Yellow-legged Gulls and old friends in Rotherhithe

There was quite a bit of gull movement on the river by my flat this week, especially on Tuesday and Wednesday. Post-work juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls on each day were nice, different individuals and both enjoying the daily rations of bread that I provide!
juvenile Yellow-legged Gull bird 1 - 7th July 2015

juvenile Yellow-legged Gull bird 2 - 8th July 2015

Compared to the 1st bird, note the more uniform dark tertials and greater barring on the rectrices

This evening, a 2nd-summer Herring Gull with a NTGG ring was on Greenland Dock - a bit of geeking at my spreadsheet when I got home showed that I'd seen it at Dungeness last November!

2nd-summer Herring Gull D9DT - ringed at Rainham Tip, London on 30th November 2013 and then I saw it at Dungeness on 9th November 2014. Nice to be reacquainted!

Hopefully this weekend will be another gull filled one.

Always something locally

It has been a relatively quiet week, and having had my fill of Cretzschmar's Bunting on these shores on Orkney a few years ago, local birding was the flavour. And it was quiet, but quiet isn't always a bad thing. Time to relax, soak in those messy looking larids.

Local gulls haven't been too bad, with new birds moving through. Had a peak of 18 Lesser Black-backed Gulls on Tuesday in Rotherhithe, whilst three or four Great Black-backed Gulls have been lingering about amongst the knackered looking sub-adult Herring Gulls. An afternoon and early evening at Crossness produced the first juvenile Black-headed Gull (they don't breed there, and they're completely absent from Rotherhithe this time of year) along with a load of Lapwing - presumed failed breeders - and an adult Yellow-legged Gull.

All the above sound pretty mundane, and I guess it is. But it's not that bad - everything at Rotherhithe is a walk away, and with the long evenings and work (comparatively) quiet, I'm managing a fair bit of birding time. So here are a few regulars I'm seeing at the moment...

Herring Gull M0KT (1st-summer) - ringed at Pitsea, Essex on 27 September 2014, seen London Bridge on 19 April 2015 and then in Rotherhithe on 10 May 2015, 16 May 2015, 17 May 2015, 6 June 2015, 7 June 2015, 14 June 2015 and 18 June 2015.

Herring Gull M2LT (1st-summer) - ringed at Rainham, London on 2 January 2015, then seen in Rotherhithe on 29 March 2015, 18 June 2015 and today.

Herring Gull X2DT (3rd-summer) - ringed at Rainham, London 16 November 2013 and seen by me at Pitsea, Essex on 1 February 2014 and then at Dungeness, Kent on 14th February 2014 - before turning up in Rotherhithe on 18 June 2015.

Greater Yellowlegs - a long time coming!

There wasn't a cloud in the sky as Karen and I set off to the south coast this morning. All the way down, it was one of those blue Sunday mornings that being up and about was definitely the best choice. Arriving at Titchfield Haven, it took little time to walk to the Suffern Hide and see the target bird parading around in front. Didn't expect it to be quite that easy, and with its gangly build complete with summer flank streaking and vivid yellow legs, I was pretty impressed - a very nice bird and ridiculously, 21 years since my first and only one at Rockcliffe, Cumbria in October 1994 when I was an irritating teenager (and very thankful for my Dad having driven me there).

Greater Yellowlegs Titchfield Haven, Hants 7th June 2015

Though I've seen a couple on the Azores - including one coming in from the Atlantic and landing exhausted on a rocky beach on Flores - as well as a load in the US, you can't beat a good rarity in Britain and Ireland like this. What with Med Gulls flying over and loads of Cetti's Warblers (following the first one ever here!) it was nice to be by the sea and out of a stuffy London.

Herring Gull M0KT Rotherhithe - present on both days this weekend, having been seen here regularly since 10th May and ringed at Pitsea, Essex on 27th September 2014

After a thoroughly pleasant afternoon with my parents, and as always some lovely food, it was back to Rotherhithe where a couple of ringed 1st-summer Herring Gulls were hanging out - one ringed at Rainham this January and seen here late March (but not since) and another regular bird ringed at Pitsea last September and present here since early May.

