Gulls - love them or hate them?

Hello

Rain for the first part of the morning and then a breezy but relatively mild day, becoming cooler this evening.

Stanford Reservoir again produced a Bittern sighting and other birds were an Osprey, a Common Sandpiper, three Common Snipe, a Hobby, two hundred Swallows, a Cetti's Warbler and seven Spotted Flycatchers.

A Common Redstart was in the anglers car park at Naseby Reservoir and waders amounted to two Ringed Plovers, fifteen Common Snipe and a Common Sandpiper.

Hollowell Reservoir provided a fly-through Knot that touched down briefly, a Greenshank, five Ringed Plovers, two Common Snipe and two Common Sandpipers.

At Pitsford Reservoir a Black-tailed Godwit was feeding in the Scaldwell Bay where also a Greenshank, a Ruff, three Little Ringed Plovers, three Common Snipe and four Pintail. An Osprey was later seen over the causeway. Large gulls of the dam included ten Yellow-legged Gulls (of three different ages) plus singles of Greenshank, Green Sandpiper and Common Sandpiper, six Common Terns and a couple of Grey Wagtails.

A Bittern was seen in flight on the Titchmarsh reserve at Thrapston Pits plus an amazing count of twenty-eight Mandarin Ducks, and Summer Leys LNR hosted a Ruff, a Ringed Plover, three Common Snipe and a Hobby.

A juvenile Osprey spent some time at the new workings section of Earls Barton Pits where also three Green Sandpipers and a Pintail.

A couple of Grey Wagtails were in the Brampton Valley below Brixworth.

Regards

Neil M

Great Black-backed Gull.

Juvenile Yellow-legged Gull.

An adult Lesser Black-backed Gull and a
juvenile gull that looked right for Yellow-
legged Gull at the time but now I'm not
so sure! It could be a rather round-headed
and pale Lesser Black-backed but the legs
seem too long, the rounded physique of the
bird and structure seem more akin to Yellow-
legged. The plain brown white-fringed tertials
are a feature of both species and the greater
covert patterning is more akin to Yellow-legged.
Not all juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls depict a pale
head and belly as so often described in the
literature. I think anyone who says they can
identify every juvenile big gull is a fibber! 

Juvenile Yellow-legged Gull.

Adult Lesser Black-backed Gull.

A selection of gulls photographed on the
dam at Pitsford Reservoir recently.