Resuming Regular Service

By talking a load of stuff and nonsense, blathering on about rubbish and generally doing my utmost to make you fall asleep on your keyboards...

Yes, it's gull time!

;D

Oh, but I had some fun with them today and no mistake. A little scene-setting / background, perhaps? Torquay Harbour is no Backwater; there's not a dense mass of hundreds of large and lumpy larids to sort through at scope range with a hidden countdown to the next flush keeping you under pressure.. The pontoon that's been set up for them [and they are the only things that use it] may have as few as a half dozen gulls, or at most couple of score, which isn't much at all, really. What it does have is a surprising turnover and the ability to be viewed from 3 sides [useful as they always try to hide or point at you and there's usually glare too]. Mostly you get a motley assortment of Herrings and a Geeb or two [plus Shags, Moorhens, Pied Wags and the odd Cormorant for company]. LBBs pop in now and again, as does the odd brave BHG. Yellow-leg is possible, but I've never seen a Common or Med there.[[::Engage Ahab Mode:: One day I will find a Caspian.]]

If you want lots of gulls, wander over to Torre Abbey Sands, where either on the sea wall at high tide or on the rocks at low tide you'll find three figures fairly reliably. Nip over Corbyn's Head and at Livermead you have a shot at Med Gull [plus possibly Little Gull if it's rough, though you can get very wet if the tide's right up...]. Keep going and the rocks at Hollicombe have even more, though not so easy to see close up, keep going again and you'll be in Paignton and serve you right. ;) The Harbour gulls have the advantage of being somewhere you can interrogate them thoroughly, without range, angle and dog walkers spoiling the fun.

The vast and infinite variety of manky 1w Herring Gulls [and 2w too, for that matter] never ceases to amaze, and it's very easy to dismiss everything you see as such. Also pretty accurate, of course. :) There's always at least one that catches the eye and demands a closer look, even if it's just to go "Oh yes, what nice tertials you have, but just look at the rest of you.." Today there were no less than 4 interesting 1w gulls to wander back and forth around the Harbour for. One was one of those big dark argentatus-type birds that caused some interest online a little while back - probably the same bird has been present on and off since last year. Another was the YL candidate with the dark alula [they stick out], still looking good but not perfect.

Now we get to the fun ones; first up was the stiltiest gull I ever have seen! [[Yes, even more than the Infamous Gull Sp. of 2010...]] My word what long legs it had, and a nice Caspian structure generally, what a pity the plumage didn't live up to that promise... It had nice tertials and was pale enough underneath [just about] but oh the coverts, argh the neck, not a single grey replacement above and not a white enough head by any stretch. Definitely some gene-flow at work, but no more than a funny Herring.

Finally, we have one of the rarer occurrences, an actual Whisky Tango.* A dinky thing with the shape of an Iceland Gull; very white head with black bill, a boa of blotchy grey, very pale beneath, very brown coverts [Caspian coverts] with a few replacements of all-grey feathers among lesser and median [these a darker grey than the Herrings - Yellow-leg grey it looked like, maybe even a tad darker, but not as far as LBB], 'black and white' mantle and scaps [near white feathers with dark markings], dark deltas on u/t coverts, Yellow-leg type tail band and uppertail, surprisingly pale underwing with undersides of primaries 'paler than they should be', primaries dark with a pale fringe and legs pink. Neither folded primary nor leg colour stood out from the surrounding Herrings, but everything else did!

[[*From Whisky Tango Foxtrot {India Tango}, to give it the full term. Ie: "What the fuck is that!??!??"]]

The little sod made me seriously consider running home and bringing the Big Scope down, but of course that would have been futile, as it duly flew off. I went after it but it'd headed out into the Bay, so I had a look at said sea, saw 3 GC Grebes and 2 Razorbills, plus a large diver sp. flying in towards Broadsands from the north. Then a Buzzard made the mistake of flying over the Harbour; everything went up to have a go [Buzzards usually make that mistake only once - this was a 1w]. The Buzzard exited stage left, pursued by bear ;) I went back to the pontoon and the Mystery Gull (TM) was back, still in the middle and next to a different gull [[Did I mention it was hiding behind the big dark bugger before, so I had to go around then wait for it to move? No? I got a good look in the end...]]. It only stayed a couple of minutes before once more flying off and I got nothing new on it.

To change the subject a little, I had a look off Blackball late afternoon and despite the howling Nor'easterly I managed to pick out a single GC Grebe on the sea. I'm a little chuffed with that. Even better was the group of 9 [yes 9] Fulmar 7 of which were sat together on the sea and two more flying around over them. Just goes to show that you never can tell what you'll see when you look at the sea.

Right then, I've already been through the Big White Book of Gull-induced Braindeath, but there's always a second try..