Surely Kumlien's?

Having had the chance to look properly through my images from yesterday I'm feeling far more confident this is indeed a kumlien's gull. The above photos are cropped but otherwise unaltered. There appears to be a definite brown wash to the primaries that wasn't apparent in the field but the light was dreadful.

Niceland - with a hint of Kumlien's?

 Initial views of the iceland gull off the Imperial Rugby ground.

I knew it wouldn't be long before I resorted to cheesy blog titles and I'm sure I'm not the first person to come up with this one. Apologies to anyone who gets annoyed by them like I do! I did an early morning search through the seafront gull flock and reckon numbers are reduced today, with probably closer to 1000 birds. We then walked the dog along the beach mid-morning and I had another squiz through them, bumping in to Phil Bentley who, like me, kind of assumed there would be something good in with them. There wasn't. Then, ironically, I found this iceland gull in the practically 'gull-less' estuary this afternoon at around 1430. It stayed put for a while and I was joined by Terry. We chucked a load of bread out but it refused to budge. We then took our eyes off it and it vanished. Thankfully the Warren boys picked it up heading out to sea and I was then able to relocate it off the lifeboat station late in the afternoon.

The pretty much all dark bill and subtly darker outer webs to the primaries is perhaps indicative of kumlien's gull but if it is, it's at the paler end of the spectrum. Unfortunately I didn't get any flight detail as time was of the essence. As always I'd be grateful for any opinions. Steve Waite has already contacted me regarding the darkness of the bill and the hefty structure of the bird. In the field the bill looked wholly dark but there is limited pink at the base, though this is still arguably too dark for 'glaucoides'.

Note the primary detail on this shot.

The light wasn't great this afternoon and the bird stubbornly refused to fly or even flap its wings.

Rock pipit - Leisure Centre.

Manxie and Scaup Highlights plus Purple Sand Record

Second winter common gull with black marks in the tertials - Warren View football pitch

With the football pitches too water-logged to play on I had a bit of extra time birding today. I was drawn, like a moth to a flame, to the large gathering of herring gulls off the seafront. There has to be around 2000 birds present and I can confidently say I've grilled every single one several times over today. It seems so wrong that there is so little of interest among them. The best I could find was an aberrant herring with all white wing coverts but that's it. No white-wingers, no yellow-legged and no 'smiths' lookalikes. Rubbish!

Just a fraction of the gull flock that stretched several hundred metres along the beach.

The beleaguered Dawlish Town with a massive hole in the railway line.

Gull heaven - I've never seen such numbers off Exmouth and it feels so wrong that there are no white-wingers among them.

Male pied wag with tertials.

Another pied wag with middle tertials missing.

Kittiwake sheltering off the Leisure Centre.

I managed three separate visits to the seafront today and watched, with relative shelter, from the raised beach huts near the lifeboat station. Totals included 2 female eider, 1 great northern diver, 1 diver sp, 1 male long-tailed duck, 3 guillemot, c100+ kittiwake, c 50+ auk sp, 2 brent goose, 35+ fulmar (all pale and all south), 4 common scoter, c10+ gannet, 1 manx shearwater (south @ 1530), 20 turnstone and 2 scaup (towards Exe late pm). Elsewhere an adult mediterranean gull on Warren View football pitch and 2 peregrine and 1 kittiwake in the estuary from the Leisure Centre.

Field sketches of a close-in partially oiled guillemot and one of two scaup that flew towards the river from Orcombe Point this afternoon.

Last night I had a personal record count of 10 purple sandpipers on Maer Rocks. Didn't see any today though but not much of Maer Rocks was exposed this evening.

Gulls in the Gloom

I had a very quick look off the seafront tonight, in between work and taking Joel to football. It was very frustrating to have so little time because there was an estimated 2000+ large gulls on the exposed sandbars and feeding on the sea. That is a very rough estimate and there may well have been more further out in the grey gloom. Exmouth, like many other places, has taken a pounding in the recent storms and it has clearly stirred up a lot of food offshore. There was a slavonian grebe off the docks and at least three purple sandpipers on Maer rocks. Yesterday a guillemot was sat on the sand bar off Mudbank, viewed from Joel's bedroom window, and a greenshank has been on the flooded playing fields behind our house today. The guillemot was clearly in a bad way, often being forced into the river by marauding gulls. A long-tailed duck was close in off the beach between Maer rocks and Orcombe Point late yesterday afternoon.

Woodbury Crossbills

I was very pleased to see these crossbills on Woodbury today. I haven't seen or heard any crossbills on the east Devon Commons for ages and extensive searches earlier in the winter all drew a blank, whilst there were good numbers of birds up on Haldon and elsewhere. I guess this party of seven (all pictured above) is getting ready to pair up and breed. The birds were at the bottom of the wide track leading down from Woodbury castle and were picked up on call whilst we were all walking the dog before lunch. Apart from the crossbills it was very quiet up there but very pleasant all the same.

