A few birds starting to move locally

That's another weekend gone, and there has been a little bit more happening locally here in southeast London. I was trying to summon up ideas to get out into the countryside, but unless you're into flowers and the like, this time of year is best to just put in the hours locally and save up the effort for when things start moving later on.

And there are quite a lot of scruffy looking gulls here at the moment to keep me busy. Week nights have been spent going through them in Rotherhithe, mainly as they chill out on the moored barges by Greenland Quay. And then today and yesterday, I walked around the O2 Arena to the area of mud at the end that's exposed at low tide; yesterday lots of gulls but nothing of interest and then today, very different - 5 Yellow-legged Gulls (near adult, three 2nd-summers and a 1st-summer) plus a couple of NTGG rings and a new scheme too on a Lesser Black-backed Gull that I'm awaiting details on. There were also two Reed Warblers singing in the reeds by Antony Gormley's Quantum Cloud sculpture.

near adult Yellow-legged Gull Greenwich, London 28th June 2015 - same bird in both above photos; note the dark on the primary-coverts, reduced mirrors and dull yellow legs

2nd-summer Yellow-legged Gull Greenwich, London 28th June 2015

1st-summer Yellow-legged Gull Greenwich, London 28th June 2015

On Friday, I also added a new ringing scheme to Rotherhithe - a yellow ringed 2nd-summer Herring Gull ending in 'B' that'll have been ringed by the East Anglia Gull Group, most likely at Milton Tip near Cambridge (still awaiting details though).

2nd-summer Herring Gull Rotherhithe, London 26th June 2015 - 5V0B, ringed by the East Anglia Gull Group

Back to normality (with a few gulls thrown in)

I thought I'd post something today. Not because I went to Norfolk and saw the Citril Finch like most; for once I could sit back and relax having seen the Fair Isle bird. Though I did at one point nearly set off for it. Glad I didn't though, as I had a nice little spell on the river by my flat in Rotherhithe this evening - the first Yellow-legged Gull of the year, 4 NTGG ringed Herring Gulls (including a 2nd-winter that had been to France and back) and four Swallows through too.

1st-winter Yellow-legged Gull Rotherhithe, London 10th May 2015

Earlier today, I spent a fair bit of time at Crossness where it was absolutely dead. In fact, it was even worse than last week's Bank Holiday Monday and that was bad. When you're talking about Oystercatcher as the best wader of the day, enough said. However, after getting married last weekend and the build up to it, I must admit that it is nice to have a bit of time again to throw away seeing nothing around London.

1st-winter Herring Gull M0KT - ringed at Pitsea, Essex on 27th September 2014 and then seen at London Bridge on 19th April 2015; present in Rotherhithe on 4th and 10th May 2015.

1st-winter Herring Gull M7MT - ringed at Pitsea, Essex on 21st March 2015 and present in Rotherhithe on 26th April and 10th May 2015.

Motley Crew in Croatia

Anyone like Yellow-legged Gulls? Well, if you don't then I'd advise you to look away now. Even if you do, there are a fair few scraggy characters here that may put you off your dinner. All are 2nd calendar year birds that I photographed at Zadar, Croatia last week when I was there for a few days of chillout with Karen. A lovely place by the way, but some of the gulls were truly minging as you'll see. Real variation in these birds moult wise - some looking absolutely screwed with dropped primaries, secondaries and tertials while some fairly retarded moult wise.

Rather pale underwing (what's left of its wing!)

Saved the best til last... a rather ill-looking bird with an extremely long, parallel-sided bill. Difficult to do much with this bird plumage wise to suggest exactly what it is, as I imagine some people may be surprised to label it as a Yl Gull

Rotherhithe today

There's always something rewarding about seeing stuff out of the ordinary in such an urban, birdless hinterland such as Rotherhithe. And predictably, if you're not looking through the gulls or ducks in the winter, you'll see nothing. So that's why I only rarely venture away from the waterside at this time of year. With only a limited amount of free time today, I stuck to the Thames and had a couple of Yellow-legged Gulls - a third-winter and a brief second-winter.

Third-winter Yellow-legged Gull chilling on the mud by the Hilton Hotel - same bird as I saw on my birthday 3 weeks ago.

Trying to boss the show... until the GBBGs turned up.

2nd-winter Yellow-legged Gull bombing upriver; a different bird to the two last Sunday. Again note the lack of any mirror on P10

And that's another weekend over and back to the birding abyss until next Saturday morning.

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

Birthday gulling

Sorry if you thought that I'd been to Killybegs, judging by the title. But unfortunately the hordes of white-winged gulls in the north and the west will have to wait a few weeks... but I'll be there for sure, in what seems to be a bumper year for wingers given the recent dearth over the last couple of winters.

But back to today. I had a lie in of sorts, jolly well deserved given it was my birthday. Just as I'd got up and about, John A called to say that Kittiwakes were on the move at Crossness; he'd had 6 west (upriver and in my direction) in half an hour. So I got ready and walked the 100 metres or so to Greenland Pier. Predictably nada in the Kittiwake scores (I've only ever had a couple here) but a 3rd-winter Yellow-legged Gull - complete with its blood red orbital ring - was at home on one of the groynes by the Thames Clipper stop. It felt like a truly urban gull, and the first one of the year here in Rotherhithe (had a couple - different birds - at the back end of 2011).

3rd-winter Yellow-legged Gull

Mooched around, had a nice brunch at a restaurant locally, read a couple of Black-headed Gull rings (the Belgian bird from 28th December was still around, along with some BTO rings), photographed some common stuff to pass the time and that was that. Another weekend gone.

1st-winter Common Gull