Not 1st winter Glaucous Gull but Juvenile Iceland Gull at Shawell A5 pool!
It's mid-week again so off I went to Shawell GPs to check out the gulls. The motive behind this was because of a 1st winter/Juvenile Glaucous Gull had been reported at Draycote Water, Warwickshire the previous day and as most of the gulls which roost at Draycote Water feed just across the county border at Shawell tip, so you can see the reason behind this. So arriving at the A5 pool at around 10.15am I was soon scanning the gulls by the busy roadside. Almost immediately I noticed the long-staying 2nd winter Med Gull and then the prize of the morning the Juvenile Glaucous Gull feeding and bathing by the shoreline. GET IN!!!
Although it wasn't a first for the site, this sighting was probably the first at this site for over ten years!?
Although it wasn't a first for the site, this sighting was probably the first at this site for over ten years!?
( 14/3/10:Actually having a better looked at my photos I now think the bird is a large Juvenile Iceland Gull!! and I made a basic mistake and jumped to the wrong conclusion).
As usual I made a few phone calls to let people know about the sighting,then took a number of record shots of the birds before it flew off towards the nearby fields and then the tip.
A little bit later I was joined by Neil Hagley hoping to see if the bird would return? So over the next hour we scanned the large gull flock, but unusually the Glaucous Gull did not return. However other gulls of note we saw included the long staying adult Caspian Gull and two adult Yellow-legged Gulls showing courtship display!
So not a bad morning on the gull front, and although spring is just around the corner I will be watching gulls until at least early April for hopefully more surprises?
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