My first Slovakian Caspian Gull amongst other things

I started out relatively early from Rotherhithe, in the rancid early November gloom. With a sniff of southeasterly and such a poor autumn here in the east, I thought I'd give it one final push. So headed to the Kent coast, specifically the White Cliffs NT near Dover and then walked down to Langdon Hole. It's a site I always fancy, and never really delivers for me. And it was like that today with a few hours this morning producing a Continental Coal Tit (in Langdon Hole) as the highlight, plus a Bullfinch and a load of Goldcrests. The drizzle kept any viz mig at bay, save a few Redwings that headed west. And that was that, so time to head to Dunge and the gulls for the rest of the day.

Having met up with Mick and Richard at the usual lunch spot for a well deserved bit of stodge, we headed out to the fishing boats early afternoon. There was a bit of a roost, so we started scanning where Mick picked out a suspiciously Caspian-like head in amongst the flock. A great call, and after a bit of re-positioning to get a better angle, I lifted my bins and said rather excitably 'it has got a white ring' (expletives deleted). Now for those not in the know, a white ring on a Caspian Gull is something really special! We're used to red rings (Poland), orange rings (the odd one ringed at Pitsea in the past), yellow rings (German mutants, Ukraine and Poland) and green rings (older German mutants and Poland) but a Caspian Gull with a white ring I knew was going to be a new scheme for me. And I knew that it'd either be from Serbia or Slovakia. And with a code 265:S it was a Slovakian beauty...

Slovakian-ringed sub-adult Caspian Gull (265:S) Dungeness, Kent 4th November 2017

It didn't like the loaves, and resisted being fed throughout our time with it. And so we left it in peace as it roosted up between the fish hut and the fishing boats. A second-winter Yellow-legged Gull joined it, and a different second-winter Yellow-legged Gull was on the beach a bit later too. Along with this guy, a first-winter Caspian Gull: -

1st-winter Caspian Gull Dungeness, Kent 4th November 2017

I might as well post this here too, as I didn't post it up during the week. But I managed to get in on the Hawfinch action on Tuesday (31st October), when three flew over school at 7.10am. It was a good morning for thrushes moving over London, and the Hawfinches headed up a small flock of Redwing heading west. Apparently that is what had also happened in Regent's Park too. So I was pretty chuffed, as you take moments like that being based in central London.