It must be winter

I had yesterday off work, and decided that it might be time for the first visit of the winter to Cotham Landfill. I cycled down the recently re-opened cyclepath from Newark, and spent about 3 hours scouring the gulls. There were good numbers present, although the light was awful to begin with; a perennial problem with this site is that you have to view it looking south-east from the cyclepath, ok when it's overcast but not great on a clear day like yesterday.

Gulls gulls gulls

Highlights were two 1st W Caspian Gulls, both eye-catching beauties. The first was badly against the light, but had a snowy white head and underparts and ticked all the boxes. The second was initially picked up in the melee, and again was a stand-out bird, even doing the 'albatross long call' several times. I picked it out again a bit later, sat up on a mound - a genuine 'wow' moment; what a stunner. In typical fashion, a refuse lorry then backed in front of it, and it was nowhere to be seen by the time the lorry moved out of the way 10 minutes later. 

Casp 1

Casp 1

Casp 1

Casp 1

Casp 2 - first sighting

Casp 2 - first sighting

Casp 2 - second sighting

Casp 2 - second sighting

In addition, there were no fewer than 7 Lesser Black-backs (4 adults, and one each of 1st W, 2nd W and 3rd W), plus at least one 1st W Yellow-legged Gull. 

1st W YLG

And then there were the usual head-scratchers. The first was a striking 3rd W gull; it looked a bit Caspo-like, but I wasn't entirely convinced, and I lost it before being able to grill it properly; I think it was just a Herring. And an amazing-looking 2nd W Herring Gull - I'm not sure I've ever seen such a dark one before. Check out the wing coverts!

3rd W Herring(?) Gull

2nd W Herring Gull

And finally, I think this photo sums up gulls nicely - a huge Herring Gull (presumably an argentatus - I didn't see the spread wing though) the size of the GBBG to the right, stood behind two small argenteus Herring Gulls, literally half the size. That's variation for you, and the reason that every day's a school day when it comes to gulls...