Hybrid Herring x LBBG

A presumed hybrid Herring Gull x Lesser Black-backed Gull has been present at Sandy Water Park for at least three weeks now.

It shows a mantle colour intermediate between the two, pretty much spot on for Yellow-legged Gull (maybe a bit pale?), a small amount of light diffuse head streaking (should be concentrated around the eye in YLG), a dark red/orange orbital ring, a rounded head and a relatively weak looking beak with the red gonys spot not reaching the upper mandible. The overall size was smaller than both Lesser Black-backed Gull and Herring Gull, and only a little larger than Common Gull. Leg colour, shown in some of the photos bellow appeared a dull yellow with a hint of pink - a typical colour for these hybrids, and not the bright yellow you should see in YLG. The open wing showed plenty of black in the wing tip with only a short mirror on p10. Both wings showed a complete black band on p5 - not the very thin or broken band you see in most hybrids, however not as thick as you'd expect from YLG.

I suppose it's possible that it could be a small female Yellow-legged Gull, but with most features pointing towards a Herring x LBBG hybrid I think it's likely that that's what it is.

Smaller and lighter coloured than Lesser Black-backed Gull. Small amount of head streaking.

Darker than Herring Gull...

...and Common Gull

Yellow pink legs.

Small mirror on p10 an black band on p5.

At the wetland centre, a Merlin chasing a Snipe over the grounds at almost supersonic speed was the exciting to watch. The only other addition to my PWC was a Treecreeper.

A female-type Black Redstart on garage roofs from my front door this afternoon was nice to see - a different bird to the 1st winter male present in November.

First Bonaparte's Gull for Carmarthenshire!

The tide had already fallen a long way out by the time I got into work, so I wasn't expecting much from the bird count. I counted the Lapwing, Godwits and Wigeon, and then decided to have another scan through the Lapwing. A lone gull was sitting in the middle of them which I hadn't noticed while first counting. Black beak, pink legs - Bonaparte's Gull!!! A proper mega for the area and a first for the county! I took a quick record shot and then looked through the scope hoping for it to flap it's wings so I could see its underwing. At the time I was shaking and had to keep looking at it to convince my self that it was indeed a Bonaparte's! It's hard to judge time when you've found a rarity, but after what felt like five or ten minutes, it took flight heading straight over the hide and high to the north over some pylons. I got good views of the underwing to confirm the identification and put the news straight out. Hopefully it will return, but I'm somewhat doubtful.

Bonaparte's Gull

Another Firecrest

On Thursday I found another Firecrest, this time in some bramble in Black Poplar wood giving fantastic views down to two metres! Sadly the heavy rain showers had forced me to leave my camera back in the yard.

On Wednesday, a look out of the office window while doing some bird count data entry into the computer saw me staring at a Great White Egret on the saltmarsh. This is the second day its visited the patch this year so it was good to get it on my Patchwork Challenge list.

Other birds that have made it onto the list include Grey Plover, Golden Plover, Red-breasted Merganser and Red Kite.

This week we've been making repairs to the banks at Water Vole City to make it more safe for the children to play at. On Friday we spent the morning digging a water drainage channel next to a track so that the verge will hopefully dry up allowing a lorry to come in to fix the Heron hide toilets without getting stuck!