Dogsthorpe tip in Peterborough isn`t a particularly attractive site when it comes to bird watching, it is, however the best site in the area for getting views of the rarer gulls the U.K. has to offer.
As I have mentioned before,
Josh Jones is one of the areas top birders and one of his passions is gull watching. He is often found searching the tip and its surrounding fields for gulls of all kinds and today was no exception. Josh called me at lunch time to say that he had `got` an Iceland Gull at the tip, but I could not get there for an hour or so due to work commitments and when I arrived on site the bird had disappeared, but Josh had just found a second-winter Caspian Gull, which he duly put me on to.
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| Caspian Gull |
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| Caspian Gull |
We then searched the large number of gulls present to see if the Iceland Gull was anywhere to be seen. It wasn`t and when a Red Kite `buzzed` through putting all the gulls in the air we decided to check out the fields adjacent to the tip. Sure enough, there in the front of the flock was the Iceland Gull, a lovely pale juvenile.
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| Iceland Gull (looking right) |
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| Iceland Gull |
These digiscoped shots are really just for the record and don`t really show the gulls to their full potential. The Iceland Gull, in particular was a lovely looking gull, completely pale, `biscuity` colouration.
Nice captures John, I have an awful time identifying gulls.
ReplyDeleteHi John,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info and the accompanying photos of those different gulls. I've always been intrigued by their affinity for hanging around dumps when you would think there was enough fresh fish in the sea on offer :)
All the best to you,
Gary
Thanks Roy,
ReplyDeleteYes it is quite difficult, especially when it comes to juveniles/first winters etc! Luckily I had Josh with me to help point out what was what!
J
Hi Gary,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind words. Gulls are birds that have adapted to our ways of throwing everything away, they will eat almost anything and it is a lot easier finding food at an amenity tip than having having to hunt for it on the open sea! That and the fact that we have almost fished the seas to death and so fish are becoming scarcer and scarcer!
J