Kumlien's Gull - 1st. W ~ Ardglass Harbour, County Down, Northern Ireland ... 05.02.12

Kumlien's Gull

What a absolute beauty !!

The plumage of a 1st. winter bird is exquisite, subtle markings on the coverts and then fading out through to the primaries, slightly heavier markings on the scapulars make for a real stunner !!

I've tried to capture this in the images

This bird showed well all day ..

Kumlien's Gull ~ 1st.W 

See i told you !!

A beauty

Caspian Gull - 4th.W ~ 355P ~ Crossness, London ... 21.01.12

With the tide on it's way out this afternoon a visit to Crossness opposite the Golf Center to check out the gull's.

Along with a Med & a couple of Y.leg's was this beauty a 4th winter Caspian Gull ringed as a chick in Poland .

Ring. Green/Gold code 355P

Caspian Gull ~ 4th.W

Fantastic Bird


More in-depth write up
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Caspian Gull ~ Ad ~ Crossness, London ... 03.01.12

With reports of a Ad. Caspian Gull on Sunday & Bank Holiday Monday at Crossness, London i was keen to have a look. The rain finally stopped on tuesday afternoon so i went out in hope !!

There wasn't that many gulls opposite the Golf Center and after scanning through them couldn't find the ad. Caspian that Richard & John had but i did see this bird ...

1000mm F8 and severely cropped !!

Pale Yellow leg's

Large white tip to under of outer Primary .. P10

Dark eye bi-coloured

Puffed out Breast, flat middle and dropped belly
Parallel bill has a dusky mark on red gonys spot & culmen
Sloping forehead but square looking head !
Clean white head
Grey upperparts lacking blueish tinge 
Often stood dropped bill as top image

1 .. Large white tip to P10
2 .. White mirror on P9
3 .. Triangular tip to P8
4 .. Triangular tip to P7
5 .. Triangular tip to P6
6 .. Solid narrow mark to P5
7 .. Black mark onto P4


A .. Long pale tongues


The long Pale tongues even further reduce the small amount of black visible in the wing ...

1 .. Large white tip to P10
2 .. Large white mirror on P9
3 .. Solid narrow mark on P5

Parc du Marquenterre, France 23.04.11

Bonjour ...

We had our third trip to the Parc du Marquenterre, pick up was at 04:30am, Richard drove there and my road sign skills soon had us going the wrong way !!!

Once on site the first lake briefly had two Black-winged Stilts that flew off out of view and i thought that was the last we'll see of them ...

Four LRP's were displaying so that was the first target ..

Little Ringed Plover

 



Last year we timed it spot on for the Spoonbill's & White Storks but this time they had already built their nest so activity was virtually nowt !!!

The Storks always fly fairly close and after a while you turn your attention to other subjects, which backfired !! because we missed a Black Stork fly over ...

White Stork

Only one Spoonbill came close !!!

Spoonbill

Two Black Tern's were very brief visitors from one of the hides ...

Black Tern

A Little Egret put on a great performance first flying in and then practicing some Kung Fu !!!

Little Egret

The "Star Birds" returned hiding at first as they are rather shy !!

Then the two were joined by another pair, The male looking absolutely stunning !!!

Black-winged Stilt

With half an hour left before we had to leave to get the Euro Tunnel we were treated to mating at close quarters & a low P.O.V ... Get-in !!!

Copulation

And just when you think that it couldn't get better than this the male did a full wing stretch !!!

More images on my website

Fantastic day with a return trip pencilled in for a few weeks time !!

Luvly-Jubly !!

(That's French)