Interesting larids

Interesting first winter Herring Gull which looks a bit faded but look at those primaries! Having queried the guru probably an extreme argentatus bird. Richmond Bank.

Caspian lookalike. Looked good for a while but is very pale, head a bit too rounded, a touch short-winged, bill maybe a touch too chunky and shock, horror - no bar on P5 or silver tongues on the underwings. Glad I was with some good gullers when this turned up.

First winter Iceland Gull - different bird from last weekends first winter.

One of eight adult Yellow-legged Gulls

xxxxx

Richmond Bank - Pete Berry and Tom McKinney also in attendance. Lots of gulls and intermittent sun and cloud giving good viewing conditions. The first winter Herring Gull I found was a corker - I really like this gull and those striking primaries. From discussions with more informed people than myself I get the impression there are two competing views for this sort of bird - Glauc hybrid or extreme argentatus. Nothing about this bird other than possibly the primaries said Glauc to me on reflection.

xxxxx

The Caspian look-alike had us going for a while with Pete and Tom finding it at the same time. Slowly the ID started to unravel and it didn't help by calling without dropping its wings. Another argentatus or a hybrid? Makes finding a genuine Casp a bit of a sod. I also found a nice two-tone first winter Iceland Gull and an adult Yellow-legged Gull which looked like it was on stilts. No sign of the pale juvenile Glauc today though. Peregrine also seen.

xxxxx

Risley Moss was a nice round off. I was the only person there - the birds seen were:

xxxxx

10 Woodcock. First appeared in daylight at 17:25, rest between 17:56 and 18:03. I should add that I discounted a couple of birds as obvious returns. It is difficult to determine exactly how many birds are here. Some could be duplicates, on the other hand there could be birds elsewhere on the moss which are flying in different directions etc so there could easily be more.

60 Redwings and 18 Blackbirds plus 5 Reed Buntings, 5 Yellowhammers and 3 Redpolls all into roost.

Quite a few unidentified LBJ's dropped into roost too. 5 Snipe, 2 Tawny Owls calling, 1 GSW, 15 Canada Geese, 1 Water Rail.

xxxxx

Yesterday 1 Green Sandpiper on Moat Lane pools plus a Sparrowhawk soaring over. This evening at the feeding station were 3 Buzzards, 5 Yellowhammers and 30+ Tree Sparrows. Two pairs of Grey Partridges were there yesterday evening.