My mission at Oxwich this morning was picking the bones out of the Gulls that I saw yesterday. The subtle difference have caused me many a headache and my respect of Gull specialists has increased dramatically as an aside to this very welcome influx of Iceland Gulls into the area. I'm fairly confident that the top 2 photos are of the bird that Jeff Slocombe photographed on 02/01/12 and are of a faded 1stw Iceland Gull which I thought was a 2ndw earlier today, This bird seems to favour the Nicholaston Pill area , early morning seems the best time to catch it.
I saw the bird below yesterday which had already been found by Eddie Hunter earlier in the day. Initially, I had thought that this bird might be long staying 2ndw Iceland Gull that Barry Stewart had photographed on 28/12/11. In much better light today I could see that it is far more advanced than that bird and is a 3rdw as called by Eddie. It also means that the bird shown below is a different bird again with far heavier streaking around the head although admittedly it is difficult to pick from the photo below. If I can produce a clearer video grab later I'll post it.
Comments/corrections welcome and it will be interesting to find if anyone has seen different Iceland Gulls to the ones already pictured. Iceland Gulls seem to be around in good numbers and it will be nice to add to the already impressive totals for the winter so far
No comments:
Post a Comment