Author: Jamie Partridge

I began feeling a little better so spent an hour by the River. Luck would have it there was a new first winter Caspian Gull at the O2.

A slightly murky and quite small bird, although aggressive albatross posture and long call were adopted a couple of times. Plain greater coverts with the pale tips giving a strong wing bar in this individual, and a hint of one across the median coverts too. This bird is the 5th first winter I’ve seen in the area since September and contributes to 7 different individuals seen between the O2 and Thames Barrier Park this season. (Click on images to enlarge)

Delayed images from my trip to twitch the Norman’s Bay desert Wheatear. I set up with my camera near some sturdy perches and waited whilst he busily fed up and down the beach. Both Light and bird were co-operative and brilliant.

A rare occurrence on this blog – a post without mention of a gulls. Feels ok.

Again, my entire weekend revolved around the Thames tide times. The past few blog posts have featured Thames gulling in a big way and despite the onset of flu today is no exception I’m afraid. Today I met up with Rich Bonser and Dante Shepherd and shared this insanely gorgeous Caspian Gull (Same bird I’d Seen at Lyle Park 2 weekends back). It Showed brilliantly in slightly challenging light at both Lyle and later at Thames Barrier Park. Please excuse the excess of pics…actually, no remorse

The previous day was less exciting in terms of Casps, being a Saturday, numbers of Large gulls are lower due to the Tip at Rainham tempting them away. However This adult Mediterranean Gull blew my mind

Below, some intricate wing moult on one of the 1cy Yellow Legs present today.

Laurence P and I visited Dungeness this weekend hoping to hit it at the peak of Caspian Gull arrival… I think we slightly missed it with many birds in early November and handful reported from the fishing boats 2 weeks ago.  A friend reporting none form his visit last weekend…

We did manage distant views of a first winter at the patch and a second winter on the reserve from the firth hide at dusk. The fishing boats held only this attractive 2nd winter Yellow Legged.

Above – First winter Caspian Gull flying west from the patch The rest of Dunge offered A graceful Great White Egret, close up Goosanders and the drake Ring necked Duck showed nicely in the pit towards the entrance to the reserve in the dying light of the day.

The plan for the following day was slightly less built up around gulls. A few sites around Beachy head and Eastbourne revealed a few nice birds including Dartford warbler, Slavonian Grebe and water pipit. Coupled with great scenery, good company and non stop Alan Partridge impressions made for a good weekend.

After a stark and beautiful 1st winter Caspian Gull yesterday, I headed down to the same site in an attempt to get better photos. I didn’t see the bird however a text from Dante Shepherd who had found a 1st winter Caspian at the O2 got me going. Unfortunately  I missed his bird but pics confirmed it was a different individual.

After 20 minutes or so this stunning 1st winter turned up in the middle of a bread frenzy.

The bird flew off east and we decided to head to the Thames Barrier park again. Just after our arrival we encountered the bird below. To me it Looks very similar to the previous bird at the O2.

Abit more bread throwing and this Rung (Yellow X090) 1st winter Caspian arrived on the scene, showed well in the dying light of an overcast late November afternoon.

Rung as a chick through the same ringing project as the bird I had back in September by Ronald Klein in Redern East Germany.

It has darker fainlty barred auxiliaries, and more heavily notched greater coverts than the first bird, although a good percentage of pure birds will show this. We had a couple of Caspians in flight which could well have been the birds present. But at least three today and a different bird yesterday shows they’re are about in good numbers!

This faithful 1st winter Yellow Legged gull was one of only a few present during the day and is often present at Thames barrier park.

This first winter Caspian was amongst a flock of over a hundred large gulls today, on the Thames at low tide, viewed from Lyle Park.

The birds stayed fairly distant and the light was poor but it looked great and was just what i needed after a long week at work!

Hopefully readers will find this post useful. Understanding wing covert pattern and the advance of wing moult was a real turning point for me learning about gulls and a really important bit of information for identifying gulls in their first winter plumage.

Yellow Legged Gull numbers are continuing to drop here on the inner London Thames however a few 1st winters and an adult were lurking about on Sunday morning. Below are the 1cy birds showing wing, and in the case of the second bird, tertial moult.

Wing moult, (shown above as the darker, diamond shaped, white fringed replaced feathers dotted amongst the first generation coverts in the wing) combined with other supporting features is a reliable method for separating 1st winter Yellow Legged and Caspian from Herring and Lesser Black backed Gulls. Supposedly caused by the former two species being born in a warmer climate with earlier breeding season and therefore an older bird by the time we see it here in autumn/winter.

Up until last month I had not heard of 1cy Herring or Lesser Black-backed gulls having replaced wing coverts before spring. The bird pictured below however , photographed in Regents Park London by Dante Shepherd this October, contradicts the rule and has included c40% of its wing coverts in its post juvenile moult.  These replaced feathers are less heavily marked than Yellow in Legged gull, with a pattern recalling 2nd generation Herring gull- type scapulars rather than the seemingly dark centered diamond headed coverts of YLG.

