Rufforth, 2nd March 2015

Well this wasn't a species I thought I'd be writing about again any time soon, and certainly not at another inland English location... 

Monday 2nd March was a bitterly cold but sunny day with wintry showers rattling through on a brisk westerly at work near Goole, but by early afternoon I was finished and heading north. I'd promised myself a stop at Rufforth but on arrival there were no gulls in the fields on the bypass, and none along the B1224 either. Even the tip looked a bit quiet on first impressions, but as I pulled into the airfield, a few hundred large gulls were on the runway, so I settled down to watch them from the comfort of my car.

One of the first birds I looked at was a first-winter Caspian Gull, followed by a big beefy 'northern' Argentatus with milky brown primaries. Another pale-winged bird caught my eye, having some of the jizz of an Iceland-type, but the coverts looked oddly bleached and the mantle contrastingly dark, and thoughts quickly turned to mixed genes. There were suggestions of Kumlien's there, but I never saw the spread wing as it suddenly disappeared, so who knows. A few birds further along was a second-winter Iceland Gull, presumably the bird that's been present for a few weeks, but good to see nonetheless.

With an impressive tally of gulls already on the daylist, I moved around to the other side of the airfield, where I bumped into local guller Chris Gomersall. Soon afterwards one of the light aircraft trundled out from the hangars, which we hoped might just shuffle things a little, but in fact it cleared the airfield of gulls! I settled on watching a few hundred birds in the adjacent sheepfield whilst Chris headed off, and after a while a distinctive head caught my eye. All the gulls were head-on, facing me and the wind, so it was difficult to see plumage details, but this striking bird, with a large-looking dark eye in a rounded head, and a fairly small, pinkish-based bill, made me stop in my tracks. The breast and belly were the colour of the stone-cold latte next to me, and undeniably smooth, American smooth in fact. I flirted with the outrageous suggestion of Thayer's Gull, but I'd been here before, and I'd not even seen its wings yet!

I stuck with it as it snoozed behind other birds, or drank from the puddle in the field, and gradually it revealed itself to me. The greater coverts formed a muddy bar with finely marked tips, whilst the lesser and median coverts were intricately marked and quite unlike the surrounding Herrings. The mantle and scaps were a bit messy, and details were hard to see, but the tertials were fractionally darker than the greater coverts, with broad, lacy white tips. The primaries were the darkest part of the closed wing, but they weren't black, and on occasion I could see creamy chevrons at the tips. Maybe my first instinct wasn't quite so outrageous, but how to prove it, my phone-scoped images were awful given the light and distance.

I knew that I needed to see it fly, but it looked pretty settled, and even if they did take off, they'd fly straight at me, not the best angle to view primary patterns... Sure enough, when something disturbed the flock, the bird lifted and I just snapped away, hoping for the best. They came down again and I flicked through the images on my phone. There was a suggestion of a silvery underwing and dark tips to the undersides of the outer primaries, but it'd be tricky to prove it wasn't photographic effect, and there was nothing of the tail.

Then the flock flew again, and this time poured over the trees and onto the airfield! I repositioned myself and scanned through the ranks of gulls, now closer and lined up side-on ready for inspection. Nothing. I scanned again, trying not to get too buffeted by the wind, and suddenly there it was, right on the front edge of the flock. I snapped away, and it flew a short distance to join a group of Herring Gulls, but that was all I needed. It was a Thayer's Gull, and a belter! The outer five primaries had dark outer webs flicking back around the tips like the clichéd Nike tick, whilst the inner primaries were paler with dark spots at the tips. The secondaries formed a smooth dark bar, as dark as the outer primaries, and the underwing was beautifully silvered. The tail was largely dark and smooth, and the rump and uppertail coverts were heavily barred.

I was straight on the phone to Stu at RBA to tell him that lightning can indeed strike twice, and the news was out. I tweeted a few images to comfort the doubters, and settled back to enjoy it. Minutes later however, a dog-walker appeared, and the flock flew, this time failing to resettle, and the few rapid-response twitchers failed to connect. It was reported by a single observer the next day, but not since.

Twice in one lifetime... bonkers!

