Yellow-legged Herring Gull

First-winter Herring Gull with yellow legs and bill base - Exmouth Quay. Not sure what to make of this bird. The tertials look remarkably plain and not at all Herring Gull-like, presumably due to wear, but in flight it looked like a perfectly ordinary Herring Gull. I wondered if the yellow is due to some sort of staining, but I think the colouration is too even for that. Just a pigmentation anomaly?

Further LWT shots

 

Note how much lighter the plumage tones are in sunshine, but there's no denying the extent of brown in the nape and rear crown. 

I've just been sent some more shots, taken by the finder of this bird, this afternoon. Note in the flight shot below that although blurred, the outer tail feather appears wholly white and there is perhaps a small amount of white at the tip of T5. I think this strengthens the case for this bird being blythi but I really need to do a bit more reading up on the subject.

The bird apparently first appeared in the garden about a week ago, which goes to show that birds are on the move, even in the middle of winter. It's partial to the fat balls that the owner puts out which reminds me, I need to replenish my supply.........

There appears to be some moult contrast in the tail - central tail feathers presumably old and perhaps indicating this may be a first-winter bird?

Lesser Whitethroat

I was lucky enough to be invited to see this Lesser Whitethroat at a private address in Exmouth today. It's the first wintering individual that I've seen in Devon, so I was keen to see what it looked like. There's a good possibility of it being one of the eastern races, most likely 'blythi' (Siberian Lesser Whitethroat), but assessing exact colour tones is pretty tricky, and seeing the extent of white in the outer tail feathers even trickier.

I enjoyed good views of the bird, at close range, and was struck by the brown tones on the rear of the crown, indicative of blythi. This isn't always apparent in the photos but was consistently noted in the field. Note how the colours vary in this small selection of photos, but photo number three is clearly overexposed.

A huge thank you to the occupants. It was a pleasure to spend time watching this bird in a wonderful garden, jam-packed with birdlife. Hopefully, further photos will help the identification. In the mean time if anyone can shed any further light on the likely origins of this bird I'd be very grateful.

Note the presence of some white in the supercilium, that changes in prominence depending on the bird's posture.

 

A slightly over-exposed shot but note the slightly paler wing panel in the secondaries.

 

This photo probably gives the most accurate representation of colour tones though it doesn't really show the warm brown tones, creeping up from the mantle on to the rear crown.

This photos shows a warm brown tone to the rear crown and light apricot wash to the underparts, which contrasts with the white throat.

Great Black-backed Gull

First-winter Great Black-backed Gull - Exmouth Quay.

 

Very little seen this evening but yesterday evening - at least 8 Purple Sandpipers, on Maer Rocks, with both Red-throated Diver and Great Northern Diver offshore, along with 7 Common Scoter.

Off the Grove - single Eider and Long-tailed Duck, 1+ Great Northern Diver and 2 Red-breasted Merganser.

Retro Casps

Bad photo taken in bad light, at distance, but showing a weak bill, dark-based greater coverts, pale-tipped tertials and lengthy, skinny tibia. It looked way better in the field.

Following  a great post by Gavin Haig here, I re-visited an old Caspian Gull record that I decided not to submit. I found the bird in February 2015, on the river Otter. Although I was perfectly happy at the time of watching it, my photos were so poor that I decided to shelve it. With hindsight I think that was a mistake. Although not the perfect, classic 'cachinnans', there were no plumage or structural features at odds with Caspian Gull (or suggestive of a hybrid). My main point of concern was the inner primaries in the photo below. They don't show the expected 'venetian blind' effect created by dark outer webs contrasting with pale inner webs. At the time I suggested that was due to the fact that the outer wing is blurred (a common theme in all my photos) and I'm still convinced that that's the case today. It seems a case of 'throwing the baby out with the bathwater' to lose this record on the basis of a crap photograph. In other respects the wing is perfect, and to reiterate what Gavin says, you can see a stripy upper-wing created by dark-based greater coverts and blackish secondaries, sandwiching a pale bar, created by pale greater covert tips. The median coverts show a similar pattern, though this isn't as easy to see.

