Larus Lamentations, Weldon Darters.

It looks as if I should leave the subject of immature gulls to other more informed folks as I appear, not for the first time I should add, to have got it wrong - again. Although my go to gull guru was unable to assist on this occasion (get well soon Mick) another top notch birder was able to correct my error.

Third year Herring Gull...unfortunately!

His verdict on my bird from yesterday was third year Herring and looking at the picture again I think that he's probably right. The feet as he suggested do show some pink colouration and although immature Ring-billeds do have pink legs they probably loose that colouration by this stage of their development. I'm also thinking that the eye may be a little on the small side in relation to its head size too. So my revised thought is that the bird was a small female 3rd year Herring missing the red spot on its bill and perhaps of the omissus type. Even after over forty years of birding I can still learn, perhaps the most important lesson being to go out with people that know their larus from their elbows! Thanks Phil, I promise not to string again for at least a couple of days.

Common Darters.

Now having wiped the gull egg from my face I used a half day off from work to head down to Weldon. My main aim was to see if any darters were active in the pleasant sunshine and if any were to try and get a pic or two. I was lucky on both counts as there were at least ten solo male Common Darters and a pair in cop and they proved to be more cooperative than the Stanwick or Wicky ones. This current mild spell looks set to continue for a while so hopefully their season may go on even longer than it did last year.

Red Kite.

Several Siskins were present around the ponds while the local Red Kites put on a bit of a show, both were somewhat overshadowed by a fly past from too very noisy Apache helicopters.