Gulls at Shawell again.............

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Adult Caspian Gull.

2nd-winter Iceland Gull.

Yesterday morning I nipped down to Shawell GPs to check out the Gulls, as the previous day Neil Hagley had found an Immature Iceland Gull on one of the balancing pools.
Arriving at the site I noticed that were a good number of gulls on the pools. So over the next couple of hours I picked out at least one adult Caspian Gull and two adult Yellow-legged Gulls among the assortment of large and small gulls.
Then around midday I finally noticed the immature Iceland Gull which must have flown in just minutes earlier.
Scoping the bird I noticed straight away that it was a 1st winter type due to its plumage and dark eye (actually looking at the photos it's probably a 2nd winter bird!)
As usual I took a few record shots of the bird and then phoned out the news of the bird via Birdnet and John Hague.
By this time my feet were now starting to get very cold so decided to call time at this site, dodge the traffic on the A5 and then home for a spot of lunch.

In the afternoon I went down to Cossington Meadows after John told me he had just seen a female Merlin over Swan Meadow, but as usual the bird was not seen again.
The Owls which showed in the evening included a very close Barn Owl and the two Short-eared Owls.

Postscript: Looking at my records over the year this is probably the seventh Iceland Gull I have seen in the county this year!!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Nice Iceland Dave. They can be a bit tricky in those immature plumages I've found.
When I lived in Falmouth I used to see one or two each winter and I would have had yours down as a first winter as I usually found most second winters appeared much paler over all and in flight always looked pure white. But still an Iceland gull is an Iceland gull. It's strange how much importance we put on nailing the age of a scarce gull but we don't bother too much with our own resident species. I wonder why that is? I can understand it if a description is needed for a county rarity though, which it probably is in Leicestershire I suppose. I'm not sure if it still is in Cornwall or not as I don't submit my records any more.
13 December 2009 at 19:59
davidearlgray said…
Hi Richard, yep Iceland Gull is a description species for Leicestershire as we normally only get less than five birds a year.
This year it have been an excellent year with up to possible fifteen birds reported!
13 December 2009 at 20:58
The Leicester Llama said…
Although 2nd-winters are often paler, more important for ageing are the bare parts, and this bird's pale iris and more Glaucous-like bill, with a pale tip, make it a 2nd-winter.
14 December 2009 at 08:13
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