Albert Village Lake, 20th & 25th Feb, 2015

Longer days means more time to play on the way home from work, and a couple of visits to my new found playground were squeezed into the end of the month. Fewer gulls were present that in January, but the totals were still quite satisfactory.

On 20th there was an adult and a 2cy Casp on the bank across the road on arrival, and later I found a 3cy on the lake (which then showed up in a flight shot from the original bank! photo above). Later on that afternoon a big flush of the all the gulls on site resulted in a brief flight view of the recent 4cy Glauc too.

Five days later there were fewer gulls again, but the spotty-mantled 3cy Casp showed on the lake again, followed by the dirty-headed 2cy from back in January! A second 3cy was seen only briefly preening on the far bank before being flushed by a dog. Half a dozen michs were seen both days too.

Seaton Carew, 13th & 19th Feb 2015

Two visits to Teesside in two weeks meant two visits to North Gare and the adjacent Seaton Meadows landfill, and on each lunchtime foray I was rewarded with two juv Glaucs. However there were three birds involved, as the dark, almost chocolate juv seen on 13th was not one of the two more typical birds seen on 19th.

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

Albert Village Lake, 28th Jan 2015

near-adult Caspian

Having recently realised I drive within about 8 miles of this excellent gulling spot most weeks, I decided to take advantage of a relatively early finish at work, and swung in on the off chance. I was greeted by the sight of at least 600 gulls gleaming in the sunshine on the lake, and hanging in the icy wind between there and the tip.

distant adult Caspian

I managed to find a handy gorse bush to nestle in, and on the first scan I picked up 2 adult Caspian Gulls amongst the hordes of LBBs, followed soon after by a dirty 2cy nice and close in. Nearby, a stunning near-adult made an appearance, the classic P10 held high above the water for all to see! A large bird with a large head could have been a big male Casp, but a glimpse of the primaries revealed a small P10 mirror and not much in the way of tongues, suggesting some Herring influence? A third good adult Casp appeared later, followed by a gleaming 2cy which soon took off and flew to the far side of the lake to mess about with the Black-heads, joining a third 2cy! That brought the total to a marvellous 7 Caspian Gulls, outnumbering the 6+ michs! Amazing stuff, reckon I'll be back...

dirty 2cy Caspian

two more 2cy Caspians

apparent ad hybrid Caspian x Herring?

Rufforth & Alne tips, 19th Jan 2015

Flock after flock of large gulls streamed in from roost on arrival, but despite a good drive around, there weren't any in the fields yet. A bit of imagination soon yielded good views of the birds on the tip itself, and immediately a big white gull flew over and away - a leucistic GBB, quite possibly the Norwegian ringed bird seen on and off over the previous months. A good trawl through the birds on the tip, virtually all Herrings, eventually produced a smart ad Glauc.

Just up the road, a short detour took me to Alne tip where c500 gulls harboured a 2cy Caspian Gull, just a shame the views were so poor.

The following day, after filling the hours with Tundra Beans and Little Auks, squeezed in a visit to the impressive North Shields Fish Quay, where the big juv Glauc was loafing on a roof.

Priorslee Lake, 5th Jan 2015

A free hour mid afternoon saw me back at the lake, with c450 large gulls on arrival that later swelled to 1000+ after an influx from the tip. The species composition was fairly typical, roughly 800 LBBs, 200 Herrings and 5 michs (3 ads & 2 2cy), but there were also 72 GBBs, an impressive count. One or two oddities kept the interest going in the absence of anything better, including a 3cy argentatus with big P10 mirrors - said to represent less than 5% according to Gibbins et al.

Finally, the highlight of the day appeared: a superb candidate ad AMERICAN HERRING GULL! Big and gangly with a pale grey mantle similar in tone to nearby argenteus, it was the head and breast streaking that really caught the eye. Seemingly made up of finer, browner markings over the head and neck, the streaks merged into blobs and blotches on the breast sides and across the upper nape, where it resembled the smooth brown colouration of younger smithsonianus. There was a denser patch of streaking around the eye as well, accentuating the staring whitish-yellow iris. The snout was paler, leading into a long and parallel bill with a small gonys, with a pinkish basal 2/3 and yellow tip, the red spot confined to the lower mandible and a black mark running across both. The wings were long with an obvious long white tip to P10, and on some views a sugggestion of a whitish tongue too. The final feature in favour of the ID was the apparent isolated dark mark in the centre of a tertial. Unfortunately however, any clinching details in the primary pattern remained hidden, and I had to leave before I saw it flap or preen (two small children in the car and another needing to be picked up from the cinema!).

So whilst looking the part and ticking several boxes, it will never be possible to confirm the ID.

Telford, December 2014

A handful of opportunities to get out gulling in Shropshire presented themselves during the month, resulting in a few Casps amongst the throng to bring up the year's tally.
On 10th I called in at Priorslee Lake on the way home from work to find a 2cy Caspian Gull and 4 michs (3 ads & 3cy) amongst c800 LBBs including the white leucistic bird.

A brief check of Candles on 19th resulted in c200 large gulls, a good total by recent standards, and one of the first birds I looked at was a stunning 1cy hybrid Caspian Gull. Elsewhere in the flock was an elegant 2cy Caspian Gull.

On 30th I tried Candles and Horsehay but both were deserted, so I headed to Priorslee to find c600 gulls on the ice including a third 2cy Caspian Gull and 4 ad michs. Unfortunately the Casp didn't linger for Dawn & Pete or for Jim, and as turnover dropped off I headed home via Candles again, and amongst only c50 gulls was a stunning 1cy Casp. It immediately walked out of sight, but a few glimpses were all that was needed of such a distinctive individual.