A quiet May weekend

Spring birding is always hit and miss, particularly if like me you're largely confined to weekends. Most people look outside and smile when it's sunny, but what that sun usually means in the context of my local birding is no birds. And that was the case at Crossness yesterday, where it felt like mid-June as opposed to mid-May with swifts buzzing about and the Common Terns well and truly settled in to nesting at Barking Bay. The annual build up of non-breeding gulls in Rotherhithe continued apace with about 200 Herring Gulls present yesterday, and with 3 NTGG rings there was at least something to get me going...

Two ringed Herring Gulls Greenland Dock, Rotherhithe 16th May 2015 - the 2nd-summer (left) K9HT was last here on 22nd June 2014 (having been ringed at Rainham in November 2013) while the 1st-summer (right) was ringed at Pitsea in September 2014 and has been about in Rotherhithe since 4th May 2015.

Today, I mixed it up a little and Karen and I headed out of London for the day. We walked around Rye Harbour, East Sussex which is always nice - not many birds but plenty of birders rather surprisingly. There were a couple of first-summer Spoonbills present on the flood north of Ternery Pool, with one of them ringed, while other highlights included a Cuckoo sallying from fence posts, a couple of Wheatears and a small flock of Bar-tailed Godwits. Little Terns were about in small numbers, and there were a fair few Common and Sandwich Terns, but I was left a bit cold by the lack of Mediterranean Gulls compared to a handful of years ago - just a handful seen today.

We then went to Dungeness, as much to satisfy Karen's request for a Dover Sole sandwich from The Fish Shack as my gull fix. Mid May's not exactly the best time for huge numbers, so three ringed birds (two Danish Great Black-backed and a Sussex ringed Herring) had to suffice.

1st-summer Great Black-backed Gull JZ042 Dungeness 17th May 2015 - ringed as a chick at Nordre Rønner, Læsø, Nordjylland, Denmark on 1st July 2014 then seen at Boulogne-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais, France from 2nd January to 9th February 2015, then Outreau, Pas-de-Calais, France 14th February and 14th March 2015 before being first seen at Dungeness, Kent on 25th April 2015.

Returning to Rotherhithe early evening, a couple of Swifts were about along with two NTGG Herring Gulls on the barges on the River Thames. If only the birding this weekend could have been more exciting...

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.

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

A bit of colour

I spent the day locally again, and in the bitter cold had a few bits and bobs along The Thames. The early morning highlight were 8 obliging Grey Plovers, the most I'd ever seen at Crossness.

Grey Plover on a grey day

There were a handful of Yellow-legged Gulls hanging around too, and given their individual distinctiveness, at least a 1st-winter and two 2nd-winters were some of the usual suspects. It was decent to see 20 or so Tufted Ducks over the river - evidence of a freeze up elsewhere - but John A and I were in the paddocks (where the highlight was a Stonechat!) when 3 Smew may have flown downriver, as they passed Rainham mid-morning. I also had one colour-ringed Herring Gull (probably a Suffolk bird) before I sacked it off as the tide was high and not much was moving.

A check of the local water bodies revealed a fair bit of ice, but there were 30 or so Pochard on Southmere, a 2nd-winter Yellow-legged Gull as well as a couple of larids with rings - one predictable NTGG bird and then a blue-ringed LBB Gull. It'll be interesting to find out where this bird came from as I've not had one of these before: -

Blue-ringed 2nd-winter LBBG

John A and I then headed to Crayford, and checked the area around Viridor recycling centre. There was at least one nice adult Mediterranean Gull and three ringed Herring Gulls (one NTGG bird and two from Sussex): -

Sussex-ringed Herring Gulls (white rings with black writing) are quite regular in the London area during the winter

Retarded 2cy Common Gull... an interesting bird

We headed back to Crossness, where we met up with Ian M, and saw a nice Bar-tailed Godwit in amongst a good count of 266 Blackwits on the foreshore. It appeared diminutive amongst the Blackwits, but didn't lack agression - perhaps it had a complex, just like many small men do?

A pretty unusual midwinter Barwit at Crossness

colour-ringed Blackwit - think it's from a Suffolk ringing project...

