30th January - Iceland Gull

Today was a good day's birding. To start with I went out mid morning to the Trap Grounds where it was really striking just how much bird song there was - birds were singing everywhere I went. I particularly wanted to see if I could catch up with some Reed Buntings that had been reported along the wildlife corridor there. I'd tried and failed yesterday but today I manage brief views of a male bird. This species is rather localised on the patch and although it is seen every year I'm always pleased to catch up with it myself. Whilst I was waiting for the Buntings to put in an appearance I saw my first Chiffchaff of the year, certainly an over-wintering bird rather than a migrant of any sorts.

Later in the afternoon I went to the Meadow to have a look at the gull roost for the first time in quite a while as it's been frozen for much of last week. I was duly rewarded with a great juvenile ICELAND GULL in a moderately sized roost. This is the first white-winger that we've had in quite a while so it was nice to see one again on the Meadow. Also present was a 2w YELLOW-LEGGED GULL, a SHELDUCK, four GOOSANDER and a couple of REDSHANK.

A video grab of the bird. Unfortunately the light was rather poor by this stage...



...and the original video


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