Thursday January 19 - Earlswood

 I've been resisting the urge to go to Earlswood this year, preferring to get on with my stated aim of birding along the river valleys. However, there has been a bit of a build up of potential year-ticks there, and when a drake Pochard turned up today, I finally cracked. Well I did only see one for the whole of last year.

I was also interested in seeing the adult Yellow-legged Gull again because an old friend is visiting from Yorkshire in a couple of weeks, and he has never seen one (they are scarce on the coast up there). I thought I'd better get my eye in, they can be very tricky once all the adult Herring Gulls obtain summer plumage.

I quickly saw a good candidate on the water, and provisionally ticked it before it disappeared. Subsequently several other white-headed Herring Gulls were considered to be just that.

Yellow-legged Gull

I eventually reached the rafts and was pleased to relocate the Yellow-legged Gull devouring a dead fish on the deck. No more doubts.

Yellow-legged Gull

On a couple of occasions it took off and I got a shot of its wing pattern as it returned.

A good wedge of black on the primaries

Shortly afterwards I spotted it on the water, and confirmed that there was no longer one on the raft, so decided it must be the same bird.

Yellow-legged Gull

I did also get interested in a second adult grey-backed Gull, and wondered whether there were two present. But without seeing the legs of that one, I wasn't sure.

The Pochard was still present, and I also year-ticked a couple of Goosanders on Terrys before seeing three flying over the causeway (maybe the same birds).

Pochard

Goosanders

Finally I was pleased to see that the Kittiwake is still present, possibly chuckling to see me again after I had dashed there on the evening of its first day.

Kittiwake

Hopefully it will get strong enough to return to the coast.

PS: The other adult grey-backed Gull was also seen by John Oates, who was equally perplexed. After some Whatsapp chatter, there is a feeling that it could be a hybrid of some kind. My guess would be HerringXCaspian Gull based on a similar looking bird in the latest Gull field guide. I did photograph it, but John had a much sharper one.