Office Birding

Spare time is still a mega rarity in my life, so it's a good job the view from my office looks like this...

Actually this was the first time in weeks Black-tailed Godwits were feeding on the lower Estuary

I had a new species for the office today amongst the loafing gulls, just about visible in the above pic (far left).  

This adult Kittiwake didn't always look in the best health, but I hear it was still present this evening so hopefully some rest has done it the world of good...

Would have preferred a Little Gull - but nice to see something different

Although there has been good numbers of gulls on the Estuary on an almost daily basis over the past few weeks, I think passage has actually been very underwhelming compared to other years. 'Spring' in the gull world usually starts in late January, but not this year it seems.

There are good numbers of Common Gulls about, but before now we usually see a marked increase in Med Gull numbers - four has been my best one day count so far.  And although I have recorded double-figure Lesser Black-backed Gull numbers on a few dates, I've been nowhere near the three-figure mark which can occur in late Feb.  And that's not to mention the distinct lack of white-wingers or Casps!

Lesser Black-backs are always a delight to see though

Looking back at my last post, you'll remember a really dark dark-mantled Herring Gull which was probably too dark to be a typical argentatus. Well I've had three more dark-mantled large gulls since...

One was a bonafide adult Yellow-legged Gull, which managed to give me the slip seconds after I spotted it.  But thankfully, and unbeknown to me, Gav was around and managed to get some rather gripping pics of it! Wish my views were as good as this.

The second dark-mantled large gull was another 'not sure'. It was easy to pick out in the flock, but different angles often made it look less appealing, and there weren't any other clear argentatus features visible.  

Bird on the right.  Only one sub-adult Herring to compare with

The third was a far more convincing argentatus Scandinavian Herring Gull for me. Not a full adult but a hefty-looking bird and strikingly darker mantled...

Back left

And look at the amount of white in the primaries, considerably more than all surrounding argenteus. Let me know what you think - but I think I'm 'aving it...

Shame it wasn't looking the right way!

And yes, I do actually do some work too! :-)

The Mild Winter Continues

Just a quick 'since my last post' update tonight...

There's not much new appearing on patch at the moment, except for a few Red Kite that have all managed to avoid me.  A lucky local took an amazing video of six flying low over Beer Head caravan park a couple of days ago - a truly enviable winter count.

So what I have seen?  Well four Woodcock were much appreciated at the start of last week, especially considering this isn't proving a great Woodcock-winter.  I managed some good flight views but on the deck views remain almost impossible at this regular site for them.  Nearby the four Cattle Egret have been showing daily in Colyton, although I could only score a hat-trick here...

Will never tire of these!

The single Brent Goose I blogged about a couple of posts ago has attracted a mate, and they are both spending most their time on Bridge Marsh. Sometimes with the Canada Goose flock but other times happy with just each other for company...

Not a usual mid winter sight here on the Axe

It's been encouraging to see good numbers of gulls on the Estuary over the past week or so, with pre-breeding gull passage clearly starting to kick into action.  For example I have seen more Lesser Black-backs today than I've seen on any day so far this year and Common Gull numbers are on the up.  Am disappointed not to have seen a Casp yet this year, or a Yellow-legged, but I did see this a few days ago...

An intriguing beast!

...but I don't know what it is!  

I would usually put a bird with a mantle of this tone into the 'Probable Herring x Lesser Black-backed hybrid camp', but this gull didn't really match any of the previous examples that I've seen of these.  For example normally the Lesser Black-back traits are more obvious, with yellow-tinted legs, a small bill and they tend to be diminutive.  This is a big strong bird with nice pink legs and never really took me down the Lesser Black-backed route...

Really dark mantle

My hunch, despite the limited white in the birds primaries, is that it's an argentatus (Northern) Herring Gull, a 4th-winter (which may explain the aforementioned restricted white).  

After sharing images of this bird online there were concerns the mantle was actually too dark for an argy, although I have to say it's not something that bothers me, having seen some really dark argentatus at Spurn. However I am not confident enough to call it as definitely one, so in the 'dark-mantled gull' category it will have to reside. A real shame it didn't show me an open wing!!

I do hope the next blog post features a gull I can actually ID...