The frozen flash

A glorious day at Pennington flash, with beautiful sunshine in cloudless skies and 90% ice cover. Highlight was another Caspian gull, this time a 1st winter bird in what was actually quite a small gull roost. Amazingly this is at least the fifth Caspian gull at the flash this autumn.

Note the white head contrasting with the brown neck. The mantle and scapulars are grey, and in particular notice the diagnostic dark streaks and diamond shapes in the scapulars. The tertials are black with a pale edge, the greater coverts brown, the wings are long and the underparts largely white.

Regular readers of this blog will know how much I've struggled with Caspian gull in the past and how I've more or less given up with the species on more than one occasion, so it's pleasing now to be in a position where I finally feel that I've cracked it with this species. The past three potential Caspians that I've found (sub-adult,  2nd winter & 1st winter) have all been given the green light by the county recorder and I've submitted descriptions with photos and videos of each. It's taken a while and I'm sure that there will always be further challenges ahead and some birds which just can't be done, especially given the hybrid potential, but hopefully I've now got a reasonable idea of what to look for.

 

The mainly white underwing is also a feature of Caspian gull.

In other news, forty-six goldeneye were recorded and were easy to count because of the scarcity of open water which forced them to group together. Another patch of water held 61 greylags.

The jackdaw roost is really impressive, one of the great birding spectacles of Pennington Flash, yet one which is missed by so many visitors if they don't stay until dusk.

Sparrowhawk at dusk.

Another jack snipe was at the Slag lane end.