Candles, 26th & 28th Feb 2014

Ice Ice Caspo...

After weeks away from the local gulls, decided to take a detour on the way to a family lunch, giving me a mere 40 minutes at the tip. Fortunately a big flock was loafing in a viewable field, unfortunately they weren't close. But none of that mattered when the first scan picked up a snoozing 3cy Iceland and nearby a preening ad Iceland! The former turned out to be the bird seen recently in Worcester and then briefly at Belvide, the latter has been around for a week or so, seen at the crematorium and roosting at Belvide. A third white winger in the flock was a more familiar face - the leucistic LBB.

3cy and adult Icelands

But the fun wasn't just restricted to wingers, with a remarkable 3 Casps present: a sleeping adult that on a brief wakening looked like the crematorium bird from 3rd Feb; the poorly marked 2cy from 27th Jan; and a smart new 3cy that I'd like to see better...

3cy Caspian

Another quick look on 28th turned up 1,000+ big gulls on the tip itself, including both Icelands seen in flight, but nothing stood still for long.

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)

Horsehay and Candles, 6th Feb 2014

Back from work and straight to the crematorium, but not many gulls! A 2w mich was the best I could muster, but then it became apparent the nearby Granville tip was closed. So a hop across town, and a glance at Horsehay Pool in the rain, and for once there were gulls to look at. A couple of big flushes off the tip meant birds kept turning over, and it wasn't long before the gleaming white head of a smart 2w Caspian Gull materialised amongst the bathing gulls. Unfortunately it lingered for less than two minutes before heading back towards the tip, but was followed by a couple of shiny ad michs before everything was put up by a heron.

very white underwing and a cheeky P10 mirror

I moved to the field opposite the tip, and amongst c600 large it was disappointing not to get more views of the cach, but a different 2w caught my eye. Oddly young-looking, with a mainly brown mantle of plain scaps with dark centres, and a nice Glaucy bill, it rang a few smithish bells, but the underparts and head were a bit pale. Eventually it flew, and a bit of video revealed a good dark tail and well-barred rump, so who knows?

Granville, 3rd Feb 2014

With only an hour free this afternoon, it was disappointing to see Candles deserted, Horsehay nearly so and Priorslee typically dead. So it all came down to the crematorium, across the fields from Granville landfill, and a sea of gulls greeted me. A very high proportion of LBBs was nice to see, and after a big flush, a cracking ad Caspian Gull appeared amongst the first gulls to resettle. After a little while it was joined by an ad mich, and despite a bit of a display, the mich ignored it.

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.

Candles and Granville, 27th Jan 2014

After far too long away from the gulls (aside from a brief look at an impressive 2,400 large on the Buildwas floods on 13th which included the 1w Casp again and 6 michs (2 ads, 4cy, 3cy, 2 2cy)), it was time for a proper look for once. Unfortunately the River Severn has dropped and the floods have receded, meaning there is no reason for the gulls to use Buildwas any more, and even the tip itself was quiet. A steady trickle of gulls overhead, however, led me to a flock of c700 in a random grassy field nearby, but after only a couple of quick scans something spooked them and they dispersed. A single ad mich was my only reward.
Deciding on a drive around, I checked Horsehay and Priorslee but both were gull-free, and so I decided to drive down to Granville on the off chance. An adult Glauc had roosted at Belvide last night, which would have been nice. The sight of several hundred gulls greeted me, but an attempt at gaining permission to watch them was denied. A bit of sniffing around nearby fields followed, and I soon came across c1,200 large gulls loafing in a couple of fields by the crematorium off the A5. They were close, but views were tricky through the hedges, and it never quite felt like everything could be checked.

Eventually however a smart character materialised at the front of the flock - a new 2cy Caspian Gull. A nice bird, but there was something just not quite right about the head, and the greater coverts were a little more barred than you might like. However nothing put it outside the boundaries of what we increasingly realise to be a variable beast, just like all other large gulls. The silvery scaps with fine brown anchors, the worn brown coverts and tertials, the clean white underparts and hanging belly, and the long slender bill with a paler base all fitted the model, and a brief flight (alas captured only on my iPhone) revealed a perfect tail and an underwing that was certainly pale.

Buildwas and Candles, 3rd Jan 2014

Delicious but distant - "field views photos"

More time had passed than intended since my last visit to the local tip, but that's Christmas for you. During the intervening time it had rained seemingly continually, and so as I hurried down the Severn valley, expansive floods opened out on my right, and I had a sudden sense of deja vu, back to this day exactly a year ago. Just like then, c300 large gulls were loafing opposite Buildwas, and amongst them was a Caspian! This time though it was a stonking 1st-winter with a gleaming white head and long skinny bill. Superb. After a few minutes the flock was flushed by nearby shots, and swirled north, towards the tip.

Up the hill there were only c300 gulls on the tip in the wind, but they included a super-smart ad mich and the recent "poor man's Ivory Gull" -a pure white leucistic LBBG. First time I'd seen it, and it was a belter. Later on the Casp appeared, but never settled. It looked fantastic in flight, pot-bellied and long-necked with dazzling underwings, and added itself to the list of such birds that made me wish I had a DSLR over my shoulder...

Another go the following day was frustrating, but the tip produced 3 michs (ad, nr-ad and 2cy).