Meeting up with Neil Hagley this afternoon at Shawell Balancing Lake almost the first gull I looked at was an Adult Ring-Billed Gull . Just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating I ask Neil to have a look at this gull in my scope and he came to the same conclusion. GET IN!!! So over the next half an hour we ticked off all the salient features of the bird and then phoned out the news. As this was probably only the sixth record for Leicestershire and Rutland as you can imagine I took quite a few digishots of the gull. Joined later by the Groby crew (Allen, Andy F and Paul) just before the Ring-billed Gull flew off towards the tip, it wasn't long before the group picked at least 3 Yellow-legged Gulls and 3 Caspian Gulls (2 Adults and 1 2nd-winter bird) in the large gull flock. So to put this sighting of the Ring-billed Gull in context, it's probably only the sixth time it has been recorded in the county.It was a county tick for myself, Neil and the Groby crew and Ring-billed G...
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I know you can't be asked to go have a look at the Mew Gull but a couple of members of the BBRC,Mr Vinnicombe and Brett Richards have been over!? ;-]
I note that no-one who really knows what they're talking about has come out and said "yes it's definitely a Mew Gull", and on that basis alone you have to suspect that either it isn't one, or they aren't identifiable out of range. Doesn't bode well for it ever being accepted and/or split!