Big Seawatching Post Pt. 2, The Gulls Of Hope's Nose

Apologies, once again, for an unreasonable delay in posting. [No, it won't do, will it?]


Ahem. So;

In which we shall be seeing far too many gulls, assorted, and also my [SEE DISCLAIMER ABOVE] sightings in said seven and a bit hours of fun.


Where to begin? Well, not with what you're hoping for,

Gulls attending the slick

Despite being busy scanning the gunk edge for interesting birds - and even sometimes seeing them - I still kept eyes on the close [ish] larids. Because you never know, and indeed I didn't. A lot of what you see here were 'Ooh, that looks interesting. I'll quickly try to zap it and see what it is later'.. Very poor form for anyone with even slight hopes for birding credibility, but hey what can you do. Only one set of eyes.

Anyway, having been fortunate enough to hit a few interesting ones, I figured why not have some fun with them?

So, in case you are in any doubt, the gulls of Hope's Nose are, in the vast majority, Herring Gulls. Nationally threatened but locally abundant, breeding not only on the coast but also any even moderately sheltered roof they're not turfed off of. Characterised by smart adults and a whole menagerie of horrid immatures, showing far more variety than even your worst nightmares in ID could conceive of...

"I've got to moult around my eyes some time.."

First year? Second year?
Juvenile type bill but oh look; second-gen feathers.

Birds don't always behave.

A nice clutch of juveniles
[Or are they?]

When they're not off breeding, the numerous small gull is the Black-headed Gull [also known as BHG, Block-head, ItsReallyBrownHeaded, Yarking Thing, and so on..];

Sub-adult

Juvenile

As opposed to say one of these;

Glorious white triangles:

Itsa juvenile Kittiwake!

Right, now we've got the standards out of the way, let's play with some more interesting ones. I'm starting with a classic photo;

"You put your right foot in.."

I love that pose! Dark, slight, long-winged, fine-billed. You don't need the rather spoiling the fun mantle feathers to know this is a Lesser Black-backed Gull. Not a classic; showing some well-marked feathers, though more obvious in a 'better' pose. Which of course wasn't available.

Strike a pose

Another nasty-looking 2cy Herring here. Real bruiser, too; you'd almost think GBB [but those dark feathers near the back are tertial bases / centres and primaries]

Flying through the rain

Awful light, but what's this gull? Despite the poor picture, you have a lot of information.

"It's a trampoline!"

Fuzzy due to an attack of thick drizzle! In heavy moult, it's a BHG, right? But so dinky and pale-looking, and that bill..??

Small gulls in the mist

Same bird with a moulting.. Little? Not likely, that dark underwing isn't real; it's a BHG. As for the pale one, the underside of the primaries in the pale gull show the ID. [Better luck next time, Tom]

Pose side on? Are you kidding?

Look at those dark-centred feathers! It's got to be... another Herring Gull.

'Scuse the brolly shadow.

Hmm, big chunky bill, pale head with defined mask, plus nice whitish bum, look at the window width...?

Tripping the light fantastic

A surprising number of pale-if-not-white headed gulls

Look good? Especially that big one on the left? But look at the bills - paler pinky bases. These are 2cy Herring Gulls!


Let's see a couple I've put up in earlier posts;

The out of focus one

I'm looking for a fault. From those long primaries right up to that big ol' gonys, though, I couldn't and can't find one. Yes, an actual photo of an actual Yellow-legged Gull. I'm in shock, too.

The in focus one

A very interesting bird, this. If it wasn't for one pesky feather, it'd be a beautiful case study in gull ID pitfalls.

Flying off, of course

Best upperwing shot, I think; very evenly dark, isn't it? I don't know for certain that this is the same bird [though I was aiming for it], but I rather suspect it is. Observe the tail.

Learning what isn't food

Not the same bird! [For one thing, note heavily abraded tail] Moult centre in secondary greater coverts?

Almost a good shot

Fractions of seconds.. What can you do?

Obvious when you already know

Juvenile Mediterranean Gull. [In my defence, it was tipping down]


Yikes, that was a lot of gulls.

The good birds - most skuas aside - were no chancers, photo-wise. Of course. One day, one day...

Continuing the theme of recent times, numbers were not quite as expected, though again the visibility and wind direction probably had a lot to do with that.

Right, at last and so on;
Star bird would be the Cory's Shearwater, with 4 Balearics and 2 Manx [one a bit ahead, one close behind], just outside the Manx line at 1120.
Balearics totalled 25 - with 11 in the last hour! - and Sooties 6, with 4 in less than ten minutes before 1330 [and at least one more through as I was - reluctantly - packing to leave!] but only 84 Manx*.
Two Bonxies [plus two MB got that I missed] and 3 Arctic Skuas [with another two missed] were almost accompanied by a small dark skua ap., which showed at 0742 and 1020 - both times turning back north into the gunge - and looked quite promising. Hmm.
At last I saw some commic terns, with at least 2 Arctics, and 52 Common, plus 25 commics too far out to be sure of, and 21 Sandwich.
Lone Puffin, 19/1 Common Scoter, a mere 4 Meds and a juv Common Gull. Waders went very well, with the two Ringed Plover, a Whimbrel, a Purple Sandpiper in close, and a surprise Blackwit!
Fulmars were passing, but also lurking all the time, and unfortunately my count had to be abandoned as I couldn't keep up with stayers/ loopers.. I wouldn't be surprised if they totalled three figures, to be honest. Gannets; 550, and Kittiwakes; 399 [at least 16 juveniles], I did count successfully.

With later increased visibility, a pod of dolphins [almost certainly Common, at least 3] were seen repeatedly near the wreck.


Not bad at all. :D


Be Seeing You...


 


[[*It is interesting that it's not just me or the Nose that are showing low Manx numbers, in total and in proportion to Balearics. I wonder why.]]