Roger and I decided to go to
Albert Village Lake today as there had been second-winter Iceland and Glaucous
Gulls present yesterday.
When we arrived the light was
not too good due to the bright sunshine but there were plenty of gulls on the
lake. Initially all we could find were
the five common species until Roger picked up a white-winged gull and suggested
it might be n Iceland Gull. The bird
clearly had whitish wings but it didn’t look structurally right to me. The bill suggested that it might be a
first-winter Iceland but I was still a little concerned that it might be a
hybrid. It eventually flew and gained
height before heading off to the northwest.
I did manage to get a couple of photos in flight but it was rather
distant and they were not perfect and the bird did not return during our stay.
Potential hybrid
We were joined by Allen
Peacock and shortly afterwards I found an adult Caspian Gull and then Allen
found a second but there were still no sign of either of the white-winged
gulls. Allen walked off towards the far
end and shortly afterwards all of the gulls took to flight, leaving very few on
the water. Allen then rejoined us and
after a short wait lots of gulls flew off the tip and many came down on the
water. It wasn’t too long after this
that Roger found the second-winter Glaucous Gull and then Allen found the
second-winter Iceland Gull. We moved
back along the track to get better views of the Iceland and we had both it and
the Glaucous together briefly. I had spoken
to Steve who has permission to enter the tip and he informed me that there was
not a single gull visible and it was apparent that most were on the lake.
Glaucous Gull
Glaucous Gull
Iceland Gull
We eventually called it a day
when all of the gulls took to flight and headed off back to the tip. We had also seen a Peregrine and a Raven
whist observed the gulls.
Roger and I then decided to
visit Kelham Bridge as this is one of the few reliable sites for Willow Tit in
the county. After some lunch we walked
to the hide and almost immediately we had a Willow Tit on the feeders,
eventually seeing two. A Sparrowhawk was
observed as we approached the hide and a Buzzard flew over as we were having
lunch.
Willow Tit
Male Chaffinch
Brown Rat
Grey Squirrel
With still some time left in
the day we headed for Barrow-upon-Soar sewage works in the hope of seeing the
Siberian Chiffchaff. We soon found two
Chiffchaffs in the hedge close to the works but there was no sign of the
Siberian Chiffchaff during our brief visit.
It had been a rather
successful day seeing both of the white-winged gulls and also another three
year ticks.
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