Some of these birds showed quite hefty lower mandibles but I couldn't turn any into parrots.

I spent the first hour of daylight yesterday and today just tootling around Exmouth but have seen very little. The light has been good though but my camera can't adequately capture the big skies that are just amazing at times.

This is the big field at the top of Gore Lane. There are about 40+ skylark, 30+ meadow pipit and 30+ linnet wintering in it and snipe numbers fluctuate with up to 20 at times though I only saw a couple this weekend. Yesterday there were 3 fieldfare. As you can see it's very wet and probably frustrating for the farmer who presumably wants to plant spring barley in it.

This is a gigantic rain cloud that seemed to drift out of Torbay and out to sea - fantastic looking but I'm glad it bypassed Orcombe.

I photographed these dark-bellied brent geese, part of a flock of c20+, from the car down by the Imperial Rugby ground. The bird in the middle on the above photo is an adult and either side of it is an immature bird. Below, just an adult bird. Two drake goldeneye were displaying (throwing their heads right back on to their backs) to two females just offshore.

Pied wagtail - can't work out what's going on with the greater coverts and it's missing its middle tertials so presumably in moult? Can anybody help with the ageing and sexing? Presumably a first-winter female? Help! Having no ringing experience I flounder with such details but that's because I don't read enough about it.

 Above - second-winter herring gull.

Above - 'tricky to age' herring gull. Many features suggest third-winter (plain grey mantle, scaps, median and inner greater coverts) but it could be an advanced-looking second-winter bird (tertials and primaries arguably a better fit). Opinions welcome as always - the more I look the worse I get!

Above - a straightforward first-winter herring gull. Love em but I know they're not everybody's cup of tea.

Devon Flashback 5 - Lesser Grey Shrike

May 26th 2002 - the day Lee Collins tested my marriage!

 Lu and I had been married exactly a year and Lu was pregnant with Maisie, who is now eleven years old - can't believe it. A big day for us - our first wedding anniversary and exciting times. We planned  a lazy lie-in and a relaxing morning followed by lunch out. I was going to prepare a nice big romantic breakfast when the phone rang. I just knew it was going to be a rare bird. It was simply inevitable. I prayed it was nothing too special but John Fortey's prophetic words were still ringing in my ears "Why get married at the end of May? Something good always turns up at the end of May". I answered the phone to Tom Whiley who relayed the message "Lee's got a grey shrike sp at Dawlish Warren - probably lesser grey". Bollocks!!!!!

I'd dipped the Otterton bird and badly wanted to see this one. Shrikes are simply must-see birds and although I was familiar with lesser grey from trips abroad (and a Norfolk individual twitched with Kev - see 'field sketches' page) a Devon bird was too big a pull! Being the incredibly understanding wife she is, Lu said "just go". I vowed to be quick and was as good as my word - back home in Exeter for 1015. 

A speedy twitch was only possible because I ran the length of the Warren, catching up with John and Tom and meeting Lee on Warren Point. He was understandably dead chuffed with his discovery. We lined up on the dune ridge looking down on to the point but it was the warden, a little way behind us, who picked the bird up first. We hurried back towards him and the bird looped up onto a bramble - Magic! I watched and sketched the bird for a short while as it shifted from bush to bush, occasionally dropping in to the marram grass for a prey item. I wanted to study it for longer but there was no way I was going to push my luck any further on my first wedding anniversary, so I jogged back to the car and sped back home. 

The rest of the day was lovely - funny how the day always takes on a particularly warm glow after a good bird!

This was Devon's third and last lesser grey shrike following the Otterton bird in July 1992 and one on Lundy in September 1961. (The Birds of Devon - M Tyler). I think a lot of birders got the Otterton bird but some, like me, presumably dipped and were very grateful to Lee for his find.

Incidentally it has been four years since John Fortey passed away. A truly lovely man and amazing birder. He was extremely modest, always playing down his capabilities and incredible finds. Pete Dennis once said to me "if John ever tells you he thinks he's seen something - go and see it because it will be what he thinks it is". I can honestly say I've never heard a bad word said about him and everyone who knew him remembers him with great fondness.

Still Quiet in Exmouth

I managed a quick trip down to the river this afternoon after work. Best birds were 10 goldeneye off the Leisure Centre, comprising 3 drakes and 7 females. The numbers appear to be creeping up. At the end of last year and during the early part of this year the best I could manage was just four females. The oystercatcher below is a ringed individual but I couldn't read any details. Also present two peregrine, c20+ linnet, 40+ red-breasted merganser, 2 great crested grebe and a tonne of gulls too far upriver to go through. Off the lifeboat station still two eider, 1 razorbill and 1 red-throated diver.

ringed oystercatcher

2nd winter herring gull

black-headed gull

view from Shelly Beach earlier in the week - bad light for gulls