A pleasant Saturday after all

Photos:

Sparrowhawk in the garden (taken through the bins and the conservatory window)

Tree Sparrows at the feeding station

Various gulls at Richmond Bank - an adult Herring Gull with a humongous bill, two adult and one first winter Yellow-legged Gulls and juvenile and third winter Iceland Gulls

18th February

Early morning on a Saturday and its raining again. Oh what joy! Anyway I took Bill over to HGF – 91 Wigeon on the pool plus a pair of Goldeneyes and a large flock of 240+ Lapwings!

I dropped Bill back at home then and with the weather starting to fine up a little I headed off to Richmond Bank. When I arrived I was mildly surprised to discover I was the only person there, however there were a good 4-5000 gulls to go at. I soon found a cracking third winter Iceland Gull which I watched for a while and then in the same spot I found an adult and a first winter Yellow-legged Gull. Shortly after I found these two the gulls spooked and flew around a bit before re-settling in smaller numbers. I noticed at this point that one of the Seaforth birders (Mark Garner) had appeared in the nearby bushes and shortly after this various birders appeared including Jason Atkinson and Pete Antrobus.

Jason soon found another adult Yellow-legged Gull with muck all over its face and then Mark spotted a flying Iceland Gull which turned out to be a first winter bird. I’m pretty sure this is the one I saw on Birchwood Pool in early Jan – large bird with Glauc-type bill. I then ran out of time – I was expected back for lunch! On my way back I saw a pair of Grey Partridges and a couple of Bullfinches.

This afternoon in the garden a male Sparrowhawk paid a visit and, following an unsuccessful hunt, perched on the top of the garden fence for a while. This had been preceded by 74 Woodpigeons chilling out in the Ash trees again. 90+ Tree Sparrows, 6 Yellowhammers and a Stock Dove were at the feeding station plus the usual Lapwing flock further up the lane. Late afternoon I took Bill for a walk down Barrow Lane again. No goldies with the 160+ Lapwing flock, a Buzzard, 2 Skylarks and 3 pairs of Grey Partridges compiled the birds on show here.