1cy Yellow-legged Gull

I'm a strong believer that Yellow-legged Gulls are one of the most misidentified species to occur in Britain and Ireland away from their strongholds in the southeast, even above species such as Black Kite and Honey Buzzard. Regularly we read about large (double-figure) counts across much of the country in winter gull roosts, but should they really be that common through the winter away from the southeast?

Well, based upon my experience, probably not. Although it may be because of our geographical location in north Cambridgeshire, we tend to get as many Caspian Gulls in winter than Yellow-leggeds - i.e., not many. Away from the southeast, Yellow-legged Gulls are a bird of the summer, with the highest counts coming from June/July through to September, with numbers tailing off after that as they drift off south as winter advances. As I'm lucky to see one Yellow-legged Gull in the winter at Dogsthorpe, I do find it baffling when you see reports of 5, 10 or more from north Midlands reservoirs or the northwest. Perhaps I'm just not looking for michs in the winter but, in all honesty, it must be for a different reason - alot of these birds are being misidentified.

But the issue of Yellow-legged Gull misidentification is that it isn't exclusive to winter - it is happening right now, as I type this. Probably the most-commonly misidentified age class at the moment are this year's offspring, the 1cy birds. There seems to be a great number of people about at the moment who are simply re-writing juvenile gull identification. In the past week I have seen various sites/blogs/pages littered with juvenile Lesser Black-backed (and even Great Black-backed) Gulls that have been wrongly labelled as Yellow-legged Gulls. Many of these images depict fresh, heavily marked and darkish looking birds which, for anyone who truly knows 1cy Yellow-legged Gulls well will testify, is not the case with these birds by mid-August. Instead, Yellow-legged Gulls (as they were born and fledged perhaps a month or more earlier than British-breeding large gulls) are well into their moult to first-winter plumage right now. They are particularly striking, and are already much paler than they were a month or so ago. Claiming fresh juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls right now is fraught with danger as the vast majority of birds are well into their moult. The classic example I use is of this bird, photographed by Dick Newell in late August some years ago:
http://www.magikbirds.com/image.asp?title_id=811&show_thumbnails=True

To compare, here is a 'real' juvenile Yellow-legged Gull from over a month ago - note how pale it already was by mid-July:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKOj0i6vND0xTnUV5lxZHodkDB9uocysmtkYQizPYm8mw6wKNkKGeRARsHhTEvPOpeESAw_mO_vD_yAdTgvPy4wnjuv7mrZ1umwXNmGqjkeXxqqa7hHBNiHpviMk_ZYbw8PJ9vHIIFr-pI/s1600/YLG_14_7_11_3.jpg

And below is a 1cy bird I had today at Dogsthorpe Tip. Although not as advanced as the very striking bird in Dick's photos above, it clearly illustrates what people should be looking for in a 'juvenile' Yellow-legged Gull in mid to late August - a bird that, for all intents and purposes, looks more like a first-winter than a true juvenile. Note the extensive scapular moult with lots of second-generation scaps with the classic dark anchor shape on them, note how the head and underparts have already become so pale that they are predominately white, and also note the undertail - virtually lacking any dark markings/barring so typical of juvenile Lesser Black-backed and Herring Gulls. The coverts on this bird below are also still in pretty good condition; alot of michahellis right now have much more worn-looking coverts:




Although there is admittedly considerable variation in large white-headed gulls (and I concede some michs won't be quite so advanced right now), I would hope these thoughts are worth pondering before claiming the next juvenile Yellow-legged Gull. Any 1cy bird that still looks fresh at this time of year simply won't be a michahellis, and thus likely a Lesser Black-back.

I'm off on holiday for a couple of weeks around Europe and will be returning on 8th September. See you all then for more larid action, I guess.

More Caspian Gulls, 22nd August

The only real success I seem to be having in local birding currently is on the tips and pits east of Peterborough, scouring the large gulls for a bit of cachinnans action. No gulls at Dogsthorpe today due to disturbance (perhaps the falconers had been back). Tanholt however was bustling, and there was plenty of turnover on the pit by the footpath - all in all, must have been 750 or so large gulls. Despite this, Mike Weedon, Will Bowell and I couldn't pick up anything amongst the birds regularly coming to bathe on the pit. So we headed round to the tip, where I soon picked up a couple of Caspian Gulls - the 2cy bird below, and a brief adult:



Views weren't exactly ideal on the tip today, viewing through the fence with alot of heat haze (as you can probably tell from the above). So we were pretty delighted when most of the gulls were flushed off the tip and ended up flying back on to the pit. Needless to say, the 2cy Caspian showed very well for a few minutes:




No sign of the adult though; guess it was still on the tip. The only other gull of note was this 2cy Yellow-legged, looking slightly odd and dumpy without fully-grown primaries:




I've now had 4 Caspian Gulls in Peterborough in the past week. They are evidently on the move.

