Another close up look at a YLG in Rotherhithe

Came back from a day out, and checked 'the beach' just by the Hilton Hotel in Rotherhithe early evening. There was a nice 3rd-summer Yellow-legged Gull amongst the usuals, while the first local juvenile Lesser Black-backed were around too. Rotherhithe must be one of the best places to get decent views of Yellow-legged Gulls in Britain and it's surprising nobody else has decided to come down to have a look. Ever.

The following shots illustrate the active primary moult of this individual - the outer primaries (P7 to P10) are old retained feathers, while the new inner primaries are grey in colour (P1 and P2 are grown, P3 half grown and P4 can just be seen coming through) with P5 and P6 fully dropped. The old P10 shows a small mirror while there also seems to be active moult within the tail feathers (that retain some dark blotching). Some nice info on Yellow-legged Gulls here, especially when it comes to ageing.

London is the best place in Britain for...

Yellow-legged Gulls. The last few days of June, and then particularly throughout July, sees a build up of these birds along the Thames foreshore as they head north from further south in Europe. There are normally a few floating about any month of the year, but midsummer is the best time to see real numbers - including some rather smart juveniles such as the one below.

Juvenile Yellow-legged Gull Crossness 14th July 2012

There were 7 YLGs present on the foreshore this afternoon at Crossness. This included two juveniles - beating the paultry total of one juvenile Black-headed Gull in amongst the 1000 or so of them. Evidently breeding success has been horrific with the high water levels.

Living in a stone's throw of Stratford and Greenwich, it seems that the Olympic twattery has started with Olympic lanes, construction traffic and notifications to avoid areas meaning it took me almost an hour to get from Rotherhithe to Crossness today. Just as well I won't be here for the carnage when it actually starts as it's going to be a nightmare for London's population.

Caspian Gull in Rotherhithe

I spent most of the day doing some bits on my dissertation (don't ask, but it's as much fun as a dose of chlamydia (presumably)), though admittedly this was interspersed with a bit of river inspection. Trying to dodge the mid morning showers, low tide didn't reveal many gulls on the foreshore largely due to some ring piece and their dog scurrying around the usual larid haunt. Common Terns were pretty vocal around the flat today, but all adults and no sign of any young around here this year unfortunately.

Then to this evening, and with some lovely sunshine, I walked the couple of hundred yards to the river and found this distant 2nd-summer Caspian Gull on the river at the bottom of Rope Street, just west of Greenland Pier - a real surprise.

Round-headed profile with pixel thin dark eye, off pink legs, nice extensively dark based retained tertials and rather bleached coverts. Hope you can see all this from this photo!

Long, spindly legs pretty evident here despite the poor photo quality

Distance, poor light are the excuses... the centre of the underwing was nice and pale, there was a decent retained bar on the secondaries while even on this really poor photo you can just about make out a pale mirror to P10

It wasn't one for pictures as the barges at the moment are on the other side

of the river. However, I tried a few ways of getting decent images (including the video cam option) but none of them worked! I got a couple of flight shots, but with the flash going off due to poor light, they lacked the detail I'd usually get. I was pretty happy with this individual though, and as with the last and only Caspian Gull I found in Rotherhithe, it was pretty much on its own large gull wise. If you want to have a look at some better photos of 2nd-summer Casps click here!

A (little) bit of movement

It was pretty encouraging news from Rainham yesterday, where there were a whopping 7 Wood Sands on Aveley Pool. Having not been able to get out to Crossness since last weekend, I was out there early this morning schlepping it to West Paddock to check the flood. And, er, there was a Redshank and 3 Lapwings wader wise there plus an elusive Little Egret. All this rain just means no muddy margins, and the grass has grown too high to be able to see some areas! However, back on the foreshore some wader movement was evident - 8 Black-tailed Godwits still in summer kit, glowing in the sun. Though they all looked very nice, this early on in the season surely means they're breeding failed.

Icelandic Black-tailed Godwit, Crossness July 2012

Heading back to Rotherhithe as there was little else of note, the tide was good for gulls at what I call 'the beach' - an area of mud/sand on the bend by The Hilton Hotel, directly opposite Canary Wharf. Large gulls gather here, and offer close views so ring reading is easy, and just occasionally the odd Yellow-legged Gull decides to join the party. Like today... with this adult as well as a more distant 2nd-summer.

Yellow-legged Gull, Rotherhithe July 2012

Yellow-legged Gull, Rotherhithe July 2012

Startop's Sabine's

News filtered out today of a 1st-summer Sabine's Gull at Startop's End Reservoir, one of the water bodies near Tring. Naturally, being a lover of this pelagic species and the opportunity to see one up close, I was on it like a fly on shit. Setting off from southeast London early evening, the rush hour was kind to me and I arrived on site shortly before 7.30pm.

1st-summer Sabine's Gull - note the black bill (with a tiny bit of yellow noticeable on the upper mandible at close range), partial hood and dark nape and smallish white primary tips compared to an adult

In rather overcast conditions, it was initially looking pretty average perched mid reservoir before flying closer. It had been doing this for most of the afternoon apparently, but armed with my trusty bread (I always have a loaf of pikey bread in the car as you never know when your next set of gulls need feeding), it really did get amongst it...

I must admit, I couldn't remember precisely the last Sabine's Gull I'd seen inland - as it transpires, a quick thumb through the notes reveals I saw a couple back in 2005, an adult at Grafham and a juvenile at Chew but neither of these were close. So tonight's experience was the first time I've been able to see this species up close and personal. Impressive in a very different way to the hordes I've seen over the years on seawatches on the Irish west coast.

I left the site at 8.50pm, with the bird roosting on one of the artificial islands. Enjoyed the bird in good company, with Paul H and Jake E.

Birding boredom

It's a painstaking post this one. I keep kicking myself as I really should have gone away in my spring half-term... but rest assured, I won't be making that mistake again. I have been birding, or at least trying to pull something out of the bag, here in this London birding abyss of late June/early July. And what have I seen since my last post - 3 Egyptian Geese and a ringed Herring Gull in Rotherhithe. The Common Terns have predictably abandoned nesting this year due to the appalling weather, having been flooded out from their nesting platforms on Surrey Water.

Even Crossness failed to deliver anything special, with the regular Med Gulls seemingly abandoning ship and no Thames seabird despite the blustery weather. Bar a single Curlew, one of those hybrid Shelducks still lingering and large numbers of Black-headed Gulls, the notebook was pretty empty as I managed to miss John A's 1st-summer Little Gull on West Paddock, due to my inability to get out of bed anytime before late.

Black-headed Gull Crossness, May 2012

So it's been a virtual birding week for me through the net - looking at various photos from Alaskan voyages or Australian pelagics etc etc, as well as trying to gen up on my west coast US trip in the next few weeks - so it will soon be my time again to see some birds. Thank God.

A London Gannet

Bizarrely John A and I had been talking about a Gannet at Crossness this morning, as one had been seen over Surrey yesterday evening. Anyway, as it was, one ended up on East Warwick Reservoir, one of the Walthamstow reservoirs. Only 10 miles away from Rotherhithe, it was too good to miss and bizarrely I'd never seen one of these big boys inland either. A really enjoyable trip, with Karen even quite enjoying seeing it, and a bizarre sight too seeing it amongst Canada Geese and soaring above the London skyline. Looks like it's a 3rd calendar year bird (2nd-summer).

Not that sure what this bird's fate will be sadly, but fingers crossed. Perhaps it's just disoriented, much like the Yellow-nosed Albatross a few years ago that, after being photographed on a pond in Lincolnshire, managed to find the open seas again in Sweden.