The photo doesn't adequately show the tail pattern and underwing, but both were seen reasonably well in the field and documented in field notes taken on the spot (see below).

My original blog post can be found here. Many thanks to Tim Worfolk for his comment in support of the identification.

 

Field notes of the Feb 2015 Caspian Gull.

 

One of my birding ambitions is to find a Caspian Gull, in Exmouth, that's close enough to photograph well. I've had three accepted in Devon, and all three were photographed, but all badly. The two first-winters were both short-stayers and the adult was always observed in less than optimal conditions. Below are details of all three birds:

 

 

Original field notes of a first-winter found on the river Otter on 3/12/11. A fabulous looking bird but brief and through a scope.

 

 

Adult Caspian Gull found on the river Otter on 29/1/12 - never close.

 

 

Field notes for first-winter Caspian Gull - Warren View 14/12/12.

 

 

First-winter Caspian Gull - Warren View playing fields 14/12/12 - photographed from the house but at a distance. Absolutely stunning through the scope. This is my one and only record in Exmouth, but that's hardly surprising given the fact that the majority of large gulls in Exmouth shun convenient viewing spots for sandbars, half a mile out in the estuary or off the seafront. A rubbish tip would be handy!

Bonaparte's to Bread

The Bonaparte's Gull again coming to bread off Exmouth Quay late this afternoon - showing down to a few feet but again showing up all the inadequacies in my photography skills. Also one Eider and a Great Northern Diver off there.

Yank Wigeon, Hawfinches and Bonaparte's Gull

Exmouth seafront shortly after dawn this morning.

 

Maer Rocks first thing - 49 Dark-bellied Brent Goose, 1 Pale-bellied Brent Goose, 4 Turnstone, at least 1 Purple Sandpiper, 2 Eider and an adult Mediterranean Gull. The third Eider was off the Grove, along with the Long-tailed Duck and 3 Great Northern Diver.

Very little off Mudbank today but 4 Goldeneye were noted and yesterday there was a Pale-bellied Brent Goose off there.

For some inexplicable reason I had the urge to get out of Exmouth and see some other stuff so, with the family all enjoying a lazy Sunday morning at home, I nipped in to Exeter to reacquaint myself with the American Wigeon which I last saw in Exmouth at the end of October 2016. It was easily found on Matford pools but never too close. Whilst there I realised that I was close to Exwick cemetery so I popped over to look for the Hawfinches. They were very vocal so easily located towards the top end, in cherry trees. Although they were easy to see they were a nightmare to photograph, managing to hide in trees with no leaves. I reckon I had about 10 birds but they were hard to count. Paul Gosling managed twelve a bit later on, and was lucky to have views of them feeding on the ground. It was great to bump in to Nigel Pinhorn but we couldn't locate the Common Scoter that's been frequenting the nearby flood-relief channel.

This afternoon I cunningly steered a family dog-walk past an Exmouth Jack Snipe site and managed to find a single bird with 9 Common Snipe.

Last thing this afternoon I popped down to the quay, where quite a crowd had gathered. The Bonaparte's Gull soon appeared and I managed to tempt it close-in with some mouldy bread that I keep in the boot for emergencies. I was gutted not to achieve a decent shot despite the bird being just feet away. Others fared rather better!

Drake American Wigeon - Matford - the first time I've seen this bird since October 2016, when it was off Mudbank in first-winter plumage.

 

Hawfinch - one of up to about 10 individuals in a cherry orchard in the corner of Exwick cemetery. Easier to hear than see, and calling almost constantly.

 

 

Pale-bellied Brent Goose - Mudbank.

 

 

Bonaparte's Gull - an utterly disappointing shot following point-blank views.