Local birding heals the wounds

It's been a week or so since I last posted. The week just gone has been a hard one, as completely unavoidable work commitments meant that I missed what could be my only chance of a White-throated Needletail in Britain - the first bird I've missed (that I feasibly could have seen) for over a decade.

Right, the less said about that the better and time to try and move on. Locally, it has been predictably quiet although the female Long-tailed Duck lingers on, having transferred back onto Canada Water a couple of days ago. Three ringed Herring Gulls have come from different schemes - Suffolk, Sussex and the NTGG - and a Mute Swan I saw this morning seems to have been ringed in Derbyshire or Yorkshire.

This morning, I had a good walk around Crossness, and compared to last weekend, it felt just a tad bit more dynamic. There were a thousand or so Black-headed Gulls, including five juveniles (my first of the year), while adult and 1st-summer Mediterranean Gulls were subtly roosting in amongst them. Three Yellow-legged Gulls (two 2nd-summers and a 1st-summer) were an increase too.

adult and 1st-summer Mediterranean Gulls, Crossness 30th June 2013