Weekend of London gulls

The furthest I ventured from home this weekend was just a few miles. Winter is here for sure, and the birding in London continues to be hard work. That's the summary. And with no easterlies, so no fresh wave of Caspian Gulls, it was a relatively quiet time. Which was a shame considering Niall K was back in London town, and a couple of young birders Samuel and Elliot joined the Thames Barrier Park late afternoon Saturday party.

So yesterday, the highlight was an adult winter Mediterranean Gull that was present at Thames Barrier Park briefly mid morning. There were, though, c.10 Yellow-legged Gulls about - evenly split between Thames Barrier Park and the O2. Other interesting bits about were a presumed adult hybrid Herring x Lesser Black-backed Gull at the O2 (that superficially resembled a Yellow-legged Gull), a 2nd-winter bird possibly emanating from Germany and then an adult and juvenile argentatus. But no Casp...

sub-adult Yellow-legged Gull Greenwich O2, London 11th November 2017

2nd-winter Yellow-legged Gull Thames Barrier Park, London 11th November 2017

And today, again there was no Caspian Gull. But that wasn't a surprise given that Dante and I spent most of it looking at small gulls on ponds, away from the Thames. And it did have its rewards, at Wanstead in partcular, where there was a 2nd-winter Mediterranean Gull, three Norwegian colour-ringed Common Gulls (all returnees, including one at least 22 years old) and a German metal-ringed Black-headed Gull.

2nd-winter Mediterranean Gull Wanstead, London 12th November 2017

adult Common Gull J9R5 Wanstead, London 12th November 2017 - ringed as an adult at Byparken, Bergen, Hordaland, Norway on 9.7.1998, with colour ring attached there on 26.7.2011; seen there in Aug 2011, April 2012, June to Aug 2015, July 2016 and then Wanstead Flats 27.12.2016, 29.12.2016 and finally by me on 22.1.2017

adult Common Gull JZ66 Wanstead, London 12th November 2017 - ringed as a 1st-winter at Hovindammen, Valle Hovin, Oslo, Norway on 16.9.2015, seen at Wanstead Flats on 19.3.2016, back at Hovindammen, Oslo, Norway 8.7.2016 to 19.9.2016 (1146km distance from where ringed) and then by me at Wanstead on 22.1.2017

adult Common Gull J8M4 Wanstead, London 12th November 2017 - ringed as an adult at Myrå, Randaberg, Rogaland, Norway on 01.08 2015, seen at Wanstead on 25.10.2015 then back at Myrå, Randaberg, Rogaland, Norway 8.7.2016, 12.7.2016 and 23.7.2016 and again by me at Wanstead on 22.1.2017

Thames Barrier Park was really poor, with just an adult Yellow-legged Gull. So it was back to Rotherhithe where there were actually quite a lot of large gulls, about 150 in total, which included a couple of Yellow-legged Gulls - a 1st-winter and a 2nd-winter.

Last stop of the day was Burgess Park, where the annually returning Med Gull hadn't returned - not too late yet, but one of these years it won't appear.