07/08/2022 Grafham Water, Cambridgeshire

Cape Gull (Kelp Gull): Well, its not everyday a first for Britain shows up on a Sunday on a fresh water reservoir in the middle of the country! 

After photographing a wedding on the Saturday I was looking forward to a some local birding and a relaxing afternoon at home with the baby. 

Instead once news broke and after a few frantic calls, texts and WhatsApps I was racing down the motorways and across to Grafham Water.

 

A subspecies of the Kelp gull, also known as the Cape gull (Larus dominicanus vetula) this bird should be summering in Southern Africa. The Cape gull superficially resembles our Great-black backed gull and is intermediate in size between these two species. 

There really some other subtle differences but, if I was to be honest this level of gulling is above my pay-grade. Personally I think this would be a very easy bird to walk past and discount it as a GBBG.

Luckily there are some masterful gullers out there who can pinned this down as Cape, incredible.

When we arrived we had just missed the bird feeding on a dead fish, this was were the prized shots were coming from. The fish brought the bird much closer then anywhere else it when around the edge of the dam and the light was also better.

We weren't too disappointed as the bird showed well, especially towards the late afternoon when it alighted upon the railing of the water tower. 

Great twitch, plenty of friendly familiar faces and a legendary bird in the bag.