Weekly Report From Shawell

The number of Lesser Black-backed Gulls present at Shawell has fallen from the record breaking highs of earlier in the month. About 1200 were still present. Most of the intermedius LBBGs appear to have moved on although I still recorded three new colour ringed intermedius juveniles.

Adult Caspian Gulls were the feature of the week. The colour-ringed Polish bird first seen on August 20th was still around, plus another one that looked similar but lacked the colour ring and two less than perfect specimens.

Polish Ringed 5CY Caspian Gull, Yellow PKXS

Adult Caspian Gull

The next one is OK from a plumage point of view, but its not a perfect specimen.

Adult Caspian Gull

The last one is the oddest Caspian Gull type that I have seen so far. It is a sub-adult bird with an old 3 or 4cy type longest primary. Other than that it is quite mature. It was wearing a German colour ring and so it comes from a mixed colony. I think it best to add the caveat parentage unknown.

On Saturday afternoon a small influx of Great black-backed Gulls happened. In the morning there was just a single 2CY GBBG, but in the afternoon 20 adults arrived. There was also a noticeable arrival of Black-headed Gulls.

Adult Great Black-backed Gull

There are still plenty of Yellow-legged Gulls around with a best day count of 11 on Saturday.

Second-Winter Yellow-legged Gull