Trittiford mill pond and Birding adventures from near and afar : Herring Gull

Thursday, 22 September 2016

Wales Road Trip

Headed to Mid Wales today to visit family and a break, of course there had to be some birds involved lol couldn't go to Wales and not look at birds lol
Started of on my way there and did a little detour to Ynylas National Nature Reserve a beautiful place with the sea and lot's of Sand Dunes, had a walk round and had two Wheatear which was nice, and could hear Oystercatchers but to distant to see, unfortunately I didn't have long as I had to go and see family and the tide was coming in fast and my car was parked on the beach lol
Also over my trip I spent a lot of time at Aberaeron Harbour I just love this place lot's of memories of mine and Dads trips when I was young.
Took the chance to photograph the Gulls I have never known such tame Gulls they were at your feet and even got Macro shots, amazing, there was a couple of Gulls that looked different thought they may have been Yellow-legged Gulls the one was a proper look a like but sent all the photos to Birder Tim Marlow who is amazing with his Gulls and he said they were all Herring and explained in great detail :) I was still over the moon hadn't got many photos before of Herring Gulls and the Juveniles are so Pretty also had what I think is a 2nd summer coming into 3rd winter Herring Gull.
And a massive bonus on the Harbour was a Rock Pipit such pretty birds I wasn't a hundred percent sure I knew it looked different to Meadow Pipit but I guess I always go for the most common which is Meadow Pipit but of course somewhere like wales Rock Pipit is quite common, Dave confirmed it was a Rock Pipit when I got home, was over the moon a year tick and lovely views my first ever photos of one :)
The Highlight of my Trip was the Grey Seals at Cwmtydu beach, the first time I have seen Seals out of water, just an amazing experience watching the adult troddle over the pebbles to get to the young that were in the Cave, could only see the one young and he had his face hiding lol Will never forget this day, best day :)

Had been a lovely trip just love wales feel at home, beautiful scenery and love the lifestyle :)
Three days not long enough lol

Ynyslas National Nature Reserve

Wheatear

Grey Seal

Grey Seal- Pup

Herring Gull- Adult

Rock Pipit

Jackdaw

Herring Gull- Juvenile

Herring Gull - 2nd Summer coming into 2nd Winter

Aberaeron Harbour

Curlew

Mid Wales

Friday, 5 August 2016

Yellow-legged Gulls learning curve - Draycote Water, Warwickshire

We spent the past couple of days at Draycote with the Juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls both me and Dave struggle with the Juveniles so it had been a learning curve for us both and very enjoyable I could spend everyday learning like this, but it is not every day you get such close views to be able to see the differences.
With the Help of Books and Tim Marlow who has been a very good teacher he explains everything so well in person and on his blog - http://www.rainsbrooknaturalhistory.com he goes through all the key points and the differences between yellow-legged, Lesser-Black Backed and Herring gull.

The main differences that have really struck me are, The much whiter face with dark eye mask, and the Bill is black with a more thick tipped end. Tertials with solid dark centres and pale edges and on some slightly oak-leafed at the tips only whereas in Herring Gull the Oak-leafed is more pronounced and in Lesser Black-backed there's usually none at all.
Mantle and scapulars dark brown with pale edges creating scaly pattern.
Also the Breast and flanks of Yellow-legged Gull is Brown-mottled but belly and central undertail - coverts pale and the legs are more of a fleshy light pink color and longer legged.
Yellow-legged Gulls tend to molt before Herring Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gull.