White-Winger, but no Cigar

Last Saturday was quite a slow day at Shawell, as the gulls preferred distant fields rather than the attractions of the landfill or the cool waters of the A5 Lagoons.

During the morning small numbers came to the lagoons and amongst them was a 'white-winged' gull, but not an Iceland or Glaucous Gull. It was too elegant for a Glaucous and not quite right for an Iceland. The primaries had greyish markings not unlike a Kumlien's Gull, but again I didn't feel it was quite right for one of those either.

Its wings were really long, which might suit Iceland, but too me it was a bit too Herring Gull like. At the time I thought it was most likely to be an aberrant Herring Gull.

The video below gives the best impression of what I saw. Note how its tertials seem to stand up and how thin its wing tip looks.

As always I welcome any opinions.

Caspian Gull

A brief stop of at Shawell A5 Lagoons today and another new Caspian Gull. A slightly tough job to age it as it appeared to be most like a third-summer. Perhaps not surprising as many of the gulls are closer to summer plumage than winter now.

Interesting how the same gull can look different depending on what they are up to - look at the difference in the appearance of the head. 

Caspian Gull, Shawell A5 Lagoons, 04/02/15

Caspian Gull, Shawell A5 lagoons, 04/02/15

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: