Saturday 19 November 2011

Stubbers Green - Caspian Gull

It's Gull season again folks! Another three or four months of watching these tantalising birds off and on. A puzzler or good bird in every session :-) Today there was no puzzle, just a classic adult Winter Caspian Gull!

A few hours were spent trying to get some decent images of this adult Caspian Gull which must have fed well early in the day as it was there on arrival and still loafing about on the water when I left for the Chasewater roost.....

The light was awful despite the forecast of a 'blue sky' day, Oh well, at least I got the bird!

This is one Gull that stands out from the crowd!








At this time of year all the Herring Gulls have streaky heads, with Caspian Gull just a little faint streaking around the hindneck.....



A horse spooked the flock briefly creating a flight shot opportunity. Again, a distinctive pattern to the primaries





A couple of preening shots, the first showing the distinctive inner web to P10 - a long white tongue, separated from the white mirror by a sharply defined black bar which extends as a narrow band up the outer web.



Large white mirrors on P9 and P10



All this hanging around is quite boring!



Time for a drink.....





Pose of the day?



Before taking to the water....




Like a couple of bouncers on the door - looking on a par for meanness, with this Great Black backed Gull .....



The final and most distant shot with upperwing pattern nicely displaysd!