When I said I could see myself becoming a regular at Earlswood for the next couple of months I wasn't kidding.
This morning was fairly sunny and fairly breezy, probably not the kind of weather to encourage any new arrivals, but I wanted to spend a bit longer looking for birds than last time. In the end, three hours was only enough time to walk around Windmill Pool, and one side of Engine Pool from the causeway.
The bushes were dominated by Tits and Chiffchaffs (at least 15), plus a couple of Willow Warblers and three Blackcaps. At least five Swifts flew around Engine Pool, while at least 20 Swallows were mainly congregating at the south end of Windmill.
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| Feeding the kids |
The highlight was a Hobby which chased the hirundines, and was then mobbed by them as it flew off to the south. The Greenshank was also on this pool, but near the dam, while the long-staying Pintail and a couple of Teal hid among the Amphibious Bistort (I think) along the western edge.
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| Greenshank |
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| One of the Teal |
Back at Engine Pool, where earlier in the morning I had counted 296 Canada Geese, and a couple of Greylag Geese (plus the Bar-headed Goose) as they made their way from the causeway in the direction of Terry's Pool, I decided to have a good look at the gravelly island.
A brood of tiny Tufted Ducks dived just off the island, but the main attraction was the Yellow-legged Gull. There seems to have been some discussion about whether it was the same bird as was present all winter, and how old it is.
When asleep, it looked very adult-like, and could easily be considered to be just one moult away from adulthood. However, closer inspection of the preening bird reveals a few faint brown barred lesser coverts, and also secondaries and some of the tertials, while the longest primaries were old, the new white tipped primaries were starting to grow.
I decided to film the bird as the best way to show the feather detail, and here are a couple of screen shots.
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| Tertials and secondaries brown |
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| White tail, pink feet and yellowish legs |
I'm coming round to thinking it is a second cycle bird moulting into third cycle (if I've got the terminology right).
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