They're still coming

White winged Gulls are still turning up through the country which is great news for people like myself who can’t get enough of gulls. But as the winter goes on most of these birds will probably start to head back to chilly arctic. However birds from further south or east should pass through the UK so this probably won’t that last you’ll hear about these great gulls.

Thankfully the Lodmoor bird has upped sticks and shifted to Radipole and sat on the cormorant island for a short while this afternoon. This one looks a bit scruffy so hopefully the next one to turn up will be a pristine adult. I can afford to be picky this winter given the amount of these things turning up in the UK.

Sun was a pain but hopefully these pictures show that back lit can turn up some ‘decent’ photographs.

Last one for the Larus Lovers

This is now the third post in a row and if I remember rightly the last time I was barking on about gulls on this blog it ended up with a post about a Caspian Gull. Well, guess what. Here’s another gull post (for a few week or two at least!) about a Caspo. Today started with a couple of Yellow-legged Gulls, then another Yellow-legged Gull and then another Yellow-legged Gull. If you haven’t seen enough on this blog already here are a few more Yellow-legged Gull pictures. I promise not say Yellow-legged Gull again!

Minutes after Dave Chown and myself finished looking at a gull with yellow legs (or at least it will in about three year’s time) this fantastic creature appeared out of nowhere!

Managed to miss this bird at the weekend and I missed another one when I was out on Lundy so I was pretty made up after seeing this fine example of a 1^st winter Caspian Gull.

I promise I’ll find something else to blog about soon unless a gull that betters a Caspian Gull turns up!

It's a bit breezy!

Today’s forecast was for strong winds and we certainly got them! Gusts of over 50mph have been occurring throughout the day which was bound to bring something good in. It came in the form of a Sabine’s Gull over at Abbotsbury Swannery and even better news was that it was settled on a pool in one of the meadows. Quick as we could, Steve and myself got over there to be greeted by the site of a pool but no Sabs Gull! We must have missed it by minutes. There were a few Arctic Terns about though which is a species I haven’t seen at the swannery before. Got back home and had some lunch when I a text about another Sabine’s Gull but this time down at Ferrybridge. So off I went again and this time got lucky!

After about 5 minutes the bird moved off presumably back into the bay where 2 more were seen later in the afternoon.

I must apologies as I said yesterday that I would not post about Gulls again but hopefully you’ll forgive as this is a gull species you don’t see very often especially sitting just metres away from a car park!

Sorry! Another gull picture...

But look at the size of its bill!

This Yellow legged Gull caught my eye immediately this morning when I briefly popped into the visitor centre at Radipole. It was ginormous (I know its not a word!). I don’t know how many different Yellow legged gulls have  passed through Radipole this autumn but every bird I see if a different one. I’ll move onto something other than gulls soon but this weather looks a bit rough for a few days. A little bit of sea watching might be in order.

Portland Pulli

Spent this morning on the Portland Harbour breakwater which was an amazing experience. Aim of the day was ring gull pulli and anything else what we could get our hands on. The place hardly gets visitors and is very exposed; they are essentially man-made islands out to sea which makes them perfect places for the gulls to nest.

We were busier than we imagined and only got one of the three breakwaters done today plus there were quite a few gull chicks which weren’t large enough to ring. Luckily quite a few Great black backed Gulls were ok to ring plus a couple Herring Gull. The weather was due to get rough in the afternoon which also meant an early finish. You know when you’ve had a successful day when you trousers look like this after a ringing session!

Here’s a shot of one of the Great black backed Gulls. Cute ain’t it!

Here’s another of me with a gull, notice the lack of poo on my trousers so probably one of the first birds of the day.

As well as lots of gulls, probably 4 pairs of Oystercatchers present, several Rock pipits, a pair of Linnet went over plus we had a pair of Shelduck. As well as birds we also came across this weird structure. Something to do with defence during WW2 I’m led to believe.

Twitching Insects?!

I still find twitching insect slightly odd especially when it’s a moth in a pot but today I found myself headed straight to Portland after an early morning update on the bird observatory website alerted me to the presence of a Patton’s Tiger which is an incredibly rare moth in the UK. According the obs website it’s the 4^th record for the UK following the third which was trapped yesterday on the Isle of Wight. Here’s a picture of the little beauty!

Whilst at the observatory this rather handsome fellow was making good use of the fences. In my opinion it was slightly out done by the moth but on a normal day this would have easily been the highlight of the day. It is of course a male Red-backed Shrike.

That was pretty much my day over as the rest of it was spent in work where the best bird of the day (apart from usual Marsh Harriers and such like) was this Common Gull. Quite a good record for May at Radipole.

I must finish by going back to my original point about twitching insects. This is second time I’ve done it this week so perhaps this may become a bit more regular? I did suggest to myself at the start of the year that I would do a Butterfly year list. Not too late to start!