An exhilarating morning at the flash, I could barely keep up with what was happening! I arrived at the boat club at 7:30ish and almost immediately saw a gull on the water close in which I immediately thought was a Caspian gull. However, in my mind I called it a juvenile, yet it clearly wasn't. No sooner had I seen it than it flew off towards the flock in the middle and was out of sight for me. Just as it flew, Ian messaged me to say that he'd just had two Sandwich terns but they'd departed high west. Then 20 seconds later another message to say that they were back and high over the spit. By this time I'd already seen them myself and I watched as they climbed higher and this time really did leave west.
Now another message, female common scoter in the middle. I started to scan and soon found it but barely had time to look at it properly before my phone went again, 2nd winter Caspian gull in the middle! But hang on, 2nd winter? I still had juvenile in my mind, although by this time I had changed my thinking to more like 1st winter. It seemed like my bird probably wasn't a Caspian but by coincidence Ian had found another.
The flock of 40 or so gulls was distant from the boat club and against the light, but fortunately my car was in Green Lane so I swiftly walked back and drove to the main car park. Now I should have no difficulty finding the gull. Wrong! It took me ages to get onto it, I just couldn't see a 2nd winter Caspian gull. There was a gull in the flock which looked a bit like a 1st winter but it's bill was wrong, it was pink and black when it should have been black. I dismissed it and carried on looking for a classic 2nd winter.
However, with directions from Ian who was at the Point of the ruck, it became obvious that the bird I was looking at was indeed the Caspian gull. After a while it flew up onto a buoy and we had quite nice views, including on a couple of occasions the diagnostic albatross posture where they hold their wings back while they call.
We're still not sure about the aging of the bird, it seems to be either a 1st winter with advanced bill or a 2nd winter with retarded plumage. Ain't gulls great!? 😆
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