With no work to go to at the moment I’m making the most of the Gulls, which seem to be abit hit and miss. I drew blanks at Shakey beach for almost 2 weeks only to see 5 Caspian Gulls in one day on the 31st December, the same can be said for Deal which seems abit better at the moment. Perhaps a little influx of gulls is upon us.
Below are a few 1st winter from Shakey on a very windy day, hence the sea spray all over the lens!
Below: 2 caspian and 1 YLG (bottom bird), the left hand Casp is a Czech yellow ringed individual 03C:U
A couple of Casps from Deal in the past few days. Gerald S has seen a half a dozen or so recently.
Above a large 1st Winter and below a delicatly plumaged 2nd Winter. Lovely stuff
On the subject of Gulls I had a decent looking candidate for heinei or Russian Common Gull fly through the harbour earlier today. Unfortunately it didn’t come close enough for better photos detailing trailing edge to the uderwing but seems to a nice clean head and bright pink bill base and neck shawl aswell and the darker primaries secondaries and reduced inner primary window not shown by most ‘heinei lookalikes ive seen in the UK. perhaps ill see it again.
If you’re interested in Russian Common Gulls check out last month’s Birdwatch Magazine, I wrote an article on how to identify them:
https://www.birdguides.com/store/back-issues/birdwatch/december-2022
PERDIX BIRDER 