Waxham twitching Glaucous Gull & Iceland Gull

  As usual on my way back to France, I spent a bit of time with my good friend David Darrell-Lambert doing some birding around London. Due to train issues, I did not reach London until midday, but our plan for the afternoon was to drive the two-and-a-half hours north to the north Norfolk coast to the small village of Waxham. Here a Glaucous Gull and Iceland Gull had been seen on the beach, and, given the scarcity of both species, and David fancying the trip, we made this our destination. 

  It was already late afternoon when we arrived so we had only a limited timeframe to find the birds. Fortunately the directions we had were absolutely spot on, and we found the Glaucous Gull reasonably quickly as it fed on the beach. The Iceland Gull was a little further, but again, once we were in the right area we were able to find it without too much hassle. There were a lot of large gulls to filter through, but both of the white-winged species were quite conspicuous. Sadly they were not approachable at all, and we never managed to get close to them.

  In addition to the gulls, we had fantastic time with the areas many seals. We counted hundreds of Grey Seals hauled out on the beach right next to us, as well as a few pups. I scoured through the animals for Common Seals, and eventually spotted one in the water just before we left. On the birding front, there were a couple of other nice species; Common Scoter, Rock Pipit and a Turnstone being the best of the rest. 

-Glaucous Gull

-Iceland Gull

-Common Seal

-Grey Seal

Soil Hill

  It being a blustery morning in late February, I was not anticipating a morning of anything particularly notable on my visit to Soil Hill. The rain had cleared and there was no fog, so despite the wind I hoped for a pleasant walk where most of the regular species would be recorded. This was particularly important since it was a new week in the eBird bar charts!

  As I began my descent on Perseverance Road towards Ned Hill Track at 08:40, I spotted a large gull slowly moving in a southwesterly direction. Whilst I anticipated a Herring Gull, I was in for quite a shock when I got the bird in the binoculars to see that it had creamy-white primaries; a white-winger!

  Given the paucity of Glaucous Gull records in the UK, I was fairly confident the bird would turn out to be an Iceland Gull. Still, my priority in that moment was to take as many photos as I could, which was fairly straightforward given that the bird was not moving particularly quickly.

  Once it began to fly away from me I switched to following the bird in the hope that it might land on one of the nearby reservoirs. Simultaneously, I tried to get the news out so birders lower down the valley might be able to connect.

  In the end, the Gull headed for Ogden Water, where I lost it as it dropped behind the trees in the plantation there. Sadly however, BS and JJL checked the reservoir shortly after found no sign of the bird.

  A quick check of the photos confirmed my suspicions that it was an Iceland Gull. Scenes of celebration followed! This is my 133 species for Soil Hill and represents the first Halifax area record since 2022! It was not seen again at any other locations! Also of note, the long-staying bird at Roundhay Park in Leeds was not recorded today!

-Iceland Gull

-Stonechat

Roundhay Park twitching Iceland Gull

   With work not particularly forthcoming I had a bit of time on my hands, so decided to head over to Roundhay Park to twitch the Iceland Gull that has been showing well for the best part of a week. Twitching is not usually my scene, but a local bird which is showing well is always worth a fancy if time allows.

  Armed with some stale bread I headed down to the Waterloo Lake and very quickly found the gull sat on the water with the Herring Gulls. For some reason Half of the lake edge was fenced off. Where the fence ended I began to throw the bread for the assembled Mute Swans and Black-headed Gulls, but sadly the Iceland Gull seemed reluctant to move. I decided to change location, this time trying from the area in front of the café where there was no fence. 

  This began to work, with the Iceland Gull drifting towards this position with the allure of bread. It was getting to where I wanted it when my limited bread ran out, but I had hoped I had done enough to keep it where I wanted it. Sadly at this point another birder arrived, armed with his own bread, but decided to throw from the other side of the lake, from behind the fence. Consequently, now without my own retaliatory bread, the gull once again began to move away.

