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A quick trip over to Shawell yesterday produced a good assortment of Gulls. These included the long-staying 3rd winter/near adult Iceland Gull and the  German ringed adult Med Gull . I got some crappy record shots of the Med Gull but the Iceland wasn't playing ball! So below you will see a  couple of shots by Neil Hagley and myself of the Med Gull over the last two years. Also click on the link about the origin of the German Med Gull:  http://www.gull-research.org/papers/...eljuly2011.pdf

Here is a couple of record shots of the 2 winter Iceland Gull I found with Colin Green at Shawell A5 pool today! 2nd winter Iceland Gull@ Shawell

Here is a few record shots of the Juvenile/1st winter Iceland Gull and 1st winter Caspian Gull I saw at Albert Village Lake on Tuesday (22/3/11). 1st winter Caspian Gull at AVL Another shot of the Casper! Juvenile/1st winter Iceland Gull at AVL Another shot of the Iceland Gull!

Before work yesterday I drove over to Albert Village Lake to see if the Juvenile Iceland Gull was about? Once again only a small number of gulls were on the lake, so I decided to check out the tip nearby. Scanning the tip it wasn't long before I found the Juvenile/1st winter Iceland Gull loafing on the tip face. As usual I took a few record shots of the bird. With the time against me due to work commitments I didn't really have time to check the other gulls. Over this weekend I will be checking a new landfill site just over the border into Lincolnshire with Steve James, so I will let you know what we see?   Juvenile Iceland Gull Albert Village tip

Yesterday I went to Albert Village Lake for my first visit of the year, and strangely there were hardly any gulls on the lake. So to cut a long story short I went and explored the nearby tip which you can look over via the local footpaths. Noticing that most of the gulls were at the far end of the tip I retraced my steps and then walked back towards the nearby national forest land which overlooks the tip. I started to scan the gulls from this viewpoint but nothing stood out except for a gull showing characteristics of Glaucous x Herring type!   With the gulls moving around the tip all the time, I then noticed more gulls roosting on a nearby bank and a very creamy looking gull which was head on to me at the time. I thought straight away that this bird looked good to be an Iceland Gull, due to the size and plumage of the bird. I waited for the bird to move and slowly it showed itself and the diagnostic features I saw included pure white primaries, blotchy creamy-white breast, ...

Views of Glasgow from Queen's Park. Monument to Mary Queen of Scots last battle. Adult Iceland Gull Strathclyde Loch. Well its a New Year and I'm back from Scotland after visiting my brother and family in Glasgow for Hogmanay. It was great to see lots of Snow and Ice and it felt like a proper Christmas for once! Any way back to the sightings, the only day I went birding in Glasgow was to Strathclyde Country Park , near Motherwell. Lots of Snow,Ice and sub-zero tempertures greeted me as I parked the car and then I walked down to the Loch's shoreline. Most of the Loch was frozen over but good numbers of gulls were situated on the Ice. Scanning the gulls it wasn't long before I found the reported adult Iceland Gull and as usual I took a few record digishots of the gull. Over the next hour I also looked for the reported 2nd winter Ring-billed Gull at the Calder rivermouth, but my luck was out and my first dip of the year!

Although the weather has been nice for the last few days, a small trickle of spring migrants has occurred in the county. For most of the week I have spent a lot of time down at Shawell tip and the Balancing Pool watching the gulls. Including the Kumlien's Gull I have also seen another 1st winter Iceland Gull at the tip and pool from the previous birds at Stanford Reservoir and Albert Village. Other gulls recorded at this site have included the usual suspects and a nice looking adult Caspian Gull . In the surrounding countryside I have recorded up to 14 Buzzards, a small population of Tree Sparrows and a couple of Shelducks. Away from this site I've started to check out a few sites in the Soar valley and Charnwood again with a few spring migrants recorded. These have included a couple of Sand Martins over the scrape at Wanlip Meadows on the 15th and a single bird over Birstall Meadows on the 22nd. I have also noted Chiffchaffs singing at Swithland Reservoir, Cossington Mead...

2nd Winter Kumlien's Gull at Shawell. Another shot of the Kumlien's Gull. 1st winter Iceland Gull at Shawell Balancing Lake. Another shots of the 1st winter Iceland Gull. Over the last couple of months it has been a great winter for seeing and finding white winged gulls like Iceland Gull and Glaucous Gull. As I normally recieved most of the local bird records for the fieldnotes in the LROS newsletter, it has been interesting reading over the last month or so. Up to the present day so far at least ten Iceland Gulls , 1 Kumlien's Gull and maybe 3 different Glaucous Gulls have been recorded in Leicestershire? With hopefully a couple of more weeks to check the local tips before most of the gulls disperse to there breeding grounds I would imagine a few more white-winged gulls maybe found?

2nd Winter Iceland Gull. 1st Winter Iceland Gull. Before my late shift in the afternoon at the General I nipped over to Albert Village Lake again to check out the gulls. Over the period of a couple of hours of watching the gulls I noted again that the 1st winter and 2nd winter Iceland Gulls were still around. As you can imagine I took a number of record shots of the birds. Other gulls sightings included at least 1 adult Yellow-legged Gull , 1 adult Caspian Gull and a "probable" 3rd winter Caspian Gull . As this site seems to be going through a purple patch at the moment I would imagine that I will checking it on regular basis in the next month or so?

2nd winter Glaucous Gull 2nd winter Iceland Gull Adult Iceland Gull After my exploits down in the south of the county looking for Iceland Gulls at Shawell tip I decide to check out Albert Village Lake in the extreme north-west of the county to see if there were any more Iceland Gulls to photo? So earlier this morning myself and Dave Mack (McWilliams) drove over to Albert Village to see if we could see any of the Iceland Gulls which had been reported over the last few days. Parking the car by the large locked car park, Dave suddenly realised that he had forgotten his bins and left them at home!! So Dave using my Nikon bins and me using my Kowa scope we walked down the track and slowly started scanning the gull flock from the shoreline. Within in about 5 minutes of scanning the large gull flock we found a 2nd winter Iceland Gull resting on the water! Pleased on finding this bird I took a few record shots as this was a new bird to be reported at this site. Scanning further along the line...

Following information from the LROS website the previous day that a 1st winter Iceland Gull had been seen at Shawell tip near Lutterworth I decided to nip out late morning to see if the gull was still around? Getting to the tip just before the morning shift had finished I parked up in a nearby lay-by and watched the gulls by the roadside. Scanning through the large number of gulls I could not pick up anything which looked like an Iceland Gull. At this point most of the gulls got up and flew off in a southerly direction, Bugger!! Checking the fields just east of the village there still no sign of the Iceland Gull but a good assortment of the commoner gulls. From here I moved on to Stanford Reservoir which was just down the road. Parking on the roadside, I walked down to the dam and noted that most of the reservoir was frozen. In the free bits of water were good numbers of Pochards, Tufted Ducks and 8 Goosanders. Scanning further right over a mix of large gulls standing on the ice I no...