Off patch gulling

With the patch being quiet, I've spent a bit of time gulling at Hedgerley landfill.  This site is the one of the main sources of gulls that appear at Little Marlow, so I've been checking it for white wingers and Casps in the hope that may might appear on patch.  The trouble with watching the gulls here is that the landfill owners employ a bird scarer or two, which usually involves a guy flying falcons over the site, which scatters the gulls all over the place.  So you have to be lucky in terms of timing visits to coincide with lunch breaks etc to get any chance of seeing anything.  That said, I went on the 9th and 10th and saw no gull scaring activity at all, so he might be off sick at the moment.

Over 4 visits on the 3rd, 7th, 9th and 10th, I've managed to see at least 4 and possibly 5 Caspian Gulls, 3-4 1st winters and an adult, but just 2 Yellow-legged Gulls, an adult and 1st winter.  The usual GBBG, LBBG and the most numerous Herring Gulls and BHG with just a handful of Common Gulls.  No white wingers yet though.



Saw this on the 9th and 10th

 

Saw this on the 3rd



Saw this on the 9th

Saw this on the 10th

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera on the 7th when I saw 2 1st winter Casps, both different to the bird on the 3rd and at least one different to all these photographed.  The adult above has what appears to be very yellow legs.  A lot of the gulls here look like this and it is in fact the colour of the muddy sand on site.  The colour of its tibia is more reflective of true leg colour.

I also saw the bird below on the 10th, which looks to me like a presumed hybrid graellsii LBBG and argenteus Herring Gull.  When I first saw it, it looked like a pink legged graellsii, it certainly has the mantle shade of graellsii, though looks slightly large for that species.

I've also managed to read 22 gull colour rings.  Most of these have been rung by the North Thames Gull Group at Rainham and Pitsea, but the following are quite interesting:

Herring Gull, black J5440, ringed as a pullus on 02/08/2012 in Troms, North Norway 2336km to the north.
BHG, yellow 2DST, ringed as an adult at Pitsea landfill on 08/03/2014.  On the 25/03/2014 it was at Alytaus in Lithuania and now back in Bucks this winter.
Herring Gull, orange 1171, ringed as an adult at Ellington Rd Landfill, Ashington , Northumberland on 10/03/2005 and not recorded since.