Yellow-legged Gull heaven in southeast London

Since the last update, I've tried to get myself out locally as much as possible. It's a good time of year here in Rotherhithe and it seems also in Greenwich. That is, if gulls are your thing. With quite a few non-birding commitments last weekend, I decided to spend the time I had at Greenwich by the O2 - and along with several ringed gulls, on the Saturday there were eight Yellow-legged Gulls (a near-adult, two 1st-summers and five juveniles) and on Sunday even more - 13 birds (two near-adults, a 1st-summer and ten or so juveniles).

juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls Greenwich, London 11th and 12th July 2015

The working week was more hectic than it needed to be given it was the last full week of term; however on Tuesday evening the first Yellow-legged Gull - with yellow legs - in Rotherhithe this year was on the mud by the Hilton Hotel. The next evening there was a juvenile there too, along with an adult Common Gull.

sub-adult Yellow-legged Gull Rotherhithe, London 14th July 2015

And on to yesterday, Saturday. What is evident now is the upsurge in local juvenile gulls - the mud by the O2 yesterday morning held four juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls, but they were now outnumbered by juvenile Herring Gulls (along with a couple of typically dusky juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gulls).

juvenile Yellow-legged Gull Greenwich, London 18th July 2015

Back in Rotherhithe, a bit of bread chucking on the River Thames near my flat produced the results quickly - a Norwegian white ringed Black-headed Gull and then two juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls.

juvenile Yellow-legged Gull Rotherhithe, London 18th July 2015

adult Black-headed Gull Rotherhithe, London 18th July 2015; ringed as a chick in Oslo, Norway in August 2011 and not seen since then

So that's that. I'll be heading off to Dungeness shortly for another session of gulls by the fishing boats with Mick S and Richard S...

Gulls at Getlini, Riga, Latvia 4th and 5th April

Saturday and Sunday were spent in Latvia. Getlini Eko (landfill site) near Riga to be precise. And with Mick S, we had two really excellent days of getting to know the gulls of the Baltic. It's a really easy trip to do, with the dump being less than half an hour away from the airport and even less from the city centre where there are loads of hotels and pints of beer for just over a euro! One thing is for sure, I'll be returning to Getlini sooner rather than later.

It's the first trip this far east for gulls that I've done in Europe, so the primary targets of the trip were to look at omissus-type Herring Gulls (those ones with yellow legs, and a bit less black in the primaries, often referred to as Marsh Gulls) as well as enjoy some more Caspian Gulls - as they're always a treat - plus whatever else came along. One thing's for sure, it has quickly got me up to speed (as much as you can do) on Lesser Black-backed races - understanding how perhaps you'd struggle identifying an out-of-range graellsii with the prospect of heuglini (and vice versa) and how can you be certain what you're looking at is a heuglini anyway? There you have it, a minefield.

The highlight for me though was finding a ringed Baltic Gull i.e. a nominate fuscus - and doing the detective work of reading the metal ring. Still awaiting the finer detail, but with a look like this and a ring inscribed 'Riksmuseum Stockholm' it's definitely in the zone: -

adult Baltic Gull metal ringed in Sweden 8113504 - just waiting for the exact location...

Added to this, here is a brief summary the gulls noted over the two days: -
Caspian Gull at least ten birds noted; a third-winter and a second-winter, with all the rest first-winters. A couple of suspect individuals noted, including a Lithuanian ringed bird, that presumably had some Herring Gull influence. Just a couple of shots for starters on this post.

first-winter Caspian Gulls, Getlini Eko

Herring Gull extremely common, with the majority of birds being omissus-type, yellow legged birds. There were some very bright legged birds, and some pink-legged birds presumably from further north and west. Birds typically showed a nice white tip to P10, a subterminal band to P9 and either a small band or broken band on P5 with no black at all on P4 - what I was expecting which is always nice. Four ringed birds - two from Lithuania, one from Latvia and one from Finland.

adult omissus-type Herring Gulls, Getlini Eko

Lesser Black-backed Gull a handful seen; three adults of which two looked good candidates for nominate fuscus while another looked very graellsii-like despite the range so perhaps it's either this or heuglini (though the mirrors aren't ideal for a'classic' of the latter).

Great Black-backed Gull two birds seen, an adult and a first-winter.

Common Gull small numbers seen with perhaps fifteen to twenty birds present.

Black-headed Gull the commonest gull, and with a few rings about, very interesting to look through. Rings from Germany, Denmark, Latvia, two from Poland and most interesting of all from Northern Ireland!

