I was at Cudworth 'Tea in the park' until 3pm promoting the reserve on a stall, but I received a call from Richard Laverack and Jim Plant at 09.44hrs to say that the Iceland Gull was on the wader scrape with a 2nd summer Mediterranean Gull. As luck happens Geoff Miller was with me so we scoped both birds looking down onto the new wader scrape from the park railings.
It is a bird I have been waiting to see here for a very long time. I missed the only previous bird, an adult with a broken leg on 1/11/81, John J. Jackson. The
same bird was seen again at Bleachcroft pond heading NE on 3/11/81, John C. Clarkson. Today's bird was a site tick for all the regulars.
Anybody with expertise on YL Gull and Caspian Gull juvs, I am sure will find one amongst the many Herring and LBB Gulls frequenting the wader scrape on a daily basis.
Also present was 2 Little Egrets, Green and Great Spotted Woodpecker, a singing Lesser Whitethroat and a Fox.
2nd summer Mediterranean Gull (Dave Smith)
3 comments:
Cracking record. Just a note on the ageing - this is a first-summer bird (or a second calendar year bird to younger readers). A second-summer (third calendar year) is in adult plumage. There are a lot of Med Gulls about locally at present - two different to this at Edderthorpe in the last three days and eight different birds at Old Moor in the last week.
Yes, great stuff. Good to see the habitat works reaping the rewards.
Ok Thanks Graham
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