Laughing Gull ~ 2nd. W ~ Ballycotton, County Cork, Ireland - 24.01.15

After a good afternoon at Nimmo's Pier in Galway it was a 120 mile drive to Cork, Travelodge for the night with some dinner and Guinness ...

The next morning was only a 20 mile drive to Ballycotton Harbour for the returning Laughing Gull, it wintered here last year and is back again, as we pulled up there it was sitting on the hand rail with the Herring's ..

All morning till early afternoon was spent trying to coax it in for a standing or resting on water shot but we failed,

It was fly-bys only !!

Realising that the sort after images wasn't going to happen, we moved on pleased with what we had ..

Laughing Gull ~ 2nd. W

Grey-Headed Gull ~ Bisceglie, Italy - 18.01.15

Grey-headed Gull

Larus cirrocephalus

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An invite to join RB on a flight to Bari, Italy then meet up with JJ for the long staying Grey-headed Gull ...

So a flight out of Stansted on Saturday at 16:40, landing at Bari about 20:30, and returning the following evening Sunday, a one day trip ...

Saturday evening we stayed at the Hotel Salsello, a couple of beers and a pizza ended the evening, nicely ...

Josh had spent Saturday in the sun, only briefly having the gull but at dusk checked Bisceglie Harbour and the bird was roosting ...

Sunday morning, light rain and overcast we checked the harbour and found the gull within 10 minutes of arriving ...

We, along with the gull spent all day around the harbour, apart from a quick trip to the supermarket for more bread & popcorn, coaxing the bird to favoured places !!

Starting the day off at 1000 iso ~ 1/160 ~ F4 in the rain, late morning 640 iso ~ 1/1600 ~ F5.6 ..

Getting the bird, isolated on its own was a challenge but with views as close 2m's it turned out to be a fantastic day !!!

Grey-headed Gull ~ Ad

 

The bird performed brilliantly ..

Thanks to RB & JJ 

Steppe Gulls ~ Khor Kalba Beach, U.A.E

Larus cachinnans barabensis

Steppe Gull

~~~~~~~~~~

All the following birds were seen on Khor Kalba Beach, south of Fujairah in the first week of Jan' 2015 ..

Confusion with nominate cachinnans, heuglini and taimyrensis is highly likely and possible errors may need to be corrected ..

Adult Winter

Wing tip pattern as seen on above images, mirror to P10, some show on P9 ..

Black markings can extend into P3 ..

Sometimes black streaks to primary coverts ..

Upperparts Kodak Grey Scale 

4/5-6.5

Upperparts Kodak Grey Scale

Heuglini 8-11

3rd. Winter

2nd. Winter

1st. Winter

With a lack of experience in both heuglini & barabensis, the 2nd. cy birds proved most difficult with probable errors still to sort out ..