More gulls but not much else

I've paid a few visits over the past week, but have been a bit slow on the updates!  Not much to trouble the year list, but there have been some nice gulls to watch in the pre-roosts.

On the 11th, the regular male 1st winter Caspian Gull was 1 of only 4 large gulls present in the morning.  As I watched it, it took off and flew south on to the riverside Spade Oak flood meadow, which having recently been flooded, is now covered in mud and attracts many hundreds of BHG to feed.  Here, it was the only large gulll and it picked at the mud quite happily for half an hour before flying off west - not sure where it was heading.  A Little Egret was also amongst this throng and my first of the year here.

The regular male Shelduck had been joined by a female, but I didn't see either over the weekend.  The over wintering Green Sand was also seen a couple of times on the spit.  It is not always on this pit and gets on the STW and other areas.

I made it down to the gull roost on the afternoon of the 12th.  The big 1st winter Casp was present when I arrived, to the delight of a couple of visitors - they had seen an adult Med Gull earlier, which I thought might be the same bird I had seen the previous day near Hedgerley landfill, as many of our gulls come from that site.  I began to search through the hundreds of BHG and found a 1st winter Med Gull - as usual, the small gulls were constantly being put up by things that the large gulls generally ignore, so it was difficult to keep tabs on.  A second 1st winter Caspian Gull appeared at the back of the spit - smaller and daintier than the usual bird, but nicely marked - not sure I've seen this one here before, but it might one of the birds seen before Christmas.  Finally Mick M picked up the adult Med hidden amongst the BHG - I only managed to see its head and from this it looked very similar to yesterday's bird, with the black hood beginning to show, particularly around the eyes, ear coverts, back of the nape and top of the crown.  The bill was also solidly red with a black sub terminal bar.  The 1st winter Med reappeared nearby briefly so both birds were almost together, before they all got put up and many of the BHG plus the Meds flew off south.

A poor record of the regular bird - I blame poor light!

Another visit to the gull roost on the 13th was less exciting that the previous day.  Both 1st winter Casps were seen first thing in the morning, so had presumably roosted and an adult Med was seen early afternoon, but all of these birds failed to appear in the late afternoon.  However, one of the first birds I looked at looked good for adult Caspian Gull - I haven't seen this age here before, so I scrutinised the features and it all looked good - it even did several laps of the lake showing off the wing tip pattern and underside of P10 nicely.  A screaming Water Rail was a further year tick.

This Goldcrest was displaying to a female in the depths of a hedgerow showing off his lovely red crest, so i grabbed a record shot:



And finally just off patch, a record shot of some of a group of 28 Waxwings that were feeding on rose hips at the Jubilee River recently - typically confiding, they were right next to the path and me!  Unfortunately, the light was horribly grey, but you can see what they are!