Facebook Like Page

In an attempt to keep up with the times I've decided to join Facebook and create a Facebook like page for my blog. 

I will keep it up to date with my latest posts and any general news that relates to my blog.  

If you have 5-minutes and you are a Facebook user, feel free to like my page. 

Like My Bag a Wild One Facebook Page here.

Water Vole

I've been going through my external hard drive looking for some gull photos and amongst the stored images I found this little gem. It's a Water Vole, but a quick Google search revealed there are very few images of them at such a young age. I've never shared this image before so here it is. 

Young Water Vole, Ashby Canal, Leicestershire

Despite the Cold Weather Shawell Was Once Again Entertaining

My target yesterday was to read four new colour rings to bring my total to 500 colour-ringed gulls in the Shawell area. The weather was terrible at the Cotesbach landfill site, but I stood firm as a blizzard raged. I was rewarded when I spotted the fourth new colour-ringed gull of the day - a third-winter Herring Gull with a yellow colour-ring. Wiping the snow off my eyepiece I peered through the murk and read the code 1P6B. This gull was ringed by the East Anglia Gull Group. I had hoped to photograph the 500th, but the heavy snowfall made me not want to risk damaging my camera.

Eventually the weather improved and I was able to start looking amongst the Herring Gulls for Caspian Gulls and a suitable candidate soon appeared distantly on the tip. As I checked out its legs I noticed a yellow colour-ring and the code was readable and very familiar to me - it was PADZ. I first saw this gull in August 2014 and then again in October of that year. It was last seen at Albion landfill site, Leicestershire back in November. 

Below are details of the sightings of Caspian Gull PADZ so far:

Third-winter Glaucous Gull

I am just four colour-rings short of recording 500 individual colour-ringed gulls at Shawell. This morning I chanced my arm and headed off to Shawell. The landfill is shut on Sunday, but sometimes there is still loads of gulls in the area. Not this morning, but there was about fifty gulls, mainly GBBGs, feeding amongst the rubbish still exposed on the tipping area. I set up my scope and started to search amongst them and a very pale gull flew threw my view. I panned after it and fortunately it landed just to the left. It was a third-winter Glaucous Gull. This is good as it demonstrates what a third-winter should look like after suggestions the one I found last Tuesday might be a third-winter. It is quite adult like, but the bill is still very immature looking.

The area where the gulls were feeding was quite distant, so I could only get poor quality record shots.

Third-winter Glaucous Gull, Cotesbach LF Site, 25/01/15

Bloody Buzzards!

Today at Shawell Common Buzzards were causing havoc. The gulls would not settle, as the local buzzards were insisting on flying low over the lagoons on a frequent basis. A fox also got in on the act by trying to sneak up on the gulls. As a result the gulls would not settle and fewer stayed at the site. I may have to declare the site a no fly zone for buzzards. One cheeky so and so was perched in the hedge overlooking the bank the gulls rest on and it didn't notice me until I was virtually standing next to it!

Nevertheless at least two third-winter Caspian Gulls put in appearances and the big white Glaucous Gull was there for a short while (seen later at the landfill site).

Third-winter Caspian Gull, Shawell A5 Lagoons - also seen on January 10th

Second-winter Glaucous Gull, Shawell A5 Lagoons