Smart Gulls and a A First for Devon

In the seven weeks we've been back in East Devon I have checked the Axe Estuary gulls on maybe 10 occasions and am already up to five Caspian Gulls. Two today, the first time I've seen two at once. The first was a whopper...

First-winter Caspian Gull. The closest it came before heading off down the river.

Nice view of the tail and upperwing. Greater, median and lesser coverts all showing signs of moult, with 2nd-generation feathers evident in each.

Initial views were like this. Quite distant, but that strikingly white head was like a beacon.

Always looked big, facially like Great Black-backed Gull at times. No doubt a male.

Very pale underwing. Not a critical feature, but always nice to see.

After maybe half an hour of enjoying that hulking beast, a quick scan of newly-arrived gulls on the water revealed this one...

2w Caspian Gull (right) with 1w and 3w Herring Gulls.

Initial binocular views misled me into thinking this was another 1w bird, but clearly it is not. Even so, its moult seems less advanced than I would have expected. Though I've seen only a handful of 2w Casps, they have all had more grey feathers than this one. A couple of other things about this bird: no sign of any p10 mirrors, and rather dark inner primaries. Not vital, but p10 mirrors would have been nice. And all the other second-winters I've seen have had noticeably paler inner primaries. Not this bird...

No p10 mirror on this side. Nor the other, as far as I could make out.

The inner webs of the inner primaries do look a bit paler (more noticeable on left-hand wing) but it's certainly not extensive or obvious.

Compare the above with this 2w Casp on the Axe almost exactly a year ago...

4/11/2024. Obvious pale panel created by broad, pale inner webs of inner primaries.

Anyway, today's bird did make me wonder what a Casp x LBBG might look like, but I am definitely not going to pursue that thought any further than this sentence. Some more pics...

Really I should have been using my time to comb likely spots for stripy warblers, but a flock of gulls is hard to resist and far more likely to cough up something decent.*

In other news...

The Axminster Moth List is up to 20 species now, with these recent additions...

Barred Sallow

Feathered Thorn

Diamond-back Moth

The latter is a common migrant of course. We had another Olive-tree Pearl too, which for me is a much, much less common migrant...

Olive-tree Pearl

Finally, the suspected Obscure Mompha (Mompha jurassicella) which featured in the previous post is indeed an Obscure Mompha. I emailed pics to the Devon Moth Recorder and asked for his thoughts. I was expecting a reply along the lines of:

'Yes, it certainly could be M. jurassicella, but what with the confusion species and the photographic dodginess...blah, blah...dissection of the specimen would be essential to confirm.'

But what I in fact got was:

'The first two photos do indeed show jurassicella new to Devon - excellent.'

That's an unequivocal thumbs-up then. New to Devon. Wow! What an utterly bizarre start to Devon mothing.

There it is, the dowdy little speck of joy: Obscure Mompha Mompha jurasicella - the first for Devon.

* Bonus points if you spotted the lurking Med Gull in some of the earlier photos.