Rufforth, 12th Feb 2015

Following a blank visit after work the previous week, I arrived early afternoon with a couple of hours free, and started with the large loafing flock by the bypass at Knapton. The first bird to catch the eye amongst the throng of Herrings was a dark-mantled 2cy with fairly plain scaps with simple anchors, and a whitish head with parallel dark bill - some cachinnans genes in there maybe?

A couple of northern argentatus types kept me entertained for a while, and then a striking adult-type gull walked through my scope, immediately ringing Casp bells. Mantle tone was good, the legs were long and colourless, the head small, white and rounded, and the eye looked dark on first impressions. The visible underside of P10 didn't immediately look great, and without a view of the spread wing it was never seen properly, but a narrow black bar across the long white tip, and a tongue peeping out on some views, were all within range. In addition, a broad black band could be seen across both webs of P5. On better views, the iris was seen to be dark yellow-amber, the orbital ring was red, and whilst the bill wasn't particularly long, it was narrow and lacking much of a gonys.

All in all, it looked ok for a Caspian Gull, but the most significant feature was perhaps the orange ring on its left leg: ZV5T. On reading the code, I had a sense of deja vu: orange rings aren't what you expect on a Casp, but that code sounded familiar... a quick Google search and it all came back to me - I'd seen this bird before, at Kirkby-on-Bain landfill site in Lincs in September 2012 as a 2cy! It had been ringed by the North Thames Gull Group at Pitsea in October 2011, as a Caspian Gull. A bit of correspondence with Paul Hawkins and more details emerged - following my sighting in 2012, it was seen a couple of times at Skegness in August 2013, then in November and December 2014 it was at Terschelling, Netherlands, being last recorded there on 30th Dec, only six weeks before appearing at Knapton!

A big flush of the field meant it was time to move to the airfield itself, and whilst masses of gulls milled around above the tip, another huge flock took off from the nearby field and began swirling about overhead. I chance scan upwards immediately produced the recent adult Kumlien's Gull, the neat grey markings on the outer webs of P8-10 visible, and some tiny indistinct grey markings in the outer primary tips too. Surprisingly there were also gulls in the field behind the airfield (it always amazes me how many gulls you get at Rufforth), and after a few minutes the Kumlien's dropped in, one of closest birds too! It's at the more subtle end of the spectrum, but the markings are there!

Endless scans through the thousands of gulls that were dropping in failed to produce much new, but eventually a big smart 2cy Caspian Gull appeared, and then it was time for me to go.

Yet again, given some time, the mighty Rufforth tip produced a fine selection of good gulls, but there are always more out there... this showed up half an hour after I left!

2cy smithsonianus by Tim Jones

Campbeltown, 18th March 2014

3 wingers in one pic

Another month, another long drive down the Mull of Kintyre after getting rained off site. No smiths this time, and still no Glaucs, but a haul of 2 Kumlien's (same 4cy and juv as last time) and 5 Icelands (ad, 2 3cy and 2 juvs) wasn't to be sniffed at. Happy days.

ad Iceland - crisp

4cy Kumlien's showing off (note the LBBGs in the background - signs of spring)

Campbeltown and Machrihanish, 18th-21st Feb 2014

Mid Feb I was offered a bit of work in Argyll, and with the influx of gulls along the country's western fringe still going on, I thought it would be rude to turn it down. Unfortunately however, work on Scottish uplands in winter can be fraught with weather problems...

3cy Iceland Kilmichael

Day 1 and the visibility was less than ideal on the tops, so we were off down the Mull of Kintyre at a rate of knots! A few days before had seen the discovery by local man Eddie Maguire of a belting 2cy smiths in the harbour at Campbeltown, and we were keen to see it. The Tayinloan Lesser Snows passed by in a blue and white blur, and after checking a few beaches we were at the extensive Kilmichael floods. First scan: 3cy Iceland Gull amongst a handful of Herrings - good start. Then it was down to the harbour to grip ourselves off with views of the pier the smiths had been photographed on, young Herrings showing down to a few yards...

2cy Kumlien's Drumlemble

With half the peninsula covered in floods and slurried fields, gulls were everywhere, so we headed west towards Machrihanish, and were soon savouring a bulky but subtly marked juv Kumlien's Gull in a field at Drumlemble - last month's bird after a three week absence?! Our attention was briefly diverted from the gulls by an impressive flock of 1,320 Greenland Whitefronts at East Chiscan that were accompanied by 500 Greylags, 19 Barnies, 2 Pinks and a surprise Todd's Canada. Talk about underwatched.

