Recent update from the Thames

It has been a long time since I did an update, mainly because despite being out and about at weekends and checking the Rotherhithe gulls occasionally during the week, the typical late May and June big city birding (and working) has taken its toll. Very, very slow despite continuing to spend money on the loaves. I have had a few mild highlights during the period to punctuate the birding boredom, but predictably it has been a little quiet.

I guess the highlights though would be a rather diminutive 1st-summer Caspian Gull that spent a couple of hours on the mud by the O2 in Greenwich on 30th May and a brief juvenile Iceland Gull with Jamie P at Thames Barrier Park on 4th June - he got the shots as he was, as usual, quicker off the mark than me!

1st-summer Caspian Gull Greenwich O2, London 30th May 2017

Yellow-legged Gulls have been about in Greenwich and Thames Barrier Park on a relatively regular basis, with the numbers starting to creep up and new individuals coming and going with a bit of passage. Mainly first and particularly second-summers: -

2nd-summer Yellow-legged Gull Thames Barrier Park, London 29th May 2017

2nd-summer Yellow-legged Gull Thames Barrier Park, London 29th May 2017

2nd-summer Yellow-legged Gull Thames Barrier Park, London 4th June 2017

1st-summer Yellow-legged Gull Thames Barrier Park, London 24th June 2017

Other than that, not a lot to say really apart from the rings continued a little bit including the following: -

adult Lesser Black-backed Gull 'VU' Greenwich 1st June 2017 - ringed in Bristol in 1997

1st-summer Herring Gull '659' Rotherhithe 11th June 2017 - ringed in Portland Harbour, Dorset 11th August 2016

Looking forward to July which will kick off with juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls soon enough...