It's always a bad sign when I title a blog post "weekly round-up". It generally means I haven't seen much, but on the other hand at least I've got some content.
My most recent exploratory walk was to the south-east edge of the Circle and was pretty uninspiring. A distant perched Red Kite kept vigil over the sheep pastures south of The View, a cafe half a mile south of Wootton Wawen. It was just about worth reporting.
The weekend then brought Storm Darragh. Could this bring in some interesting birds? Well it is December, so the answer was no. Nevertheless, with the ringers abandoning all thoughts of ringing at Morton Bagot and Dave choosing to bird at Marsh Lane GP, I decided to give Earlswood a look on Sunday.
The wind was still strong, and was now northerly. It was cold. Half way around Engine Pool I was wondering why I had bothered, but at least a swirling mass of mainly Black-headed Gulls seemed worth a look. Among them were a few large gulls, mainly Herring Gulls, and eventually I picked out one that looked different.
It appeared white headed, its mantle a grey somewhere between Lesser Black-backed and Herring Gull in darkness, it looked a good bet for a Yellow-legged Gull. Unfortunately it was showing no signs of wanting to land on a raft, preferring to either stay in the air or land on the water.
Something didn't feel right though. It wasn't particularly large, no bigger than a Lesser Black-backed Gull, the head was lightly streaked. Could it just be a very pale Lesser?Eventually it drifted past a normal Lesser Black-backed and it was noticeably paler. I tried photographing and filming it, and eventually reached the tentative conclusion that it was a hybrid Lesser Black-backed x Herring Gull.
The legs look yellowish straw to me, while the webbing and toes are clearly pink. This could be ok for Yellow-legged Gull, but I would have expected the legs to be brighter yellow.
In the afternoon I posted some images on the Earlswood Whats app Group site, and was asked by Matt whether I had seen the colour of the orbital ring. This should be red in Lesser Black-backed and Yellow-legged Gull and yellow in Herring (although it is still subject to individual variation). Well I hadn't, but I tried zooming in on one of my shots and got this;
Not very helpful really. The orbital ring looks grey, maybe with a hint of redness. On balance I think this supports the identification of it as a hybrid, but hopefully it may be seen again in better light.
While I was absorbed with this Gull I got a message from my sister. She had photographed a male Brambling in her garden at Tidbury Green. Perfect, an opportunity for a chat in the warm and some coffee.
The Brambling appeared after about fifteen minutes, but frustratingly refused to visit the actual feeder, preferring to sit in a bush partially obscured from view.
Annie's feeders are fantastic. A swarm of Blue Tits was in constant attendance along with a host of other garden birds. Inevitably we started comparing feeders, but I couldn't think of much which favoured ours in Winyates East.
Oh wait a moment. Annie never gets these:
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