Upton Warren - Glaucous Gull again

Twitching has a habit of kicking you in the teeth. Last night I was chuffed to have seen the Glaucous Gull. Then this morning I checked Twitter and discovered that the following morning had dawned to reveal both the Glaucous Gull and an Iceland Gull.

Thank goodness I'm not a twitcher. So being a non-twitcher, I went again this evening. I arrived an hour earlier in the hope of getting better photographs of the Glaucous Gull. On entering the hide I discovered I was not alone, in fact there was nowhere to sit. So I went to the bottom tier, which was empty.

I counted the Black-headed Gulls (1020), and noticed a Common Gull which flew through. I counted the Avocets (nine), and waited. Another birder joined me, and then John Belsey popped his head in for a chat. I got the camera out.

Avocets

Occasionally the gulls got up in a panic, one particularly large one allowed me to count 18 Snipe which had also been disturbed (I'm guessing Sparrowhawk, but I didn't see whatever it was). One of the Black-headed Gulls was colour-ringed - White 4HO - I'll look it up on the BTO site for reporting rings later. (It turns out I must have read the ring wrong as there were not enough digits). - Thanks to Mike Wakeman for the information that this bird was ringed as a nestling at Cotswold Water Park in 2013, and has been seen most years at Upton Warren since. (see comments).

By 17.45 there were still very few large gulls. It was getting very gloomy, so I decided to nip upstairs to chat to Mike and anyone else I recognised. It turned out the hide was even fuller, so after a brief exchange of pleasantries I announced I was going back downstairs. Gert decided to follow me down.

Almost as soon as I got back downstairs my other companion was announcing an arrival of large gulls. Ten minutes later, still no white-wingers. Gert spotted the Barn Owl. Cracking. Then at last the Glaucous Gull flew in and landed pretty much where it had roosted the night before.

I decided to try for some shots despite the light, with the camera set to auto.

Glaucous Gull

It's bill was clean this time, and I'm pretty happy with this image given the light.

Everyone stayed until about 18.20 as more large gulls were arriving, but there was no sign of the Iceland Gull. It'll probably be there again tomorrow morning, but I won't be looking at it cos I'm not a twitcher.