  Still, I was able to get some nice photos of the bird perched on the posts in front of the Lakeside Café. It was a very smart juvenile, and the first time I have seen this species since the individual on Redcar Tarn, back before the pandemic, so well overdue! 

-Iceland Gull

Redcar Tarn twitching Iceland Gull

Having first heard about the it not long after my arrival to Germany, the Iceland Gull less than half an hours drive from my house was a frustrating bird to say the least. Every day I checked to see if it was still being seen, and when it still present after storm Ciara I made it my priority as soon as I got back earlier today.

I turned up at the site mid afternoon after enduring a morning of train carnage, to the find the Iceland Gull immediately flying over the Tarn. A little bread persuasion and the bird came extremely close, showing incredibly well and finally allowing me to appreciate this species after only one previous sighting for me, in near darkness through a scope on the far side of a lake. This was an altogether different experience. 

The Caspian Gull that had been frequenting the site also made an appearance, although it was not as persuaded by the bread. It remained distant for much for the time I was there but once the hail set in it did come closer. At one point point both birds were sat on the water together.

-Iceland Gull

-Caspian Gull

Species List:

Redcar Tarn: Canada Goose, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Goosander, Common Woodpigeon, Coot, Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, European Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Caspian Gull, Iceland Gull, Western Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Common Starling, 

Mirfield/Pugneys Twitching Thayers Gull

Well, today did not quite go to plan. I ended up getting quite a late train to Mirfield for the thayers gull hoping that it would be chilling on the rooftops. Alas there were no gulls at all on any of the roof tops and none of the gulls going over appeared to be thayers in nature. I had though I would miss the bird at Mirfield but that I would get it at the roost, so by half 12 I decided 1 and a half hours of watching not very much was probably an indication that I should move on.
  I decided to head to Pugneys to revisit the blyths pipit and then head over to the gull watch. Just under 2 hours later I finally arrived at Pugneys having had a nightmare with the public transport. Dusk was already falling so I decided not to go to the blyths as I figured that it would have settled for the night and headed straight to the gull roost.
  There was quite a crowd gathered, at least 50 and certainly more birders all in a line awaiting the gull roost. Sadly it disappointed. The thayers did not come in, and most gulls did not come in until late, so much so that the light was almost gone by the time the gulls started to drop in. So no thayers and no blyths.
  Given how unfortunate I had been with birds and public transport I was bracing myself for a pretty rotten evening. However, all got much better when an Iceland Gull dropped in to the roost late on. I could not find it for the life of me in my scope, but fortunately another gentleman nearby allowed me to look through his Swaro and I got a very nice view of the bird, clearly and Iceland Gull and another lifer for me, probably my last this year. It was way too distant for me to attempt a photo and since I could not locate the gull it waould have been difficult anyway. However, I found on twitter a picture of the bird from someone else, so this can serve as some kind of record shot for this lifer.

-Iceland Gull (Not my photo)

So in the end it was not a total disaster and I spent less than a tenna on the buses and trains, so that made it much better, even if I did have to run for a train in the end. I am well pleased to have ticked off Iceland Gull, pretty reasonable compensation for the Thayers. Although now it is being discussed as possibly being a herring gull, so I may have missed nothing at all...

Species List:

Mirfield: Grey Wagtail, Long-Tailed Tit, Goosander, Blue Tit, Canada Goose, Starling, Graylag Goose, Mute Swan, Mallard, Coot, Moorhen, Black-Headed Gull, Carrion Crow, Feral Pigeon, Woodpigeon, Common Gull, Herring Gull, Greater Black-Backed Gull, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Magpie, Cormorant, Mistle Thrush, Pied Wagtail, Blackbird, 

Pugneys CP: Tufted Duck, Mallard, Shoveler, Goldeneye, Pochard, Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Cormorant, Pied Wagtail, Graylag Goose, Iceland Gull, Black Headed Gull, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Greater Black-Backed Gull, Herring Gull, Common Gull, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Woodpigeon,