Glaucous Gull

I finally caught up with the juvenile Glaucous Gull late afternoon on Thursday on what was my fourth attempt. Even in a field full of Gulls it was easy to pick out. It is nearly as large as a Great Black-backed Gull and has a very pale white and ochrous-brown mottled effect colouration. The bill is also distinctive being large and pink with just the end being clearly demarcated in a dark brown/black colour.

Glaucous Gull

Size comparison with Black-headed Gulls

Glaucous Gull - as seen for most of the time

See my blog of March 2013 for pictures of an adult Glaucous Gull at Dungeness.

Other birds present on the gull roost in addition to various gulls were Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Grey Plover.

Dunlin at roost

Dunlin

Ringed Plover

Earlier in the day we had paid a return visit to Rooksbury Mill and Pinglestone Watercress beds. With the weather bright and clear we had hoped to improve on the picture of the Ring-necked Ducks  we had taken on the mill pond early in December. The ducks were still present, the weather was perfect, but unfortunately the ducks were still wary and kept there distance so I came away with no real improvement on the pictures I had taken previously.

Ring-necked Ducks

Ring-necked Ducks

Other ducks on the Mill Pond were more obliging. Male and female Gadwall came close as did an assortment of Tufted ducks.

Gadwall

Gadwall Female

Tufted Duck

All with the ever present Heron keeping a watch over them.

Grey Heron

The visit to the watercress beds also prove a little frustrating. We saw Green Sandpiper and Grey Wagtails along with a lot of Little Egrets but they were all too distant for photographs. The real targets of the visit had been Water Pipits. Did we see them? Well maybe, there were two pipits, light in colour, pinkish legs, white underneath, and at least one with a bright supercilium. They looked good but we couldn't be sure, so this year tick will have to wait for another day.

A good days birding and in nice weather conditions for a change and it was particularly pleasing to finally catch up with the Glaucous Gull.

Little Gull

The water levels at Waltham Brooks may be dropping but they still have a long way to go. Good for the ducks and geese but not so good for the owls and raptors, nor as it happens for birders.

Female Scaup

Finding the female Scaup was not too difficult. It could be seen on the flooded fields on the western side of the river and north of the road. Getting close to it though was impossible. There is a bridleway there but a few steps along it and the water was over the wellies. So I had to make do with a record shot taken from the road about about a hundred metres away.

Plenty of Tufted Ducks and Pochard there along with a few Canada Geese, although the following shot was taken at Swanbourne Lake on the way up to Waltham Brooks. The birds there are just a little bit easier to approach.

Pochard

I did not fancy wading through the mud to search for birds so I decided to return to the coast and spend some more time on the Gulls. First stop was Brooklands and the chance to improve on the Little Gull shots in my last blog.

Little Gull

Not too difficult when it is sitting on the water but in flight this is not an easy bird to capture. Their flight is more like that of a Tern and they seem to have a sixth sense that enables them to execute a ninety degree turn just at the instant you press the shutter.

Flight shot

Underbody shows a slight rosy tinge in this picture

About two thirds of the size of a Black-headed Gull and a bit more agile.

I then moved on to Littlehampton for another go at the Glaucous and Kumlien's Gulls. They were both there and giving good views as usual but by then the light had gone.

Kumlien's Gull

Going back a few years I would spend hours producing sepia toned prints. Today I could get them for nothing. Sepia toned birds against a sepia toned sea and sky. It may work on landscapes but it doesn't do much for birds.

Kumlien's Gull

At least you could see the eye on the Glaucous Gull. It makes all the difference.

Glaucous Gull

Middle of the afternoon and I decided to head for home. The birds were good but without the light the pictures were hopeless.

Glaucous Gull

We were back at Littlehampton today. There had been fleeting glimpses of an adult Glaucous Gull on the last visits. It appeared to be in summer plumage with the grey and white  translucent wings that gave an elegant appearance and would give really good pictures. That is providing we could find it again. There had also been an adult Little Gull reported which again would take nice photographs.

We did find a Glaucous but not the one we were looking for. This was a juvenile and whilst already looking big it did not have the same elegant appearance that you would expect from the adult.

Juvenile Glaucous Gull on the right

and on the beach

We waited a couple of hours to see if a Little Gull would turn up. There seems to be a lot about this year but I just do not seem to be able to connect with one. There were a few other birders there who where mostly interested in the Kumlien's Gull but having done that to death over the past few days the Turnstones proved to be more interesting.

There were hundreds of them there both on the West Pier and feeding on the beach. They almost seemed to be lining up on the pier to play chicken with the big waves rolling in. They would sit packed together, head down into the wind and leave it to the last second before the wave struck to take to the air.

Lining up waiting for the next wave

There must be more comfortable places to wait for the tide to go out.

Early afternoon and we decided to move on. The Little Gull would have to wait for another day. Instead we went up to Stapleash Farm to have a look for the Little Owls.  It was good to see that they are still resident there although we only managed to pick out one.