Juvenile Caspian still

The juvenile Caspian Gull was still at Dogsthorpe Tip this afternoon, although was quite flighty and soon drifted off over the tip and out of view. A couple more images from today; still not quite got the shots I'm after:




Not alot else going on at Dogsthorpe - a lack of tipping to blame, as is tradition on Saturday afternoons. So I headed round to Tanholt, where the new tip was full of gulls (500+). The only thing I could muster however was this already pale and rather advanced 1st-winter Yellow-legged Gull (excuse shit shot):

Another slice of the cachinnans pie

Returned to Dogsthorpe Tip today with John Saunders in an attempt to relocate yesterday's juvenile Caspian Gull and hopefully show him the ropes with a few immature YLGs. The weather was very disappointing, being cold and rainy throughout the three hours I spent on site. Nevertheless, within an hour I had located another Caspian Gull - this one being a massive 3cy bird looking for all intents and purposes like a 3rd-winter. However, it was still moulting it's primaries and one or two other bits looked like they were yet to be replaced. Big, bulky bird with a huge conk - must be a male:






In the third (open wing) shot you can also see the white spot on the old P10 feather - a classic feature of 2nd-winter Caspian Gull if any confirmation was really needed.
In addition to this, yesterday's juvenile dropped back in mid-afternoon for 10 minutes or so allowing John some nice views to compare the bird to the surrounding juvenile Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, as well as the couple of juvenile/1st-winter Yellow-legged Gulls we had observed earlier.

Despite the rain, a most rewarding afternoon.

Juvenile Caspian Gull

Fresh juvenile Caspian Gulls are a pretty rare sight in Britain - most 1cy birds appear a little later on when they have undertaken quite a bit of moult. Today (17th), I had a stunning juvenile at my local gull mecca of Dogsthorpe Tip, Cambridgeshire. I've put a few photos below - click for larger versions:






I think this is probably only the second juvenile I've seen, and definitely the freshest. Even at such a young age, a juvenile Caspian Gull is a wonderfully striking beast, as the images above illustrate.
In addition to the obvious structural features - ridiculously long legs, long parallel bill and long body giving a gangly, rangey appearance - the plumage is most striking. At rest, the remarkably pale (white) underparts are immediately apparent, particularly when viewed head-on. The tertials are plain and dark. In the final image (a composite of several videograbs), the underwing and upperwing patterns can be seen - unlike other juvenile gulls, the underwing is virtually white, even this early in the season. Note also the pale window in the inner primaries. The upperwing has a distinct and striking dark secondary bar. Although it can't be seen well, the tail possesses a dark and sharply-demarcated black band at the tip, although is predominately otherwise white with very limited flecking.

Brilliant bird!

Turkey in late July...

... is incredibly hot, sweaty and hard work. It appears that by the second half of July, alot of birds (for example Upcher's and Olive-tree Warblers were notable in their absence) have already cleared out. However, I had twenty new WP birds; the highlight a magnificent family of Brown Fish Owls watched at point-blank range for an hour or so. A few photographs below:







Adult Brown Fish Owl (pics 1 & 2), juvenile Pallid Scops Owl, juvenile Iraq Babbler and a gaggle of Armenian Gulls.

Caspian Gull, 22nd July

Had my first Caspian Gull of the summer today; a lovely (near-)adult that appeared for a few minutes on the 'ridge' at Dogsthorpe Tip before all gulls were flushed and it was lost to view once more... hence the rubbish photos below:




Also at 'The Dog' were six Yellow-legged Gulls (adult, 2 third-summers, 3 juveniles) though birds very difficult to view today and I suspect there were plenty more than this. There were also 5 michs in about 500 gulls at Tanholt, including the second-summer below:

Juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls

I had five juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls in the Peterborough area today (four at Dogsthorpe, one at Tanholt), making it the most common age-class of the day. I guess more and more will appear as the month wears on. The only other michs seen today were the Caspian-like 1st-summer (from last week) again at Dogsthorpe, and an adult at Tanholt.
A couple of juveniles are illustrated in the images below:

Back on the tip, 12th July

I had an hour spare this afternoon, so headed to my favourite of all birding locations - Dogsthorpe Tip. A fair selection of gulls were present; probably c.500 or so on the tip, but only about half of that on view. Amongst the 'large' were four Yellow-legged Gulls (2 adults, 2 juveniles). Adult:


... and juvenile (note scapular moult already commencing):



However, my highlight of the day (they usually are when they look this good) was this adult Mediterranean Gull, which dropped in with a group of LBBs:


I'll be back on the tip with more time later in the week.

Quail, 11th July

I hear quail most years, either locally or somewhere in the UK when on my travels. Until yesterday evening, I had never seen one in this country - most of the local birds I hear are usually miles away in the middle of agricultural fields, and often after dark. So, spurred on by local reports of at least one Quail singing (and apparently even showing) near Ryhall, I decided to go and check it out last night.

I arrived at around 17:45, and spent a fruitless half an hour listening for birds singing up and down the road. Eventually, a male Quail started singing at around 18:15 in the same spot as one was heard and seen on Saturday evening. I rang Will Bowell to let him know, and he soon joined me. Over the next hour or so, two males were heard singing in the near corner of a pea field. Perhaps spurred on by one another, their song became louder and more regular after 19:15 and, eventually, Will picked up one bird sat out in the field edge singing.

Even abroad I have only seen Quail scurrying or flying for cover. It was a truly wonderful experience to be able to watch this bird singing and feeding just 20 metres away along a furrow, and finally appreciate the fantastic intricacy of their subtly-beautiful plumage. I was even fortunate enough to take a few half-decent images:





A really special moment that will stay with me for a long time...