First off was a quick look at North Duffield Carrs where I had a couple of Marsh Harrier, Greater Scaup (drake) and Aythya hybrid along with plenty of Whooper and two Bewick's Swans. I then went to Bubwith Bridge, which was fairly quiet at first, though a scream got me to turn around, where I found a giant female Peregrine sat on a still-alive male Wigeon! I got one quick shot before a Buzzard appeared out of nowhere and while the two birds of prey fought for 5 minutes the Wigeon limped off and hid!!
Female Peregrine sat on a male Wigeon! (phone-scoped)
Late afternoon I got a call from Tim to say he'd located another Caspian Gull, a 2nd winter bird this time. Unfortunately it didn't hang around.
I found a flock of gulls about 2 miles from where Tims gull was earlier and Tim joined me. Shortly later we got great views of a 3rd winter Iceland Gull and then stood next to it, Tims 2nd winter Caspian Gull! Talk about a long shot, there must be 10,000 gulls about the tip at the moment!!
I got the following photos on my phone, but check out Tims blog for some great pictures of the birds which allow all of the key features to be checked.
3rd winter Iceland Gull (phone-scoped)
3rd winter Iceland Gull (phone-scoped) with wings up
3rd winter Iceland Gull (phone-scoped)
2nd winter Caspian Gull (phone-scoped)
2nd winter Caspian Gull (phone-scoped) wing stretch
2nd winter Caspian Gull (phone-scoped)
This second winter Caspian Gull is the fourth Caspian Gull to have been found in the Rufforth Tip area this year which is phenomenal, two 1st winters and one adult!
No comments:
Post a Comment