Black-headed Gull 2AFD, Getlini Eko - ringed at Ballymena, County Antrim on 12th February 2014 and present there this winter until as recently as 22nd March 2015. Only the second ever bird from this scheme to be recorded outside of the UK; shows that a good proportion of our wintering Black-headed Gulls breed further east

Also, this leucistic gull, or potentially albinistic, was present too. The size of a Herring Gull, its slim and long bill does give a slight cachinnans feel. However, all white birds don't really give you much to go on especially when bare part colouration in these freak birds has no resemblance to what it would be like in normally pigmented birds.

gull sp., Getlini Eko

There'll be a few more photos to come once I get the time to do a bit of polishing off.

Well, we did also try to access the coast for something slightly different, but had little luck in tracking much down - just a Great Grey Shrike on wires over a typically boggy area at Mangalsalas. We could have seen what many would term 'real' birds, including Pygmy and Ural Owls, plus some decent woodpeckers, but we didn't bother. Oh yeah, and on the Sunday, three of these guys were enjoying the dump alongside the gulls...

White Stork, Getlini Eko

3cy Black-headed Gull

It's not uncommon to identify Med Gulls in their 2nd-winter in the field on the basis of their obvious dark primary markings. However, I've not exactly been calling every 2nd-winter Black-headed Gull that I see as such. But they're pretty doable so long as you get a good view. And when you've got one in the hand that's certainly the case. Photos from last Saturday at the tip.

slightly dark-tipped bill compared to adults in the same catch; less extensive summer plumage on head compared to most adults. However, this feature possibly more moult timing rather than age related? Though a recent Dutch Birding article on long-lived B-h Gulls suggested that lack of full summer plumage could also be a feature of senility.

Note the subtle black markings in the primary coverts as well as the obvious black mark on the alula

Very obvious dark markings in secondaries as well as the inner webs of the inner primaries

Probably nothing special here for you ringers, but for a field birder like me it's always good to see these things close up. Looking forward to the last catch of the season this coming Saturday!

Last cach of the season?

Back on the tip today, in rather balmy conditions - well, at least I could feel my hands throughout the morning! It took a long time for the large gulls to come in, although by late morning/early afternoon a couple of 1st-winter Caspian Gulls showed up. I found this bird that in the end showed nicely: -

Nice contrast in colouration between the secondaries and coverts.

Black terminal band on the tail contrasting well with the relatively unbarred uppertail.

Finely barred axillaries. This is at the darker end of Casps on the underwing-coverts though.

Still looking nice and full bellied, despite looking slick otherwise in this alert posture. The good old spindly legs show up well here too.

Quite a sturdy individual with knackered greater-coverts and scapulars moulting through. Retained tertials still nicely dark though looking predictably worn at the tips.

There was also another individual, that showed less well but still gave some decent views as it fed in amongst the other gulls: -

Good to see them this late on in the winter, and as you can see both birds looked pretty knackered plumage wise. Meanwhile, there were a handful of Med Gulls around (as well as a couple of Yellow-legged Gulls) that added a bit of fun to the Black-headed Gull monotony.

adult Med Gull in the feeding frenzy

It took a while to get the single catch of birds, but thanks to the compactor drivers, a haul of 419 birds were ringed by the NTGG. This included a couple of Common Gulls and more Lesser Black-backed Gulls than the last time (as they're now starting to move through), as well as lots of Herring and Black-headed Gulls. Once again, I ringed a few birds, got the opportunity to see the gulls up close and personal and had a really good time.

More on these little chaps at some other point

Garbage gulls

Back on the tip again today, once again really enjoyable and got more involved than the last time. An adult Med Gull soared around early on as we were setting up - shame it didn't end up in our catch as I'd loved to have seen one close up. But here it is flying around.

We did a couple of catches, mainly Herrings today with a fair few of those real brutes - GBBGs. Nice to see them in the hand like this: -

Being obvious and pretty much monotypic, you don't really look too hard at GBBGs - but good to see a spread wing 

2cy GBBG with its new bling

 And also one of the birds in the nets was a Norwegian control, just like this bird that I managed to ring read as it chilled out on one of the mounds: -

adult GBBG 'JH413'; ringed at Mandar, Vest-Agder, Norway on 3rd June 2011 and last reported in Norway on 19th August 2011.

I had a go at a bit of bird handling, and now used to Black-headed Gulls. They're pretty meagre really, and only give you a quick nip even if they're going at you full throttle.

3cy Black-headed Gull - note the retained dark feathering on the primary-coverts

And then I just about managed to deal with the a bit of large gull action. I was glad that I didn't venture any bigger than Herring Gulls, as there was a fair bit of blood being drawn by those GBBGs...

Once the ringing had finished, I headed back to the south [best] side of the river, and spent the last  couple of hours of light unsuccessfully looking for a Bittern at Crossness. Another decent day locally.

Russian ring recovery

Had a really quick response to the colour-ringed Black-headed Gull I saw on New Year's day. The bird was ringed as a chick at Sosnovaya Polyana, St. Petersburg, Russia, on 10th June 2010 and its ringer, Dmitrijs Boiko, stated this was the first recovery of this bird since it was ringed. 1,280 miles from Crossness - Excellent stuff!

