London Caspian Gulling

Facebook will probably do a great job of reducing the quality of these images but hopefully they will still be good enough to view.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at Thamesmead along the river Thames looking for Caspian Gulls, a species that has dramatically reduced in numbers locally following landfill closures.

I needed a Caspian Gull fix and today was one of the best in a few years with eight different birds seen, an adult and seven 1st-winters, though potentially one of these could well be a hybrid.

Plenty of cheap loaves were deployed on the Thames gulls today.

 

Bird 1

Bird 2 

Bird 3

Bird 4

Bird 5

Bird 6

Bird 7

Bird 8

Nuthatches

Nuthatch is one of my absolute favourite birds, something about them always delights. Today I spent a few hours trying to photograph a pair that were coming to a local woodland feeding station but being on the edge of the wood light was lacking and high ISOs were required to even get anywhere near 1/200th sec shutter speed. Still a few have come out quite well. 

Locally Nuthatch went through a phase of rapid expansion in the local woods but now they are only found in Hockley Woods and Belfairs / Pound Woods. Those that 'may' breed in Belfairs are usually found in Pound Wood in the winter where they can put on a show. 

Lets hope this charasmatic bird keeps its foothold in the local woods.

Goose Chase

Well it wasn't really a goose chase in the end, more like a drive up there they are, job done. 

In December two Red-breasted Geese had arrived with the Brent Goose flock on the other side of the River Crouch along the Dengie and despite making several visits to Wallasea in the hope they flew across and into our recording area it was obvious that they were settled and unlikely to move anytime soon. As the directions on RBA were for a very long walk along the seawall from Burnham I had decided to not make the effort despite wanting to see them. 

As it later turned out I was able to get a lift to the actual site using private farm tracks with someone who has access and on the 2nd January we rolled up and the flock was right next to the track and close to the seawall. So instead of a 8-10miles round trip walk ending in being completely knackered I was able to see these two stunners from the car. result. 

It wasn't two windy and the light was mostly flat so higher ISO's were needed than I would usually go to but as the male of the two birds was generally always on the closest edge of the confiding brent flock I have not had the need to crop to heavily.

A most enjoyable morning out.