Axe Casp Wrecks Lunch Break

After a steady morning's work I was looking forward to a quiet lunch by the estuary. The tide was low and there were a few gulls to look at. Most were upriver beyond Coronation Corner, so before unpacking my sarnies I thought I should take the scope over to the viewing platform and check them out properly. Should only take a couple of minutes...

Newly-arrived birds usually land in the river and have a good wash first, moving onto the mud afterwards to preen. My eye was drawn to just such an individual, splashing and rolling in the water. Momentarily I thought it might be a 2nd-winter Yellow-legged Gull, but fairly quickly decided it looked even better...

Giving off very Caspy vibes here.

The grey mantle and scapular feathers look a tad darker than those of surrounding argenteus Herring Gulls, and a slightly different tone also.

They're tiny, but they're there: those little white flecks in the outermost primary tips are characteristic of 2nd-winter Caspian Gull.

As expected, it soon flew from the water. Thankfully It plonked on the mud with other gulls...

And now it's looking as Caspy as you like. Again, note the subtle difference in grey tone compared with surrounding HGs.

It didn't stay in this spot for long, flying even further away but thankfully not departing. At this point I was joined on the platform by another birder, who had seen my message on the local WhatsApp group. To my shame I didn't immediately recognise Devon birding stalwart Martin Wolinski (it's been a few years!) but it was good to see him again and share a nice bird.

Although distant shots like this don't show a lot of feather detail they are very good at conveying a bird's jizz. That clean, white-headed look, with minimal shading around the eye, is essentially the same thing that makes 1st-winters stand out too.

Once again it didn't settle for long in this spot, and soon moved further away still...

At this point I realised it must be right in front of the Tower Hide, which is just across the river to the left in the photo above, and that my lunch break was doomed. So I said my goodbyes to Martin and headed round to Black Hole Marsh.

Caspian Gulls are notorious for their short stays on the Axe, and I was not optimistic that this one would stick until I arrived at the hide. Amazingly it did.

I have never taken so many photos of one bird. The next bunch are mostly quite samey, but are rather good at conveying that 'look' which Casps seem to have. I'm sure the seemingly small, beady eye contributes to it. I wondered about annotating one or two shots to highlight plumage characteristics shown by Caspian Gulls of this age, but decided they are probably better left as they are. Anyway, collectively they contribute to a useful search image to store away somewhere handy.

One thing I will say about this bird: it doesn't have the longest legs. Ideally you want to see a lanky pair of stilts on your Casp, but I have encountered birds previously that were similarly challenged in that department. So it's not a concern ID-wise, just aesthetically less than ideal perhaps.

I waited a long time for the opportunity to capture a full wing stretch, and like an idiot I neglected to adjust the composition when the bird finally obliged. So what should have been the very best shots in the sequence are missing some primary tips!

This is only the fourth 2nd-winter Caspian Gull I've seen. Two were also on the Axe (found by Steve Waite) and the other was on the West Bex Mere. I was delighted to share this smart gull with another couple of birders in the Tower Hide, including Mike Blaver, one of the local regulars. In my experience Casps are frequently seen only by the finder, so that made a nice change. Eventually it departed seawards down the river.

So that was lunch.