when vegetation hampers viewing even further.

So, what of such a rant? Well, I must say I was hugely impressed with the setup at Rainham. Having the pleasure of being able to see hundreds of gulls unobscured and at relatively close range is always great for me, but particularly so in summer. Here you get great views of the birds loafing on the Thames by the stone barges, and also good views loafing within the tip complex itself. Unsurprisingly, I was keen to get stuck in, pulling out this 2nd-summer Caspian Gull almost right away:

3cy cachinnans: note the small white mirror on retained p10 - diagnostic of the species

... and here you can see the retained third generation tail feathers.

It quickly became apparent that there were shed loads of Yellow-legged Gulls around: in the three or so hours we spent at Rainham, we estimated that we had seen at least 40. Many of these were juveniles; some were really blatant but others had us scrutinizing much more closely - experience from foreign trips to e.g. Morocco has taught us both that michahellis can be remarkably Lesser Black-backed-like, and vice versa. The rest of the birds we saw were 3cy+, with plenty of second-summers and adults although strangely, we could not find a single first-summer anywhere. This is something I've noticed in Peterborough; 2cy birds are often present throughout June and early July but slowly decrease in number, being replaced by juveniles and older birds as July progresses. Not sure why this is, but it can't all be down to inept observers!

Juveniles of argenteus (left) and michahellis (right).

Juvenile michahellis having a stretch, juvenile argenteus looking dumb.

4cy michahellis: particularly washed out bare parts on this one.

Juvenile michahellis having a drink on the Thames.

Another juv michahellis; note commenced moult in the scaps.

Pseudo-michahellis, presumably intermedius?

Rich picked out a smashing juvenile Mediterranean Gull (probably the freshest I've ever seen) while, earlier in the morning, I cottoned on to harsh 'kir-iick' of an adult Sandwich Tern as it bombed westwards upriver - had there been a breath of wind, I imagine it would have sneaked by unnoticed. We also had a few locally-ringed Herring Gulls, and a juvenile gull complete with yellow ring. Hopefully report back on this later in the week, as we're a little confused right now.

Leaving the sights and smells of Rainham behind, we headed over the Thames (via a snarled up Dartford Crossing) to Crayford. Very few gulls here, so we continued west to Cross Ness. Again, it was very quiet along the foreshore on the rising tide, with entertainment being provided by four Black-tailed Godwits and at least six Common Sandpipers. After scoring a McDonald's, it was back towards birdless West London for a sleepy afternoon in the sun.

Weekend, 16th-17th

My weekend has actually been reasonably productive. Woke up quite early on Saturday and found out the Little Bittern at Stocker's Lake had been seen again. As the site is only 16 miles from my house, I had no reason not to head over. In short, views were alright (but mainly obscured), though certainly not digiscopable during my visit. Wanting to catch the second half of the Wales rugby match, I headed home for around midday - only to hear the boys lose in injury time. Gutted! Three good performances this weekend from the home nations though; the gap is certainly closing between us and the Southern Hemisphere powerhouses.

For the afternoon, I headed over to east London meet up with Rich. Scored his two Egyptian Geese on Greenland Dock en route to his flat, then we were off to Cross Ness. This hybrid Ruddy x Common Shelduck was one of the first birds seen; it's been around a week or so now but this was the first time it has been seen on the south side of the Thames:

Otherwise the visit was dominated (as is often the case) by gull action. I picked up a first-summer Little Gull daintily picking at the water surface off the incinerator outfall, where there were also three first-summer Mediterranean Gulls floating around, each in different stages of moult.

First-summer Little Gull; just a bit of black speckling around the head.

The best of three 2cy Med Gulls.

Heading back towards the car, we picked up four Yellow-legged Gulls on the mudflats (tide way out). Three gorgeous first-summers are portrayed below; it was nice to get my eye back in with this age class after an enjoyable stint back on Peterborough's rubbish dumps last summer.

Same bird in the two shots above. Note how f*cked the coverts are, although the rest of the bird isn't much better. This individual shows off quite nicely how some 1st-s michs can be look almost reminiscent of Great Black-headed Gull - at least in the face - look at those lovely white eyelids, long bill and mask around the eye etc.

A streaky-headed (and generally mucky) 2cy. Presumably from Portugal (emphasis on presumably).

Another mucky bird with a cleaner head, but rather dark 3rd-generation feathers coming through in the mantle, and dark greater covert bar. Look how much that (and the tertials) contrast with the very clean, very white undertail and rump.

This morning, I headed back to the bittern in the hope of improved views in sunnier conditions. The bird was in view for the majority of the time I was there (07:30-10:30 or so), although almost always obscured by reeds. Saw it in flight a few times too today which was nice; it proved pretty mobile and got hacked off with the local Moorhens more than once. Best of a bad bunch of shots below.