Classic Casp at Crossness

Another blustery day, and after the usual mooch around Rotherhithe and a quick check of Greenwich Creek, arrived at Crossness shortly after 9am. John A had located a pretty decent Casp candidate that had drifted downriver and, a short while later, I located presumably the same bird just gliding nice and relaxed over the outfall. The views were dire to start, but even head on the gauky big bill and small eye combined with a dock off white P10 tip suggested this would be the real deal. And it was, with no bling compared to yesterday, and a new individual for the year (close to the bird on 1st-2nd Jan in appearance): -

What you'd expect on the deck... both structurally and also the large amount of white in the primaries

Note the rather narrow, slightly broken band to P5

That's what a pale tongue to P10 looks like! Check out the right wing.

This adult lingered for an hour or so this morning, drifting between the outfall and round the bend to the west beyond the lighthouse. There was also a 2nd-winter Yellow-legged Gull around but with the tide high, I headed off to Thamesmere. Despite people looking during the week with a blank, I refound the female Ferruginous Duck in the reeds and alerted John, Ian and Steve. It was elusive and, still not feeling great, didn't want to be messed around by a grubby duck so didn't linger too long. From what I saw, it had more of a subterminal band near the bill base than I remembered/noted last Sunday. However, John later suggested to me that it wasn't too pronounced and that a wing stretch - revealing an extensive wing bar almost the length of the wing - was decent enough.

I had a bit of chilling out at Canada Water when I got back to Rotherhithe, enjoying this punk: -

Then I headed back home and on the Thames late a'noon, managed to find a couple of 2nd-winter Yellow-legged Gulls in amongst the large gulls that often congregate here on Sundays due to the lack of tipping. Note the lack of a mirror to P10 in both birds,  with bird 1 a lot more retarded in moult, iris colour and bare parts than bird 2: -

Bird 1

Bird 2

Bird 2 on the deck