Tuesday 3 April 2018

Iceland Gull

Iceland Gull, Axe Estuary, 01/04/2018 (Copyright T D Wright)
Iceland Gull, Axe Estuary, 01/04/2018 (Copyright T D Wright)
Iceland Gull, Axe Estuary, 01/04/2018 (Copyright T D Wright)
Well, Easter often delivers some good birds here and this year it was in the form of 'Whitewingers'. On Good Friday Ian McLean had me cycling in the rain to see his Glaucous Gull, then on Easter Sunday I popped into Tower Hide and an Iceland Gull was sparring with the Herrings & 'Blackbackers' at close range! Both were 1st Winter birds and very welcome to me as I seemed to keep missing all the whitewingers this year. Somebody (The Birding Gods?!) must have rolled away the stone or made the scales fall from my eyes or something. Apart from these 2 gems, we also had Goosander about (pair on Friday, Redhead Monday), 7 Ringed Plover on BHM during the torrential rain on Friday, plus 2 Bar-tailed Godwit on Monday. I also finally got my first Sand Martin on April 2nd, an incredibly late date for my first hirundine of the year. I stumbled across a Barnacle-type goose on Bridge Marsh with the Greylag and Canadas there, presumed to be Dave Helliar's bird from Chard Junction recently. I must say I'm surprised to read Steve Waite saying it's a 'pure' Barney as I felt sure it must have a bit of something else in it. How about 75% Barnacle 25% Richardson's?! I even visited Borrow Pit briefly to twitch the Willow Warblers and saw one really well but more importantly heard one singing. Anyway, more Iceland pics...
Iceland Gull, Axe Estuary, 01/04/2018 (Copyright T D Wright)
Iceland Gull with Spring Green, Axe Estuary, 01/04/2018 (Copyright T D Wright)
Iceland Gull with Spring Green, Axe Estuary, 01/04/2018 (Copyright T D Wright)
Iceland Gull, Axe Estuary, 01/04/2018 (Copyright T D Wright)
Iceland Gull, Axe Estuary, 01/04/2018 (Copyright T D Wright)

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