A Casp Double

It's a funny old game this birding.

October was for the most part a wet and windy month, so of course I spent as much time as I could scanning through the gull flocks on the Estuary. I had far more time too, as had almost three weeks off work during the month. The grand result; a single Yellow-legged Gull.

This morning between giving lifts and putting toddlers down for a nap, I managed to muster up enough time to scope through my first gull flock of the month, a group of about 225 mostly Great Black-backed Gulls on Bridge Marsh. Within about thirty seconds I was looking at a stunning second-winter Caspian Gull, and then a couple of minutes later I was looking at a second one! This was the Axe's (and Devon's) second double dose of Casp (previously done on 14th Nov 2015 when I found a first and second-winter from Coronation Corner) and my 11th and 12th Casps for the Axe...

I have got a lot more to say about these stunning birds, but it's late and I have a two year old with a blocked nose, so for now just enjoy the photos...

Bird one, the more advanced of the two;

Bird two, a brutish yet elegant long-billed beaut;

I promise to do a follow post to these pics, as both birds are just such fab examples of pukka second-winter Casps. But for now, simply scroll up and enjoy the pics again. I can't stop looking at them that's for sure!

A little later in the day, eight Black Redstarts (including the ad male but no Common Redstart) were at Axe Yacht Club, but otherwise wind blown rarities were in short supply for us. 

Some Better Caspian Photos (though not by me!)

Just a quick post, and I'm afraid it's about Caspian Gulls again!  

Just wanted to share these two pictures taken yesterday by Ian Mclean of the second-winter bird.  After seeing both the Casps from Coronation Corner, he then went round to the Tower Hide so he could get closer views of the older bird.  Wow, it looks even more stunning up close, well done Ian and thank you very much for these pics...

Second-winter Caspian Gull (c) Ian Mclean

Second-winter Caspian Gull (c) Ian Mclean

I just love its small dark eye nestled in that clean white head. And notice how the mantle colour is subtly different to the surrounding Herring Gulls, not as dark as a Yellow-legged would be, in fact I wouldn't really call it darker more like a different shade of grey.  This is not a very long-billed individual, but note that it still shows the classic straight, narrow and parallel sided bill.

Don't think there's been any sign of this beast today, but the first-winter was still around this morning at least.  Roger Harris managed a lovely series of photographs of it sat on the water, which can be seen here: http://threecountieswildlife.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/caspian-on-axe.html

Caspian Overdose!

The last line of my last post came true. Wow, what an afternoon...

It may have been very windy, sometimes wet and always grim, but the gulling on the Estuary this afternoon was absolutely fantastic!  It even drew a crowd, namely an ex-patcher who just couldn't ignore my texts, and an incredible bird artist who is quite simply on another level...

Gav, Tim Worfolk (an Axe rarity - maybe an Axe first in fact?) and Tim Wright (aka Davey)

It all kicked off at about 13:15 when on looking through the first flock of gulls I came across at Coronation Corner, a gorgeous and thankfully completely classic first-winter Caspian Gull stood tall.  My photos are shocking and really don't do it justice AT ALL, I just couldn't keep my scope and camera set up steady in the strong wind...

Bottom left, whiter than white and big and bold.

This could have been an excellent photo!

And this one had the potential to be even better!

I even tried a phone-scoped shot!

At least this one shows a bit more detail, a well advanced bird.

I texted the news out to the locals, and whilst waiting for Ian Mc and Dad to turn up I kept my scope fixed on it. Thankfully it did indeed remain in place for them, and for Tim Wright who turned up about half an hour later.  I really wasn't expecting what came next though.... another one!

Once the two Ian's arrived I was able to take my eye off the first-winter and check the flock of 150+ gulls further up the Estuary. I swung my scope around and was shocked to see another Casp, a second-winter! WOW!  A Casp double whammy!!! And only our second of this age ever on the Estuary (the first Axe bird was a second-winter). Sadly it always stayed distant and these phone-scope pics were as good as I got...

The bird just to the right of center, that distinctive neck streaking really made it stand out.

It's the one hunkered down behind the closest juv Herring Gull.

The fact it wasn't the longest billed Casp, or the biggest, made me think it could well be the bird that Mike Langman had at Broadsands last week - see HERE.  I thought it was for most of the time I was watching it to be honest, but a brief view of its tail seemed to show a complete and quite broad black tail band (Mike's bird had a broken tail band). Also looking at the photos, maybe this bird does show heavier streaking behind the neck and more black in the tertials than the Broadsands bird?

Sadly before any other birders turned up, 95% of the large gulls present took off and flew south. Bye bye first-winter, but amazingly one of the six gulls remaining on the shingle spit included the second-winter Casp!  Gav and Topsham Tim soon arrived and it remained on view until I left the scene at 15:20.

It wasn't just Casps here this afternoon. After the big flush that sent almost all of the gulls south, numbers gradually built up again as more were trickling in from the north, and these new arrivals included two adult Yellow-legged Gulls!  One remained distant but what I saw of it looked good, and the closer one was a right cracker. You'll have to take my word for it though...

Pretty much smack bang in the middle.

What a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours, and just what I needed to take my mind of the evil in this world.