18/12/2024 Moses Gate Country Park, Bolton

Caspian gull: I finally caught up with the long staying 1st winter Caspo which has been showing particularly well on the main lake.

Having dipped this bird a few days earlier with Kris Wade I gave myself a bit more time today to wait for the bird to make appearance. 

This time I waited around an hour before the bird appeared on the grass bank beside the lake, standing out like a bright white beacon amongst the slightly darker juvenile herring gulls. 

Typically they the head is proportionately quite small and pear-shaped, showing the characteristic sloping forehead, which is further enhanced by the long and slim bill. 

They have a high proud chest extending on to a rounded belly that is white with a white head. Tricky birds to connect with and often overlooked. 

10/02/2021 Snaresbrook, Wanstead, London

Caspian Gull: The beast is back! This is the 5th year that this Caspian gull has returned to Eagle Pond in Snaresbrook. This is probably the most reliable caspo in the UK and now that it's sporting its glorious adult plumage I'm sure it will draw even more birding to the Eagle Pond.  

So after a short ecological survey I was carrying out nearby I decided to take a safe, socially distance walk to exercising my camera lifting arm and see this smart looking gull. 

Eagle Pond is situated in the extreme north-west corner of Leyton Flats, bounded by a woodland area of the Flats on the west, the pavement of Snaresbrook Road on the north, and the grounds of Snaresbrook Crown Court on the south.

The pond is a large and only accessible on one side, the busy roadside and at times you are shooting straight into the bright low light of a winters day. Not ideal. 

But almost a quarter of the pond was iced and any bird who wanted to sit on the water was forced to come that little bit closer into the area of open water that was nice covered by ice.  

As he bird sits on the blackish water it stands out like a sore thumb amongst the more familiar gulls, with its smart regal appearance, elegant, long-winged, long-legged, white-headed gull with a characteristic face and small dark eye.   

It's a shame I unable to see my older brother and his partner or my friends who live in London, but I'm happy the bird showed so well. 

I like London and don't mind working down here, especially with less traffic about and no major delays on the motorways. And throw in a scarce bird that showed well and was in a place I can carry out my exercise before the long journey home, you can consider this a good day. 

27/03/2016 Ainsdale Beach, Southport

Caspian Gull: After eating my fill of chocolate easter eggs, Dawn and I decided we should walk off the excess calories and go take a look at Birkdale's Crossbills.

After a long walk in the rain we found gate 29, where the birds had regularly been seen and after a short wait we didn't see or hear any so moved on to Ainsdale Beach.

The  2nd-winter caspo was sitting in full view right opposite the burger van waiting for the day trippers to share their lunch.

Something you don't see everyday - the gullet of a caspo.

This must have been my 5th visit to Ainsdale in search of this bird since originally seeing it back August 2015.

Back then the bird had both its legs!

 It's sad to see that it has twine wrapped around its good leg! This might be catastrophic to the birds health as gulls can live a good, normal life with one leg but I don't think it will survive with no legs at all.

Here is a closer look at the gulls problem, I have a soft spot for gulls and wish this particular gull all the best and hope I don't see a post in the near future saying 'found dead'.

Sandwich Tern: Another bird to note was a single Sandwich Tern close in, off the shore but it was unable to settle down due to the dog walkers disturbing the bird.








I watched it fly around the burger vans and towards the RLNI watch-out before landing on the tideline itself and again getting spooked by a passing dog walker.

16/08/2015 Ainsdale Beach, Southport

Caspian Gull:  Take a look at yet another superb North West gull, this 2cy Caspian has been showing on and off for a few weeks now and seen between Formby in the south to Birkdale in the north.

After dipping this bird yesterday and having very tight time restrictions throughout the week and most weekends due to the bird surveying work I have undertaken and the weekend wedding photography, it was brilliant to actually connect with it.

I got on the beach early morning and as I pulled up in to a parking bay I bumped in to Zac Hinchcliffe, who had just filled his SD card with shots of the bird and was kind enough to point me in it's direction.

One of the reasons the bird has been in the area for such a long time is probably down to the fact it is in heavy moult as this image shows.

Note the secondary flight feathers have almost all moulted.

The bird is very striking and stands out against the local juvenile Herring Gull and Lesser-black Back Gulls. With its almost white head and breast, long legs and it's classic Caspian long, narrow bill with an attenuated tip.

 What a beast!

Ainsdale beach at this time of year is brilliant, especially on a very sunny day, like today. There were hundreds of Sandwich Tern, Sanderling, Dunlin and a couple of Grey Plover.






However it gets busy fast, and in no time at all the beach was full of dog walkers, families and their flying footballs!






I was astonished how oblivious people can be, as while I sat on the beach clearly photographing a bird, not one but two different sets of families thought it would be fine to walk practically over me and right through where the bird was. Like I wasn't even there, incredibly ignorant folk.

07/12/2014 Gresford Flash, Wrexham

Caspian gull: I was always hoping to pick up my first Caspo myself, I have spent hours scanning over the flocks at Richmond Bank and Moore NR.







I was also hoping my first to be a full Adult, but I am happy to see a 1st winter bird so close to home and a first for Wales by all accounts.

What stood out for me was its extremely pale pear shaped head and neck, with its small dark set back pea-sized eye!