Yellow-legged Gull Bonanza

I had a few hours at Shawell this afternoon and Yellow-legged Gulls were everywhere. It is difficult to be exact, but there was over twenty individuals. Amongst them were two smart juveniles. I have to say that juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls are one of my favourites. The large pale buff edged scapulars look really good when fresh.

The heat haze was a problem today (shouldn't complain about sunshine), but eventually the visibility though my scope improved allowing me to get a few digiscoped images of one of the juveniles.

Juvenile Yellow-legged Gull

I also managed to read a colour ring on an adult Black-headed Gull. The ring was a Polish one. This is interesting as I was speculating where the BHGs had all of a sudden appeared from. I have also had one from The Netherlands recently. 

These days I see Red Kites at Shawell every time I visit. Three were harassing the gulls today including a wing-tagged individual. It had a white tag with the number 2 on its left wing and a red tag with the number 2 on the right. I am awaiting information to be emailed to me.

Red Kite

Red Kite