Larids

It was a fairly disastrous morning all in all and the weather forecasters got the weather completely wrong. On Saturday they forecasted no fog and it was foggy and today they forecasted fog and it was clear! As a result of the forecast we didn't make any plans to go ringing on Rawcliffe Moss and when I went there later in the morning to feed it was clear and flat calm!

At the feeding station were 200 Tree Sparrows, 12 Yellowhammers and driving off the Moss I stopped to have a look at the Little Owl looking at me.

Just after lunch I got a phone call from Ian to say he was watching a first winter Iceland Gull at the Nature Park. As the Nature Park is literally only 5 minutes from home I nipped up there to have a look. I am not the worlds biggest Gull fan, but this was a nice bird and my 'record' shots below don't do it justice!

 

1st winter Iceland Gull - above & below

Whilst we were watching the Iceland Gull, Ian picked up an adult Yellow-legged Gull that flew in and landed on the pool. It stopped for just a couple of minutes bathing, before flying off again. My pictures of the Yellow-legged Gull are even worse than those of the Iceland!

Adult Yellow-legged Gull - above & below

I have received some news from Richard on the Oystercatcher we controlled at Heysham yesterday. It was indeed a Grampian bird and following is a snippet from Raymond's email to Richard..."it is a Grampian bird. Ringed as an adult on 27/3/10 at an inland spring roost near Tarland. Could be a bird heading north or a breeder."

I was having a conversation with Phil this afternoon about Bramblings and what was our best year for Bramblings in terms of numbers ringed by our group. At the moment I am reading Ian Newton's 'Finches' that was first published in 1972. He mentions a roosting flock at a site in Switzerland in the winter of 1951/52 numbering between 36 and 70 million birds! Besides these birds there was apparently another 30-40 million Bramblings elsewhere in Switzerland at the same time, bringing the total population of the country to at least 100 million birds! I don't think we were anywhere near those numbers!