Ring-billed Gull

Last year I was lucky enough to be in Hampshire, where I spotted a beautiful adult Ring-billed Gull (see post here). Well, a first summer bird had been reported on the Hayle Estuary in Cornwall, on the Birdguides website, so whilst down here, I thought I'd pop along and have a look at it.

Reports on the website, said that the bird had been seen just north of the road that runs parallel to estuary, just next to the RSPB Reserve, so I started my search there. The first bird I saw wasn't the one I was looking for, but it was a beautiful second summer Mediterranean Gull (year tick)! There were also dozens of Black-headed and Herring Gulls, a couple of Lesser Black-backed Gulls and a few Great Black-backed Gulls present. After about 15 minutes of searching, the Ring-billed Gull flew in from behind me and settled on the mud about 50m away, where I got some photos.

Ring-billed Gull

I took this more distant shot of the gulls, and when I looked at it on the computer, I noticed that there are, in fact, 5 out of the 6 gull species present in the one photo!

Mixed gulls

 Also present on the estuary and reserve were a Spoonbill, Curlew and another year tick, a Whimbrel!

Year List update:
156- Mediterranean Gull
157- Ring-billed Gull
158 - Whimbrel

Ring-billed Gull ends the Year List

Happy New Year everyone.

I've been away to Hampshire for a few days, so this post is a little late for the end of 2014. However, better late than never. Whilst down in Hampshire I managed to get along  to see a Ring-billed Gull that has spent the last 12 winters on a small pond in a park in the middle of Gosport. Here are a few pictures showing the "ringed bill" and, most importantly, the pale iris, which helps differentiate this species from the similar Common Gull. It's my first RB Gull since 2010 (see here), and this time I got some better photos, as it came to within 20ft.

Ring-billed Gull

 Here's a photo of an adult Common Gull that was also present. It's slightly smaller than the Ring-billed Gull, and has a dark iris.

Common Gull

The Ring-billed Gull is my last new bird for 2014, and takes me to 177 species seen in Britain since January 1st 2014.

177 - Ring-billed Gull.

Year Listing Hell!!!!!!!

I knew when I started this "year listing madness" that I would end up being very frustrated and yes, it's happened already!!

Being off school and having a reasonable day weather wise, Jayne and I decided to go for a walk around the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. This site is just off Junction 38 of the M1 and, knowing that a Ring-billed Gull has been wintering at Sands Lane Gravel Pits just off junction 40, I managed to convince Jayne that it would be a quick 5 minutes and worth driving that bit further to go and see it. We duly arrived to an empty set of gravel pits and the usual "it was here about 20 minutes ago!!!!!!" from one of the local birders. To cut a long story short, we waited about 1 hour, saw 100+ Black-headed Gulls, half a dozen Common Gulls, a couple of Goosander and a Kingfisher (year tick!). Aaaargh!!!!! Here's a picture of one, probably the same bird, that I saw here back in 2010.

Ring-billed Gull

(note the pale iris - dark in the very similar Common Gull)

To make up for this disappointment we went down the the Sculpture Park and had a lovely walk by the main lake. There is a heronry here and there were about a dozen nests, complete with returning adults- very nice.

The year list has move on 2 species:

83 - Kingfisher
84  - Lesser Redpoll (in garden last week)