Candles, 1st Feb 2013

After a fruitless drive-by the day before (an adult mich at Buildwas was the best I could muster), the first day of the new month felt more promising under a cloudy sky. On arrival mid afternoon the tip was swarming with gulls, and within minutes I picked up the highlight of the day - a glorious adult Caspian Gull sporting a vivid yellow Polish darvic.

After giving me the run around, I finally managed to get some shots, and when it climbed to the top of a mound I grabbed 3.5 seconds of video before everything flew. Back home, a review of the footage produced 3 frames where the code is legible - PADZ - and a rapid response from Poland revealed that it was ringed as a pullus in the south of the country in 2009, making it a 5cy.

But the day (or mere hour as it turned out) wasn't over yet, and I soon picked up another adult Caspian with a black crescent on the bill which made it indistinguishable from the bird that we've been seeing on and off since 30th Nov 2012. Next up was a 2cy Iceland Gull picked up on just a view of its head - a coarsely marked bird but not in the primaries. Three michs were also noted, an adult and 2 3cy, and finally a third Caspian Gull -the pale-billed 2cy found by Dawn and Pete in December and seen by myself on 14th January! The overlap of dates of all these birds is amazing, and really warrants a full day some time soon...