Monday 27 February 2012

Colour-ringed Glauc - Part 2

With a day off work, I drove the loop round Cotham Landfill and Cotham Flash/Pykett's Pond, but there were no readily accessible gulls, so I decided to try again later, and instead went up to Collingham Pits. A pair of Ringed Plovers were on the Main Pit along with 3 Shelduck, and a redhead Goosander flew north. Elsewhere, the 4 Whooper Swans were in their usual spot on the on the south side of the Trent. Continuing on to Mons Pool, highlights were a Little Egret, 3 Pintail (a pair plus a lone male), and a total of 23 Shelduck (of which just 6 were females).

A pair of Pintail on Mons Pool

Trying my luck again with the gulls after lunch, I had more success; viewing from the Hawton to Cotham road, a couple of hundred large gulls were loafing on the bare soil mound just north of the landfill, and amongst them was the colour-ringed 2nd W Glaucous Gull. I got a bit closer by walking along the northern edge of the former Cotham household waste site, and could confirm that the yellow ring on the Glauc's leg read T:193.

2nd W Glaucous Gull at Cotham Landfill (yellow ring on left leg)
2nd W Glaucous Gull at Cotham Landfill

At this point, all the gulls took flight (and it was apparent that a much larger number had been stood out of sight on the back of the soil mound), so I scoped the landfill site for a bit from the Sustrans Route, picking out the Glauc a couple of times, but I couldn't find anything else of note.

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