1,280 miles from St.Petersburg, Russia to Crossness, London

A Russian 3rd calendar year (just!!) Black-headed Gull

This is my first Russian-ringed Black-headed Gull I've had to date, but it's no surprise really considering a lot of the Thames winter gulls seem to push in from Eastern Europe and the Baltic states.

Also, two Lesser Black-backed Gulls (UL0T and GN6T) from New Year's day were much more typical - birds from the NTGG, with 1 from Rainham and 1 from Pitsea.

Crossness casp & colour-ringed ridibundus

Happy New Year by the way. I headed out just shy of 8 this morning to Crossness, and it was another one of those grim, grey mornings that made the Thames foreshore that bit more depressing that it often is. That is, until John A received a call from Dave Mo the other side of the river to say that there were a couple of Dark-bellied Brents sat on the mud in Barking Bay. Nice they were too, and a result for the day. While watching these birds, I scanned the near line of gulls - where there'd been a couple of 1st-winter Yellow-leggeds when I arrived - and there bang in the centre of my scope was a quality adult Caspian Gull, complete with the oft-quoted beady eye, rounded forehead and pale tongue to the underside of p10. At 9.40am, was this the first cachinnans of the year on British turf?

Caspo El Clasico. Almost as good to watch as Barcelona?

John A and I then had a mooch around Southmere, Thamesmead, where I found this bad boy, sporting a bit of bling. Seems like it's come to get us from Russia with Love... well, Latvia to be accurate. I reckon it's pretty nailed on from this ringing scheme.

presumed Latvian-ringed Black-headed Gull

South paddock was crap, although a Buzzard was half decent, and then we headed back to the river where the two Brents had flown a lot closer.

A check of the protected area and the paddocks produced nothing of real interest. Then the heavens opened, as the weather people had predicted, so I headed home with a sodden coat. Some things never change. Will I ever learn to go birding in suitable attire?

More Rings

More rings, but not on the bills this time. Patchwork was slow this morning, so I resorted to doing a few slow donuts around the roosting BHGs in Tesco car park as I spotted a couple of ringed individuals. Since getting my DSLR earlier this year, one of its main uses is looking at detail you just can't pick up in the field. And for metal ringed BHGs, it comes into its own.

The bad boy above shows a nice piece of bling on its right ankle. So, in the past, I'd have put in my notebook something such as 'including an individual metal ringed on its lower right tarsus'. Well, with a bit of papping at all angles it's now possible to get these sly old dogs nailed. The tell tale 'SW7' tells you that it's a British-ringed bird (the British Natural History Museum is located in Kensington SW7). I managed to get the full ring number off it too.

However, one of the other BHGs has had me head scratching. Again a metal ringed bird, this time on its lower left tarsus. I've got its complete ring number and after a bit of sleuthing, think it's a Belgian-ringed bird (check out this one for a comparison).

you can just make out 'SSELS'; presumably the BRU are just out of show

And I did break things up a bit on the gull front, well sort of. There was no sign of the Med Gull at Burgess Park and, on the way to Cross Ness, I took in a drake Mandarin en-route at Brookmill Park, Lewisham. Cross Ness was dead, apart from the usuals including a load of Teal and Dunlin. And there were few gulls at Crayford.

Mandarin with no bling

So I turned back to Rotherhithe and spent the last couple of hours mooching around Russia Dock Woodland, where I recorded my first Kingfisher of the winter on the patch. Normally there is just one around so I was pretty made up with a 2nd bird at Norway Dock late afternoon. Little else apart from a couple of Goldcrests and a flock of c.50 House Sparrows.

Rotherhithe regulars

Between the 50 or so books that I had to mark today, I did manage to squeeze in a bit of local larid action. It wasn't as if I was targetting this genus, it's just the way it goes around here. It's basically gulls or bust, except when there's a freeze up, and especially on a day like today when there was little point looking for passers in Russia Dock Woodland due to the wind.

Black-headed Gull, Greenland Dock

Herring Gull, Greenland Dock

Basically, I saw very little - and even went to King George V dock on the other side of the river for a quick look. Had a pleasant time in the blustery conditions, taking shots of the commoner species, and got frustrated with a red-ringed 1cy Herring that just wouldn't play ball for detailed ring reading (presumably a Rainham/Pitsea bird). The aythya flock up to c.50 now, though still pretty poor given it's almost December but a sign of the mild conditions to date. All pretty mundane stuff, especially with the news of Gary Speed. Had a nice McFlurry on the way home to round things off.

Common Gull, Greenland Dock

Wish you were here? Yep, I do... but a shame it was just one of the many sails on the boats on Greenland Dock just outside my flat this a'noon.