Oh not again....

Having been busy doing stuff and resolutely not looking out the window [much] it was time today to give the patch a good bash!

First up, I gotta mention how warm its got; looks like the weather's finally noticed the date..! Its like a switch has been thrown somewhere.

I'm stopping talking about the weather now.

Didn't cover all that I did last time [got distracted] - but at least one of the Garden Warblers is still on territory, and while the Lesser has [unsurprisingly] gone, standard Whitethroats are well represented. Lots of pretty flowers and butterflies - including the first Blues of the year, both at the Nose and in my garden! :) I took the Li'l Scope on the sheeny new tripod [wow its light] - better than the shoulderpod for Guillemot-counting, but more mag is definitely needed. Its a very odd thing - seeing all the sea with one scope field...

About 150 is the best I could do with 20x, with a similar number of Herrings knocking about. Now to the distraction, and the reason for the title - I did it again. I found a funny gull.

I know, I know; "Oh [NORTY WORDS REMOVED] not this nonsense again!!" What can I say?

I'm not sure if I should get into full descriptions or not - oh what the hell, you can always skip the next paragraph! A second winter - second summer type large gull. Seen on the flat rocks from the low cliff top, only walking about - no flight views. It preened a little, stood, pulled chunks of weed from shallow water [I have no idea why - maybe for the fun of it?] and didn't even stretch its wings!

Touch bigger than the Herrings, very long yellowish pink legs, long straight 4-coloured bill [yellow with white tip, black smudge extending down gape line plus red at gonys] low sloping forehead, small eyes - didn't get colour for certain. Light streaking on crown and boa of smudges, belly white with bulge behind legs, high goose-like breast. Mantle and scaps and I think lesser coverts grey, median and greater coverts very bleached and worn but some dark ones stood out clearly. Tertials dark centres with white thumbnails, primaries long, dark and pointed, with no mirrors. Fairly broad tail band - though no good look got, so it may have been broken or even partial.

All in all, it looked pretty good for a 3cy Caspian. Except for one rather large detail; That grey saddle was not the shade or two darker than the Herrings that I'd expect - it was closer to midpoint between the Herrings and a Geeb..... I have to say at this point that the light was odd, but it just seemed a bit too dark. We're talking getting towards a graellsii LBB kind of grey here. I know that barabensis Caspians are that sort of grey, but you just don't get them this far west, and besides, they're supposed to be smaller and more round-headed. So, could a graellsii show all these characteristics? Straight Yellow-legged must be a possibility, but it seemed a bit dark for that, too, so... What?

Oh well, at least I know it wasn't a Herring.

And one day... One day, I will find a proper definite Caspian Gull with no questions, no 'but's, nothing but cachinnans!*

Right before I tick Sus scrofa volans.....

[[*If someone else wants to find one for me, that's good too! ;) ]]