Bonby, 17th July 2013

P1-3 new, P4 growing (with black subterminal spot), P5 missing

The heat-wave continues, making gulling virtually impossible after about 7am! A huge number of birds in the usual field this morning held at least 8 michs: 3 adults, a near-adult, a 4cy, 2 3cy and a 2cy. Who knows how many are actually there - the viewing is restricted to say the least.

Bonby, 10th July 2013

Despite hundreds of large gulls using the fields and floods during the spring, it was struggle to pull anything out of any interest. Come July, the start of the traditional gulling season, the first scan of the first group yielded a smart adult mich! That was the first of probably 6 birds: 3 adults, a 4cy, and 2 3cy. No juvs yet.

Things were made easier by the blanket of cloud that sat across the eastern fringe, keeping the light nice and the temperatures (and heat-haze) down. Grey tones were easy to distinguish, and a striking black back on one of the floods stood out a mile. The fact that it was dinky added to the fuscus feel, and a wing-stretch revealed brown coverts mixed into an otherwise adult-looking bird, aging it as a 3cy. But being so advanced is perhaps not quite good enough to consider it proven, and the active primary moult maybe suggests intermedius rather than fuscus... Close, but as always the official line is that it needs to be ringed.

The feeding flock showed nicely in the evening after the tractors had finished, and amongst a couple of michs was another mid-grey mantle but attached to a gleaming white body and small head with a beady eye, snouty colourless bill, and long greyish legs - a 3cy Caspian Gull. Nice.
Back in the home county, and with recent news that LBBs have bred this year for only the second time, the flock of c400 at Candles held a freshly fledged juv! As well as 3 michs (ad, 3cy, 2cy).

Candles, 11th June 2013

Despite having fully intended to keep an eye on things at the tip during the spring, work and life got in the way, and it suddenly became ten weeks since my last visit. A bit of free time coincided with a drizzly grey sky today, and a quick lunchtime check yielded a surprising count of c500 LBBs, feeding only yards from the visitors' car park. It wasn't long before the first dark grey mantle appeared, but the odd jizz cried hybrid, presumably a Herring x LBB. There were however at least 5 genuine Yellow-legged Gulls: an adult or near-adult with a few dark specks on the lesser coverts; a 4cy with a dark-centred tertial; 2 smart 3cy, one with more grey wing coverts than the other; and a square-headed 2cy. Along with at least 6 Herrings, it was a very pleasing haul - I must keep on it.

Bonby, 23rd May 2013

It's getting inevitably quieter on the gulling front, with the only highlight over the past few weeks being a new 3cy Med Gull on a visit to the home county's first breeding birds.

But a return to Bonby this week revealed yet more slurry-spreading in the field on the wolds, and 1,000+ big gulls commuting between there and the still flooded carrs. The flock was roughly divided 4:1 in favour of Herrings over LBBs, and at least 75% were 2cy birds. After several thorough checks, an early morning visit finally turned up the goods with a big 2cy Caspian Gull, all worn and messy as expected.

Elsham, 17th April 2013

A good day of spring gulling nearly got forgotten amongst a busy couple of weeks at work, but a few checks of the gull fields on the Lincolnshire Wolds back on 17th April, I got the set!

Despite a constant stream of mainly Herring Gulls SW all day, there were still c1500 settled in the fields, and late morning I came across another 2cy Caspian Gull, making a least 4 different individuals through here in the last few weeks.

Lunchtime down on the carrs produced another few hundred gulls sleeping it off, and a 2cy Glaucous Gull had joined them.

Finally, back up on the wolds before I left in the afternoon, and a 2cy Iceland Gull made a brief appearance before heading off into the wind. All very nice.
Back home, there was something naggingly familiar about the Casp, and looking through previous photos, I reckon its been here before - 4 months ago! Certainly very similar...

Bonby, 8th April 2013

As I was passing, I couldn't resist another quick look at the gull fields, but they were deserted. The floods still held a small flock though, last week's throngs having apparently taken advantage of the fine weather at the weekend to migrate. More large gulls dropped in, and amongst them was the third 2cy Caspian Gull in eight days - lovely!

Bonby, 1st and 3rd April 2013

A much better few days in Lincs was still devoid of summer migrants but the continuing easterly wind seemed to be dissuading the gulls from leaving, and a remarkable 4,500 smalls were still feeding on the wolds and loafing on the carrs. The first look produced a mucky-faced 2cy (female?) Caspian Gull amongst the hordes.

There were also plenty of Meds, with 3 on Monday (adult, 2cy and white-ringed 4cy 35L6 with black marks in the outer primaries), and 5 on Wednesday (same as above along with a pair of adults, one of which was green-ringed but code not read). A very brief 2cy Iceland on Wednesday may well have been the bird from February.

Back on home turf it was hard to find anything amongst the gulls at Candles on 4th except for a dinky presumed intermedius.