Ring-billed Beauty!

20th January - well after my moan in the last post on the mediocrity of the patch birds, today is the reason why I carry on trudging around.

I only had my lunch break for a quick visit, but it was a lovely day with no wind and plenty of sunshine, though a bit cooler than of late.  First up, straight out of the car park, I could hear Siskins calling - 2 male birds were in the path side alders.  Not unusual, but a patch year tick.  Then on to the lake.

I had been unable to visit at the weekend and had missed a female Goldeneye - never an easy duck here, so I was hoping that it might still be about.  I couldn't see it on a couple of scans from the west bank, but 2 Shelduck were another year tick.  The water level had obviously fallen still further and there was a bit more of the spit poking through the water.  This had encouraged a few gulls down plus some geese and ducks away from the margins.  It was nice to have some gulls to look through again, as these had been absent in the high water conditions.  Nothing of note in the 20 or so gulls there, so I decided to continue towards the flood meadows.  Half way down, I used one of the gaps in path side vegetation to look back up to the NE corner to see if there was anything hidden there.  Whilst doing this, my scope hit the small group of gulls again - Ring-billed Gull!!!!!! Surely not, that wasn't there a minute ago.  I checked it through, but there was no mistaking it, a stonking adult Ring-billed Gull.  I quickly returned to my original position which was closer to the birds and after texting the news out, tried to get some record shots.  It really was very obvious.  It had a broad based, deep yellow bill with a well defined black terminal ring.  The iris was glaringly yellow and the legs were deep yellow with a slight greeny tone.  The mantle was very pale grey, similar to BHG and much lighter than adjacent Commons and it had a restricted tertial crescent.

After only a few minutes in which my record shots were patchy at best, something spooked the gulls and they all flew off south - I assumed to the flood meadows.  I made my way down there, but as the paths are still very muddy or underwater, this was not a quick exercise.  The meadow floods had receded since my visit on Friday and held hundreds of gulls - mainly BHG, but quite a few Commons.  These extended westwards to meadows that could not be viewed easily looking into the sun.  I gave it 10 minutes, but could not relocate the bird, so I returned to the lake only to find that the RBG was now sitting on the water in front of the island.  This gave me another opportunity to grab some record shots.  Whilst doing so, Neil W joined me and he was able to take some video, which I hope to link to later.  Taking our eyes off the bird to try and locate it from the back of camera screens whilst digiscoping proved a bad move, because suddenly it wasn't there any more and neither of us had seen it depart.  I assumed that it had flown back to the flood meadows, but again I couldn't find it there.  Unfortunately, my time had run out and I had to leave, but I left others looking and I hope it returns.  It may also be worth checking the QMR roost in Berks, as gulls from here often roost there.

Edit: it looks like it did roost at QMR, as Mike McKee had a probable adult RBG at 3pm, though it was too distant for photos.  Here is a link to Neil W's video:

http://youtu.be/UyPA4sVv_Qo

Funnily enough, although a scarce bird, this is my third at this site following an adult in April 2003 and a 2nd summer in July 2004, so for some reason Ring-billed Gulls seem to have a liking for this patch.

Initial views

Showing the legs

On the water