With not much else moving at Crossness, I spent the last hour or so at Rotherhithe in the hope of some cold weather something or other. Not to be, although the Tufted Duck flock has built up to a winter high with 134 counted (84 on Greenland Dock) as well as 2 drake Pochard; loads of gulls on the Thames and a couple of Egyptian Geese looking as stupid as ever on Canada Water.

Frustratingly, probably the best birds of the day eluded me - as I was heading to Crossness early on, I had a skein of grey geese (presumably Pinks) north over Woolwich. But by the time I'd stopped and grabbed my bins, they were too far off to be sure.

Marsh gull?

Last night, one of my mates Lee Gregory emailed me a couple of shots of an interesting looking, dark mantled and bubblegum pink-legged Herring-type Gull he'd seen at his local roost. Not that I could tell him much he didn't know anyway (as he's one of the best, most understated birders I know) - I'd never seen Vega Gull, and he'd done all the homework already.

Anyway, a feature that Lee's bird showed was an obvious reddish orbital ring. Have a look at this adult Herring Gull that was ringed on the tip on the tip on 14th January, and I'd previously mentioned I'd do a quick post on it. Presumably it emanates from a Baltic population - it was relatively dark mantled with a pretty prominent red/orange eye ring. The wing tip pattern is between argentatus and argenteus.

Note the obviously bright orbital ring

Obvious white tip to P10 like an argentatus; dark notch to the outer web of P5 that you'd expect on an argenteus

Again, the obvious red/orange orbital ring visible here

Be interesting to see where YJ1T turns up; look at the obviously pink legs

It's either a hybrid (presumably a back cross) or its a bird from the omissus zone in southern Sweden - apparently these birds can either have pink or yellow legs, as over time plenty of argentatus genes have infiltrated into the former subspecies omissus. Paul Roper was sufficiently interested in this bird that a colour ring was whacked on it, in the hope that a ringing recovery may shed further light.... interesting stuff.

Going Dutch

Got the history of this Herring Gull '1A' that I saw on the tip on Saturday: -

Ringed as a pullus on 2nd July 2007 by Roland-Jan Buijs at Vlissingen-Oost, Zeeland, The Netherlands. It has since spent much of its time on the European North Sea coast, in Belgium, France and The Netherlands. Here are its full details: -

14-2-2008 Blaringhem, Nord, FRANCE

23-5-2008 Westkapelle, Zeeland, NETHERLANDS

5-6-2008 Westkapelle, Zeeland, NETHERLANDS

8-8-2008 Blankenberge, West-Vlaanderen, BELGIUM

13-8-2008 Zeebrugge, West-Vlaanderen, BELGIUM

17-8-2008 Blankenberge, West-Vlaanderen, BELGIUM

10-10-2008 Zeebrugge, West-Vlaanderen, BELGIUM

29-1-2009 Dannes, Pas-de-Calais, FRANCE

26-2-2009 Dannes, Pas-de-Calais, FRANCE

10-7-2009 Blankenberge, West-Vlaanderen, BELGIUM

30-8-2009 Blankenberge, West-Vlaanderen, BELGIUM

10-4-2010 Westkapelle, Zeeland, NETHERLANDS

22-11-2011 Boulogne-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais, FRANCE

28-1-2012 Pitsea, Essex, ENGLAND

Interesting stuff. Thanks to Roland-Jan Buijs for sending through all this info.

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.

Gulls - the good and the ugly

In from a bit of a manic day, travelling down to Dungeness for my final KOS rarities panel meeting - 5 years done and dusted, enjoyed my time and I'd recommend anyone to do something like this at some stage if they can. The half hour before the meeting was spent with a longstaying northern beast of a Glaucous Gull.

the resident 3cy Glauc at Dunge

Before this, I had an early start and a morning with the gulls and the NTGG this morning. Really enjoyed it and learnt a lot about Herring Gulls too, with several argentatus studied in the hand; useful to understand how they're raced... more to come at some stage on this.

gulls on the tip

A nice adult Herring Gull

but not everyone is born with good looks...