3cy Iceland East Backs

The gulls led us back through the lanes towards the airport, and at East Backs Farm we came across the 3cy Iceland Gull again, but on closer inspection the darker coverts and more bicoloured bill revealed it to be a different bird. And in a year when Icelands have been relatively scarce. A shuffle in the flock, and another winger appeared in front of us - a bulky but demure 4cy Kumlien's Gull! Tricky to be sure on the deck, but in flight Dan managed to capture the spread wing, with nice dark markings on the outer 3 or 4 primaries. Nice.

4cy Kumlien's East Backs

4cy Kumlien's East Backs (Dan Brown)

From there it was back along the Machrihanish road, just in case, and another flock of gulls drew us down the track at Bruntholme. We both immediately picked up a remarkable looking bird which rang all the bells of a 4cy American Herring Gull! Big and bulky, it had an amazing smooth brown shawl that extended onto the breast sides, and the rest of the underparts were sullied brown too. The mantle shade looked pale in comparison to the surrounding argenteus, and the wings were relatively immature for a bird of this age, plenty of young-looking brown coverts and a few lower tertials showing fairly solid brown internal markings. The tail still had a lot of black in it, and when the bird flew, irregular dark markings could be seen in the secondaries as well as a broad black band on P5 - all good features. But does it as usual remain unprovable? The ideal candidate might show darker greater coverts and even more (blacker) markings in the secondaries and tertials, but where do you draw the line on smithsonianus?! And this year, in this place...

possible 4cy AHG Bruntholme

possible 4cy AHG Bruntholme (Dan Brown)

The 19th was workable up on the hill, and the 20th started off that way too, so I was forced to sit and watch Golden Eagles mating before taking a walk where a flock of 5 Blackcocks flew over my head. But we made our way back past the roadside Lesser Snow Geese after lunch, and were back in the land of floods and gulls by 3.30pm. The magic didn't happen this time, and we failed in our primary aim of getting better views and images of the swarthy 4cy. The Machrihanish juv Kumlien's came to bread in the bay, and the original 3cy Iceland put in an appearance in a field just outside Campbeltown before roosting in the harbour. A final hour email from Eddie to say the smiths had been back was a real gutter, and despite grilling everything under the floodlights, we left empty-handed again.

2cy Kumlien's Machrihanish

The 21st was our last day, and would you believe it, at dawn the mountains were shrouded in cloud yet again! We hit Campbeltown harbout early, but gull numbers seemed low, and we were soon off to the floods. First field after the 30 limit roadsign, c20 gulls in it, probably worth a scan... First bird, almost naked eye, 2cy AMERICAN HERRING GULL! And what a bird:

2cy AHG Campbeltown

2cy AHG Campbeltown

2cy AHG Campbeltown

2cy AHG Campbeltown

2cy AHG and 3cy Iceland Kilmichael

Job done. Still felt we should check everything one more time though, but no new gulls could be located. The floods at Kilmichael were even bigger, and late morning held 300+ large gulls, so had to be worth a look. The pale 3cy Iceland was present, and for a little while loafed alongside the sleeping smiths! But time was ticking, and the 405 mile drive home wasn't getting any shorter, so we made a move.
How many birds get overlooked down there in what is clearly a superb piece of habitat is anyone's guess, and it's very tempting to get back down there a bit more often. But what really amazed me was that there had apparently been 2 (maybe 3?) American Herring Gulls there in the space of a fortnight whilst there were none (at the time) anywhere else. I'd tried to match Eddie's bird with Dan's from earlier in the month but they looked quite different... until the most recent photo from the harbour came out, and it all fell into place:

2cy AHG Campbeltown (Eddie Maguire; insets Dan Brown)

Rufforth, 30th Jan 2014

Following the veritable gullfest at York's mega tip earlier in the week, I couldn't resist a trip up after work elsewhere in the county. I arrived to hear that the infamous airfield, where the views are so good, had been subject to disturbance all morning, and as a result the many thousands of gulls were spread over various fields, as well as the tip itself. But there was good news too - the 4cy Kumlien's Gull was on show straight away. Very nice to get in on this winter's influx. A dinky ad Glauc made an appearance as well, followed by a very pale 2cy Viking Gull. Not bad.