Another Caspo!

A great day today. Spent the morning surveying - it was rubbish! Then I went birding, and it was great!!

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!

More Local Waxwing

Went to North Duffield Ings this morning, and Bubwith Ings too.  North Duffield Ings was stacked out with waders and there was a load of ducks about too.

Highlights included:

Lapwing: 1520
Golden Plover: 131
Redshank: 36 (roosting on river)
Ruff: 34
Dunlin: 34
Curlew: 1
Snipe: 1

Wigeon: 911
Teal: 740
Pochard: 96
Tufted Duck: 4
Shoveler: 2
Shelduck: 3
Pintail: 2

There was also a flock of 20 Tree Sparrow, with a couple of Reed Bunting heard.

I decided to head north along the east side of the Lower Derwent Valley picking up Great Spotted Woodpecker, Fieldfare, Redwing, then a familiar silhouette in a roadside bush - Waxwing - at least 50 of them! Got a couple of pics (below) and watched them for 10+ minutes as they fed in some hedgerows, before I headed on to Rufforth Airfield where I hoped to connect with either the 1st winter Caspian Gull that Ollie and Chris had found in the morning, or the 2nd winter Iceland Gull that Tim had just found. Luck however was not on my side, as I approached the airfield a small gyrocopter thing flew low over the airfield and flushed pretty much everything! I waited around for over 2 hours but nothing! Nevermind, there's always tomorrow! Got some nice Goosander on the way home.

Waxwing © Andy Walker 2013

Waxwing © Andy Walker 2013

Waxwing © Andy Walker 2013

Waxwing © Andy Walker 2013

Waxwing © Andy Walker 2013

Caspian Gulls in York!

Morning walk produced a single Barn Owl sat on a snag in front of a rising sun which was a beautiful start to the day!  Not a lot else though, other than a few Tree Sparrow and a flock of Long-tailed Tit. Mid-morning got a bit more interesting as a Redpoll came into the garden briefly (pictures below).

I decided to have lunch at a local tip (as you do), mainly because Tim had found a 1st winter Caspian Gull there. Unfortunately the bird in question flew off as I was approaching but Tims pictures did look rather nice! As we thought about how to find some gulls we picked up a Merlin shooting through, which sent a flock of Redwing crazy!

A bit of manoeuvring and we found some gulls to look through. We went back and forth through them, picking out a 1st winter Lesser Black-backed Gull in amongst the hundreds of Herring Gulls. Suddenly an adult gull with a bright white head popped into view. It looked good for an adult Caspian Gull. We watched it for a while, getting all of the salient features - a highlight of watching this bird was when it did its 'albatross-posture' (see photo 449 in Gulls of Europe, Asia and North America - Olsen, K.M. & Larsson, H. 2003). I got a record shot of the bird on my phone that doesn't really do it any justice, however check Tims blog for photos of this (and the 1st winter bird). Hopefully further trips to the tip over the coming weeks will turn up more interesting birds (Tim also had a 1st winter Yellow-legged Gull here last weekend).

A flock of 18 Pink-footed Geese appeared from the southeast and dropped in and landed out of view.