The Start of an Era

This morning's Seaton Birdwatching Tram was the last of the year, but my last, full stop. A few minutes before arriving back at base, Brian the duty inspector climbed aboard at Riverside Halt and made a brief announcement to that effect. His kind words in the midst of a sharp shower garnered a ripple of polite applause, and brought the end to an era. My days of gainful employment are now 100% done.

Obviously, the end of one era is the start of another, though to be honest I have no firm plans. Mind you, walking back to my car I dropped in at the fishmongers and enquired about sardine availability. So I guess there might be some pike fishing on the agenda...

Anyway, prior to this morning's jaunt I stopped off opposite the tram sheds to give a group of 30-40 large gulls the once-over, and was surprised to spot this among them...

1st-winter Caspian Gull with Great Black-backed Gulls.

I say 'surprised' but that's not really true. Things have reached the point where I almost expect to find a Casp at the moment, and am slightly disappointed when I don't. If I have interpreted Steve's calculations correctly, this is probably the 31st Axe Casp of 2025. With a previous peak annual total of six (2023) and just 38 since the first in 2007, 31 Caspian Gulls in a single year is ridiculous. And there are still two months to go. I think it is safe to say that something has happened! And perhaps the taxon's ever-burgeoning population just across the North Sea is part of that 'something'. Breeding in Britain must surely be imminent.

I posted a photo of today's bird on BlueSky and someone commented that it gave them 'Yellow-legged Gull vibes'. It doesn't do that for me, but the comment nevertheless touched on something I've been wondering about.

As the Casp population has grown and spread rapidly westwards across Europe, with many now breeding along the Dutch coast, I highly doubt that its genetic purity has survived even slightly unscathed. In mixed colonies of Caspian, Herring and Yellow-legged Gulls, intra-specific fidelity is not necessarily a thing, and hybrids, back-crosses and the rest must be legion. It strikes me that most of the Casps we see these days are not what you would call 'classic' birds, and I suspect this is why. Today's bird is typical.

Still, I am more than happy to take any number of less-than-perfect Casps. They are still a lot of fun...

Nice comparison with 1cy GBBG (left) and Herring Gull.

I've managed very little birding since the previous post, but a morning visit to Beer Head tapped into a decent movement of Woodpigeons, if not much else. Unfortunately the flight line was mostly inland from the Head itself, so most of the accompanying finches, pipits etc went unidentified.

Just a few of many thousands of Woodpigeons that headed W last weekend

At least his little party of Stock Doves was close enough for the camera.

In other news, despite plans to the contrary an irresistible urge had me digging out the moth trap from the box where I had stowed it pre-move, and figuring out how to rig it up in our miniscule garden. We have bright street lights here, and a quick, mothless look before bed convinced me there would be nothing in it come the morning. But daylight revealed seven moths: White Point and Rusty-dot Pearl (both migrants), two Vine's Rustics, a Large Yellow Underwing, and singles of Merveille du Jour and Green-brindled Crescent. The latter two were scarce gems in our Bridport garden, with just two and four respectively in three autumns of trapping. The Green-brindled Crescent wasn't actually in the trap but around the corner, a few inches from the 20W actinic porch light. I thought this might be coincidence, and that the trap had actually drawn it in, but the following night (no trap) produced a different Merveille du Jour to the porch light. So it definitely works!

Green-brindled Crescent

Merveille du Jour to 20W actinic porch light!