The West Bay patch has suddenly grown some amazing new habitat. I first noticed it yesterday afternoon, and this is what it looked like this morning...
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Lovely, lovely floodwater. And this isn't all of it. |
Lying between the River Brit and West Bay Road, these fields are home to the annual Melplash Show, one of the Southwest's top agricultural exhibitions. On a more mundane note, they are also home to a million dog-walkers (who actually pay a fee for the privilege) and therefore normally birdless. I assume the combination of rain and a big tide has caused the Brit to burst its banks, and hope sincerely that it will take a very long time (like, all winter please) to subside. Thankfully the flood is extensive enough that birds are not necessarily spooked by the dog-walkers around its fringes. After discovering this Mecca late yesterday, I stayed until it was too dark to see. Apart from two or three Med Gulls, there was a steady trickle of big gulls dropping in for a pre-roost wash and brush-up. Nothing of note, but a heady scent of promise!
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A grainy, high-ISO shot of one of yesterday afternoon's adult
Med Gulls. |
As well as a sheet of water there are several lines of robust fencing for gulls to perch on. The morning sun illuminates them beautifully...
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Just one Med Gull this morning. |
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Adult Med Gull |
There were also decent numbers of large gulls. When I have the time to do it
properly, picking through a load of big gulls is one of my favourite pastimes.
Mostly they will be argenteus Herring Gulls in various plumages. With adults (or near-adults) I am on the lookout for any that might be a
shade darker, which is usually the first step to bagging a
Yellow-legged Gull. And this morning there was just such a bird,
noticeably darker than nearby adult Herring Gulls. However, it was no
Yellow-legged Gull...
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That bill betrays its immaturity straight way. So, not an adult. Also,
with that coarse dark streaking on neck and head, not a
Yellow-legged Gull either. |
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Here it is alongside an adult Herring Gull. Slightly darker, and
a different sort of grey altogether. |
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Size-wise it was in the 'small Herring Gull' bracket. |
So, darker than argenteus HG but definitely not YLG. What other options are there? Well, one is argentatus, or so-called Scandinavian Herring Gull, which is a lot rarer down here than YLG. But argentatus HG is normally a big, heavily-streaked brute of a gull, which this is not.
The final option that I know of is Herring x Lesser Black-backed hybrid. I haven't knowingly seen one for ages, but recall that they tend to be on the small side. It would be nice to see the wing pattern...
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There we go! Note lack of mirrors in outer primaries; just a tiny white
spot on the left wing. |
Black in the primary coverts and in the tail feathers, plus a brownish tinge to some of the wing feathers, indicate a bird in its third calendar year, i.e. 3rd-winter plumage. A pure Herring Gull of this age ought to have obvious mirrors in the outer primaries (Yellow-legged Gull too) while a pure Lesser Black-backed Gull would be significantly darker, and probably have more extensive black on the inner primaries, rather than just a speck on p4. So I am pretty confident in calling this a Herring x Lesser Black-backed hybrid. And rather beautiful it is too.
I can't believe we suddenly have all this lovely gull habitat. I am so excited!
On a different note...
Last week was half-term, and West Bay had many visitors. Having lived here for a while now, I am well aware of the hazards associated with our rugged coastal scenery. But visitors may not be. So there are plentiful signs in prominent places, warning of the dangers. Like cliff-falls, for example. Mind you, one scan of the East Cliffs is enough to tell you that cliff-falls are frequent, and often big. But hey-ho, it won't happen to me...
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The East Cliffs, with the remains of at least three recent falls in this
shot. |
Cliff-falls often obliterate the beach below, from the base of the cliffs to well beyond the low-water mark. Anyone caught in that would undoubtedly be a gonner. Sometimes the beach is closed after such falls. Eventually the sea washes away the rubble furthest from the cliffs, leaving just a steep mound at the very foot of them, and the beach is opened again. But it is only a matter of time until the next massive collapse...
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Following a night of torrential rain... Russian roulette, with rocks. |