 

Little Owl in its "usual Tree" see below

The Owls rarely give a clear view but for once the strong wind was helpful, blowing all the branches out of the way to give a brief clear view.

Little Owl

A good day but we still need that elusive Little Gull.

If you are interested in finding the usual tree see my blog of 9th January 2013.

Glaucous Gull

Wednesday and Thursday were disappointing birding days. Plenty of sunshine had been forecast but both days were overcast. Worse than that, I could not find any birds. Not entirely true, Tide Mills had Redshank, Cuckmere Haven had hundreds of  Canada Geese but there was no sign of the Spoonbill or Kingfishers I was looking for. Old Lodge had a few Chaffinch but again no sign of the Crossbills, Parrot Crossbills, Siskin, or Bramblings that had been reported there. Two days birding and I had just one poor shot of a Kestrel to show for it and no year ticks.

Probably the biggest disappointment was twice missing the Glaucous Gull at Shoreham Harbour by just a few minutes.

Friday was to be a day indoors catching up on a few jobs but by 10.30 when an alert came through for the Glaucous back at Shoreham Harbour I was ready to go. A quick trip along the coast and I had missed it again. I was told that it had flown out to sea, it could be hours before it came back. I would have gone home to get on with the jobs before I was missed but fortunately I stayed to talk to a couple of other birders and was still there when it flew back in a few minutes later.

Flying in

Clearly different to anything else on the beach

Playing with its food

Probably a Second Winter bird

For comparison below is a shot of a third winter bird taken at Dungeness last year. Bill turning yellow, more colour in the wings and a more brutish look about it.

Third Winter Glaucous at Dungeness last year

Home for lunch and then flushed with my success I headed up to Warnham NR to see if the Mealy Redpoll would put in an appearance. No luck with that although there were a number of other small birds about including this colourful Lesser Redpoll on the seed feeders.

Lesser Redpoll

The rain was starting up again and the light was fading rapidly. I strayed for a while practising hand holding the camera at half a second exposure just in case the Mealy turned up, before eventually heading home in the growing gloom. A poor week but at least I had the Glaucous.

Kentish Plover

The birding and more importantly the birding photography have been a bit slow of late. A combination of dull overcast days and the unseasonal cold weather has resulted in a slow start to the spring migration and also to fingers often too cold to press the camera shutter. The lack of anything interesting must have been getting to me as I woke up in the middle of the night and I could feel a "twitch" coming on.

The result, I got up early the next morning and left home at 05.45 to head down to Rye in the hope that the Kentish Plover would still be there. Unfortunately that was not quite early enough. I arrived at Rye only to be told by a couple of birders "you should have been here a few minutes ago, it was on the mud right in front of us". Not the best of news first thing on a cold morning.

We did manage to relocate the bird but it was distant and despite waiting three hours for the high tide to push it closer I could only manage distant record shots. If you have good eyesight you can just see it in the picture below sitting under the Shelduck's backside.

Shelduck and Kentish Plover with Avocets in the background

This was taken with a 500mm lens and 1.4x extender and gives about the same view as you get through a pair of 10 x 50 binoculars. Fortunately Photoshop gives the possibility  of digital magnification and whilst you do not get the best quality image it does enable you to see that it is definitely the Kentish Plover.

Shelduck and Kentish Plover

There were plenty of other birds around the harbour. Sandwich Terns were starting to arrive and there was a Meadow Pipit clearly unwilling to abandon its territory just because we wanted to stand there.

Around seventy Sandwich Terns roosting with the Oytercatchers

Meadow Pipit

So what to do in the afternoon. Wait around for a better picture of the Plover or try somewhere else. There was always the Glaucous Gull that I had missed last time I was down at Dungeness and there would always be the chance of something unusual turning up on the pits.

It could have been a wasted trip. The RSPB site was very quiet, just a few Tufted Ducks and Coot along with lots of Gulls. Even the Tree Sparrows were hard to find. The feeder area seemed to have been taken over by Reed Buntings.

Reed Bunting

Eventually a couple turned up but they seemed less showy than when I had seen them before.

Tree Sparrow

I wasn't sure that I would recognise the Glaucous Gull when I saw it and after walking the beach for an hour looking at multiple variations of juvenile gulls I was starting to give up hope. The wind had been cold all day but across Dungeness beach it was really bitter. Just as I was on the point of leaving a shadow passed over my head. I had been looking for translucent wings with no black on them, front heavy, and aggressive looking, or as a local birder had put it big and dirty looking. When you see it there can be no doubt, there was nothing else like it on the beach.

Aggressive looking perhaps

Translucent wings

More graceful in flight

I believe it is a third winter bird so it has colour on the wings but has not yet developed the yellow beak. Still, it's a great bird to see and it has a bit more character than most of the gulls I come across.

I called in at Rye again on the way back but although the Plover was still around it wasn't coming any closer.