Audouin's Gull ~ Ebro Delta, Spain - Apr' 14

There was only one fail safe site to photograph Audouin's Gull and that was in the harbour at Sant Carlos de la Rapida, late afternoon with the sun behind you ...

Now there's a but, you knew it was coming, trying to get a clean background with so many boats, masts and buildings meant really only one type of shot ... banked over with the dorsal view and sea background ..

So these are a bit repetitive ..

Audouin's Gull ~ Ad. s

4th cy ~ 3rd s

3rd cy ~ 2nd s

Caspian Gull ~ Dark Tail ~ 2cy ~ Dungeness, Kent - 05.04.14

Scanning through the gathering flock on the beach at Dungeness, I was drawn to the large bill of this bird.

Once clear of the other gulls, my first thoughts were of caspian ...

I grabbed a record shot, it was now the waiting game for it to come closer ..

The flock are still flighty and the slightest thing seems to flush them, then its relocating the bird again ...

It came in only further away at the back of the flock, and was soon flushed again by walkers, this time tracking it and securing some flight images ..

Once settled back on the beach it was a quick check of the back of the camera, then came the tail pattern !!!!!

A text to MC & AL but thrown off track by the tail and then trying to send a back of camera shot which just wouldn't send ...

I'm trying to piece the puzzle together but the bits don't fit !!

What with the near high tide and a couple who sat to close they flushed the flock and the bird didn't return, we tried again on sunday and couldn't draw it in with the rest of the flock !!

Once home and the features start to come together they suggest the possibility of ...

Larus heuglini

The experts soon helped out and dark tailed caspians are regular from core populations 

Caspian Gull ~ 2cy 

Most striking is the tail band solid dark all the way up to the uppertail coverts, with fine barring to outer feathers ... 
On the upper rump, heavy blotchy markings, fading down in to the uppertail coverts ...
Greater coverts are solid brown, with a pale marking towards the terminal end and white tipped ...
Secondaries are dark brown, tipped white and give the dark trailing edge to wing ...
White head with fine streaking to hindneck ...
Long bill, black with base becoming pink ...
White eyelids are quite prominent ...
Scapulars are white tipped with dark shaft streaks, diamonds & anchor markings ...
Pale grey mantle ...
Inner primaries with pale inner web ...
Tertials replaced show darker shade of grey to mantle ... 

  

Underwing coverts finely barred brown with axillaries dark barred ...

A great looking bird ..

And a very interesting bird to learn from ...

Now I need a trip to somewhere around the Black Sea coast for plenty of Caspians ...

Glaucous Gull ~ 1st. W ~ Dungeness, Kent - 29.03.14

Another session in good light at times with the beast of Dungeness, the confiding Glaucous Gull ...

The birds markings are superb ..

Glaucous Gull ~ 1st. W

Hope it stays through the summer ..

Iceland Gull ~ 1st. W ~ Dungeness, Kent - 23.03.14

A text from Martin saying " Iceland Gull at The Patch "
We were already at Dungeness, near Springfield Bridge ..
When we got there it hadn't been seen but DW relocated it at the far end of the roosting flock ...
It soon came to feed over The Patch, always to distant and in to the sun ..
So only record images ..

Iceland Gull ~ 1st. W

Kumlien's Gull ~ 1st. W ~ Littlehampton, W. Sussex - 01.03.14

After the morning with the Little Gulls, we moved on for another try at the two white wingers at Littlehampton in West Sussex ..

The last visit see here was a productive one with only dorsal views lacking in the keepers, so today was about trying to gain some ..

The light was better than before and the wind was now more southerly all good but the birds position in the sky whilst doing what you want it to do according to direction of the sun gives unwanted shadows ...

Kumlien's Gull ~ 1st. W

Happy with this one

These are reasonable

This one has a nice pose but the background is awful & a shadow over the top wing ..

Little Gull ~ Ad. W ~ Worthing, West Sussex - 01.03.14

With three Little Gulls showing well on Brooklands Lake in Worthing and the two white wingers nearby it made things simple where to go ...

The two adults were interested in having their photos taken as for the 1st. W it never came close ..

Repeated fly-bys soon ceased and they hawked over the middle of the lake way out of range ..

What started out to be an amazing session soon fizzled out, the birds going camera shy and also struggling with A/F not locking on, I missed a few fly-bys, tracking and just not locking the A/F ...

I tried center point & inner 9 both were lagging behind, later realising the Image Stabilizer was on from last weeks static bird on the water ..

 I don't shoot flight with the IS on, it slows the A/F down, just forgot to turn it back off ...

Anyway it was good while it lasted ..

Little Gull ~ Ad. W