Gulls

Third-Winter (I think) yellow-legged gull, Salford Quays

The weather was set for being as fair as it gets of a weekend this time of year. It had been quiet in the garden (yesterday I opened the curtains to a dozen woodpigeons wheeling about, spooked by a buzzard flying over at rooftop height). There was more going on on the school field across the road with a horde of woodpigeons coinciding with a flock of gulls (usually it's either/or).

• Black-headed Gull 21
• Carrion Crow 1
• Common Gull 1
• Herring Gull 4
• Jackdaw 5
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 10
• Magpie 2
• Rook 13
• Woodpigeon 46

Herring gulls, Lostock School

Black-headed gull, lesser black-backs, woodpigeon and jackdaw, Lostock School

I had a wander over the local patch. Perhaps it was the change in the weather, perhaps it was because I went out slightly later than usual, whatever the reason there were more birds about than there has been for a while. The goldfinches were coming in to roost in the shrubs along the old rail line. I'm unsure where they'd been, the thistles and willowherbs have been well gone over and the goldenrod seeds haven't yet ripened.

• Black-headed Gull 2
• Blue Tit 4
• Carrion Crow 4
• Feral Pigeon 18
• Goldfinch 19
• Great Tit 4
• Long-tailed Tit 2
• Magpie 20
• Woodpigeon 11

I pottered over to Salford Quays to see what was in the gull roost. Walking down the path by the Imperial War Museum I bumped into a nice male wagtail almost completely in his Winter colours.

Pied wagtail, Wharfside

There were a few cormorants on the canal by the bridge. Most were loafing on buoys, one was busy fishing near the path though it didn't seem to have been having much luck.

Cormorant, Salford Quays

Black-headed, herring and lesser black-backed gulls, Salford Quays

There had been a few black-headed gulls and lesser black-backs flying around. There were considerably more on the water in the quays, more than a hundred and fifty of the former and fifty-odd of the latter. There were a couple of dozen herring gulls in rafts in mid-water, mostly first Winter birds with dark panda eyes. All in all there was a bewildering array of large gull plumages out there between the different ages and how far they'd progressed in their moults into Winter plumage. To add to the difficulties, the wind scudding the clouds over the sun meant that any grey on birds on the water wasn't the same shade from one minute to the other. 

Herring gulls

One bird stood out amongst the herring gulls, it looked a different shape and had a clear white head. I lost it for a few minutes when it joined the crowd squabbling for scraps a lady was throwing over from the opposite bank but eventually picked it out again when things quietened down. 

I really struggled with this bird. It was a big herring gull type, not as burly and block-headed as the yellow-legged gulls I've seen. The bill looked long and the eyes looked dark and beady so I tentatively identified it as a third-Winter Caspian gull but still wasn't comfortable about it. It was either a Caspian or a yellow-legged but didn't seem comfortably right for either. When I got home I looked through the pictures and hit the reference books. Once I could look at the photos in detail I could see that the bird had a pale iris, not an all-dark eye. And the bill was appreciably deeper than I realised at the time. A daintier than usual yellow-legged gull. Without the photos it would have been a one that got away.

Black-headed gulls, yellow-legged gull and herring gull, Salford Quays

Black-headed gulls, yellow-legged gull and herring gull, Salford Quays

I walked down to Pomona, continuing to fret about that gull, and being more comfortable about identifying nearly all the other gulls I was seeing (there's always an element of doubt with some some young gulls if you only get a quick look at them; it was infinitely easier back when what wasn't a lesser black-back was a herring gull). 

Juvenile cormorant and heron, Salford Quays

There was a congregation of black-headed gulls and lesser black-backs in the shallows by Gnome Island (don't ask…). They were joined by a few moorhens, some more cormorants and a very sleepy heron. It was only when I got home I realised I hadn't seen any coots there today. They tend to favour Ontario Basin and there was a lot of activity involving mute swans, gulls and mallards over there so I probably missed them in the crowd.

A couple of nice walks and the reminder I really don't need that I'll never be a gull expert.