Odd gulls

Summary for last weekend. I had a couple of extra days to play with so it was actually Thursday to Sunday. The weather was variable between heavy cloud (no rain) and burning sunshine with light breeze swinging between northerly to southerly. Harvest had started with most barley already in and oilseed dessicated but not yet harversted.

Thursday 28th July

Harpham/Lowthorpe: very quiet. 1 Little Grebe, 4 Buzzard, 1 Green Sandpiper, 2 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 4 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 40+ Swift, plenty of warblers including singing Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff plus a Sedge Warbler at New Road. 1 Bullfinch at Lowthorpe.

Gembling/Foston: 2 Canada Goose, 1 Kestrel, 2 Grey Partridge, 1 juv Grey Heron, 1 Hobby at Foston, 1 Oystercatcher, 2 Herring Gull, 1 Spotted Flycatcher at Foston Mill.

Little Kelk: pair of Mute Swan with a cygnet at Kelk Lake, adult Cormorant, 3 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 50+ Lapwing, very few gulls moving to roost.

This is one of the Buzzards seen on Thursday. Birds of prey carefully stage their wing moult so they are always capable of hunting but this adult seems to have gone rather full-on!

Friday 29th July

Just a short walk in the morning.

Kelk Beck: 17 Mallard, 7 Lapwing, 1 Kestrel, 2 Grey Partridge, 1 Green Sandpiper, 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 1 Kingfisher, several Skylark, 5 Yellow Wagtail (2+ juveniles), 8 Pied Wagtail, adult and juvenile Lesser Whitethroat, family party of Common Whitethroat, and a flock of 90+ Linnet. A Water Vole gave reasonable views but not long enough to get 'papped'.

Saturday 30th July

Harpham: 6 Sparrowhawk in the air together (presumably some were juveniles?), 4 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 1 Hobby buzzing the Buzzards, 3 Herring Gull, 70+ Feral Pigeon, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker. A water vole briefly appeared at New Road.

A juvenile Peregrine flew through New Road causing an almighty fuss among the crows. Where it had come from one can only guess but it's the earliest I've seen one locally and surely must be a local post-breeding dispersal rather than a migrant.

Gembling/Foston: 6 Little Grebe, 1 juv Grey Heron, 10 Coot including young, 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 9 Stock Dove, 13 Tree Sparrow, 1 Bullfinch.

Green Lane/Barf Hill: 56 Greylag Goose, 3 juvenile Grey Heron heading over (photo below), 1 Kestrel carrying food, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker at Barf Hill, c60 Sand Martin holes at Gransmoor Quarry (photo below), 2 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Mistle Thrush, 26+ Long-tailed Tit on Green Lane plus another family party at Barf Hill, a whopping 48 Tree Sparrow on Gransmoor Lane, 1 Bullfinch and a singing Corn Bunting. The latter is only the second of the year, and possible the same individual as the first.

An hour looking for the gull roost flight produced c420 small gulls, mostly Common, which is typical for the time of year. Also 2 Grey Partridge and 2 Yellow Wagtail. No sight nor sound of any Quail.

Believe it or not the photo below is the singing Corn Bunting. You'll just have to trust me ;-)



Three juvenile herons going about their business together. Evocative is the word you're looking for.

Sand Martin colony at Gransmoor Quarry. Normally the nesting banks are hidden from the road so this is unusual. I suspect there might be more holes out of view but it looks like about 60 holes here.

Sunday 31st July

Harpham: 14 Grey Partridge (3 adults, 11 young), 1 Sparrowhawk, 2 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 3 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 20+ Long-tailed Tit, 1 Bullfinch.

Kelk Beck: female Tufted Duck, 1 juv Grey Heron, 1 Marsh Harrier (see previous post here), 1 Sparrowhwak, 2 Coot, 18 Golden Plover - nice and early for them, 26 Lapwing, and 16 Goldfinch.

The field south of Millingdale was being cultivated and hundreds of gulls were in attendance. What was surprising was the number of large gulls present and this demanded a closer look. There were c700 gulls present with approx 450 Common and 50 Black-headed, 160+ Herring Gull, 17 Lesser Black-backed Gull and amazingly 2 Yellow-legged Gull (adult and 4cy).

Although large gulls are regularly seen flying over in summer it is exceptional to see large numbers and they don't tend to gather on cultivated fields in this way. Seventeen is a very high count for Lesser Black-backed Gull locally and 160+ Herring Gull is a new record count. Perhaps the Yellow-legged Gulls offer a clue - these two are only the 3rd and 4th I have seen locally, so presumably there is a post-breeding movement occuring at the moment. When coming and going birds were mostly heading east. This is also unsual since large gulls tend to move south-west during afternoons.

Photo below is a Yellow Wagtail. This pair both have a preference for perching trees. Most other Yellow Wagtails seem to spend little or no time doing this. Odd.

So that's it. The year list goes up three to 106.

104 Spotted Flycatcher
105 Peregrine
106 Yellow-legged Gull