Bonaparte's Gull

 

Wednesday saw Dave and I over at Chichester Gravel Pits looking for the reported Bonaparte's Gull. Initially it didn't look promising. Birders we talked to had not seen it and some were leaving the site thinking that it had moved on. 

We decided to give it an hour of "looking" and eventually were rewarded with sightings but it was not easy. There were a lot of Black-headed Gulls flying mostly at some distance and whilst you could get scope views if they landed on the water, it was difficult to track individual birds whilst flying.

We had an idea of what to look for, a slightly smaller and paler gull with a neat black edge to the wings and a black bill. It's flight was also meant to be different, more like a Little Gull, but this was not so obvious when scanning the Black-headed Gull flock. You often picked up on a bird exhibiting Little Gull like actions only to follow it and realise that it was a Black-headed Gull.

Eventually we picked up on a distant, brighter looking bird and managed to get a couple of pictures showing the features we were looking for, in particular the black bill. Unfortunately it did not come closer during the time we were there but better pictures were obtained later in the day.

I have taken better pictures myself in the past, with the much more obliging bird at Princes Park in Eastbourne back in January 2013 and the 2CY bird at Southampton Riverside Park in 2015.

Bonaparte's Gull - Princes Park Eastbourne 2013 (it is a colour picture)

2CY Bonaparte's Gull - Riverside Park Southampton 2015

Success on the gull proved to be the start of a good days birding. We found the Red-crested Pochards on Ivy Lake, although these again were distant and tucked in under the bank so pictures were not good. 

Garganey

We then went down to Pagham Harbour and saw the Garganey pair on the Severals, picked up Linnets and Sandwich Terns which I hadn't seen yet this year and ended up on the North Wall with Marsh Harriers and a Short-eared Owl.

From a photographic point of view I have had better days but with Spring breaking through and some good birds about we went home happy that evening.