Flight shot shows tail pattern and large window in the inner primaries, revealing the ID of this interesting bird.

N.B: It should also be said that if a bird doesn’t show any wing moult in its post juvenile plumage it could still be a Yellow-Legged or Caspian Gull, and this method should be used carefully in combination with other features.

UPDATE! JAN 2020  – After seeing images of this bird as a 2nd, 3rd and now 4th winter Im more inclined to call it a hybrid rather than a decent Caspian Gull. It looked pretty standard German Caspian as a 1st winter as you can see below but as the bird has grown is has developed a few less than desirable features which are more Herring than Caspian;

• The amount of black on p10
• short or none existent grey tongues in the longest primaries
• Paling Iris
• pale mantle

Below is the post as i wrote it back in 2016:

Today I received the ringing information for a 1cy Caspian Gull found on the foreshore at Thames Barrier Park on the 25th of September. 111 days and 970 km west of its birthplace.

The bird was rung as a chick at Reddern Germany, near the Polish border on 06.06.16. Hatched into a 80% Caspian 20% Herring Gull colony.  A couple of heavily marked second generation scapulars as well as faintly notched first generation scaps could be an indicator of mixed ansestory at some point, however the replaced feathers are brand new, adding to the bold pattern and as far as i can see are within variation of the species. It’s worth pointing this out if the colony is known to be mixed and its impossible to say for sure. For more pics of this bird click here

Whilst the North East of the country was being showered in Siberian vagrants and rarities, the opposite end of the was slightly behind in avian terms. However a few great birds and many close encounters with species not so often seen by London patch watchers, plus very good company and pretty much constant clement weather made for a great trip.

A surprise find and a first for Scilly! was my personal highlight- this gleaming 1cy Caspian Gull dropped in front of me for a matter of seconds on the rising tide at Porth Killier/Browath, accidentally flushed by fellow house mate and Larid loather Lee Amery along with 30 or so Lesser Black backs towards Gugh, the latter species were present in notably higher numbers the day that the Caspian arrived. The bird wasnt seen again although number of Mary’s birders were high the following day.

Due to occasional showers and an aching back, i didn’t always have my camera on me, but a few choice birds around the island were showy enough for a few shots now and then.

Firecrests were seen and heard most days.

Northern Wheatear

A few Spotted Flycatchers were seen over the two weeks, including this 1st year bird that littered the ground under its perch with Red-Admiral wings.

At times there were up to 6 Black-Redstarts on Periglis beach, with a couple of lone birds dotted about the island

Tame old Scilly Blackbird

Yellow-Browed Warblers were a daily occurence and seemed to fluctuate in numbers during the two week stay,  some days seeing 10+ on Agnes alone.

There were two Red-Breasted Flycatchers in the Parsonage, a British tick for me! After a few near misses over the years.

The Eastern Yellow Wag on st Mary’s (above) If accepted will be rarer still than Siberian Accentor in the UK…

A tame Lapland Bunting was a half hour lying on my belly spent well.

The last chance saloon!  this Red-Flanked Bluetail gave myself, Laurence Pitcher, Graham Gordon and Lee Amery (finder) a private show away from the crowds on our final day. Stoked for Lee for finding one of the last few BBRC Bluetails as it comes off the list this year apparently.

Just before the news of the Bluetail broke, the beginning of a long and widespread story began. Laurence Pitcher and I were handed a dead ‘Yellow-Browed Warbler’ by Islander Fran Hicks that had flown into his window at the lighthouse, the crazy story goes on from there and can be read in full here

A great two weeks away from the patch, although I hardly felt away from it with fellow Walthamstow enthusiast David Bradshaw being an October feature on st Agnes for many years.   Lovely people and lovely birds even the ones i missed out in this quick summary. But i’ll be spending more time year on this unique Island for years to come.

I came across this small mucky looking Yellow-Legged Gull the other day on the Thames foreshore at North Greenwich. The ring itself being yellow made me think of recent photos of rung Caspian Gulls and how this bird may have come from that part of the world rather than other young YLG ring recoveries I’ve heard of being from southern France along the Mediterranean .

It was rung as an unfledged Pullis at Neuenburger See in Switzerland on the 11th of May.  Its so interesting to get these further afield recoveries, especially so close in date and far in distance.  Its quite an atypical looking, Small bird,resembling Lesser black backed in a few features but looking nice having moulted 85% of it scapulars and window in inner primaries etc.

Numbers of Yellow Legs seem to have dropped a little at Greenwich in the last two visits, and I’m still to see a Caspian gull this season. The remaining birds however are looking beautiful as they approach first winter plumage.

The below bird was only seen in flight, taken at first for a juvenile YLG, closer inspection of the image showed it to be a 2CY bird.  The iris is starting to become pale, P9 and P10 are growing, all wing coverts and tertials replaced as well as tail and adult grey feathers coming through in a few scaps.

Below is a Juvenile YLG in a similar flight position for comparison, taken in Marseille in Early August.