Swanning around

I headed to Collingham Pits this morning with a target list of ten species which I really should've seen by now, including species like Red-legged Partridge, Peregrine and Mistle Thrush. I left the site after a couple of hours without having seen any of them, but did get a nice bonus in the form of a lone Whooper Swan among 46 Mute Swans in the field west of Ferry Lane Lake. 

A distant Whooper Swan at Collingham Pits

There were plenty of Teal and Wigeon around, with 4 Pintail on Mons Pool. The only waders were 14 Redshank on the Silt Lagoon. I finished the morning with a quick look at Besthorpe Warren, which produced a calling (but invisible) Brambling, and finally one of my ten target species - a Treecreeper. 

Good gulling

A good gulling sesh at Cotham Landfill this afternoon produced a super adult Glaucous Gull (as usual my pics don't do it justice) - the first adult white-winger I've had at this site I think. No sign of the juvenile though, which I was expecting to see (as what was presumably it was seen at Hoveringham on its way to roost earlier in the week). 

Adult Glaucous Gull

Also present were three Caspian Gulls - an adult and two 1st winters (although I think one may've been a retarded 2nd winter judging from the tertials and coverts). The adult showed a nice suite of features - dark iris, parallel sided bill, attenuated rear end, white tip to P10 and long legs. Again, not great pictures:

Adult Caspian Gull (rear bird in the first two pics)

I only managed a pic of one of the two sub adults:

1st W Caspian Gull - or possibly a retarded 2nd W?

76 up

I managed an hour at Besthorpe NWT (Meering) this afternoon, first failing to find any Woodcock again in Meering Wood (disappointing as I flushed two at Manton Pit Wood earlier), but then getting a nice pair of Goosander on the Trent, bringing my Patchwork Challenge total to 76 (equating to 78 points). 

A patch Med

A decision to have a quick look at Ferry Lane Lake at Collingham proved to be a good call this morning, as one of the small number of gulls present was a 1st winter Mediterranean Gull. A pair of Pintail were the only duck of note, and a small party of flyover Linnet were good to get for the patch list.

1st winter Med Gull with Black-headed Gulls at Collingham

Tracks in the snow

We had a bit of a walk at Besthorpe today, parking at the Silt Lagoon at Collingham, and then walking up the side of Mons Pool, along the Trent, through Besthorpe NWT, and back down through Mons Pool. It was fairly quiet on the bird front, with 2 Redshank and a Little Egret the best; the hoped for Goosander on the river and flyover Peregrine, or even a Red-legged Partridge, didn't materialise. There were were plenty of mammals tracks in the snow, and some interesting bird tracks too, including what looked like Woodcock (notice the bill probes where it changes direction):

Presumed Woodcock tracks and bill probe holes

We tried to track it for a while (this would be a good patch yeartick), but then came across this, and gave up!

Lots of tracks!

I then had a go for gulls at Cotham Landfill after lunch, but there were no gull present.  Given that there had been a fair few here last saturday, including the Glauc, I can only assume that some rubbish had been left uncovered, and hadn't been today. However, I did flush two Woodcock (I didn't have to rely on footprints this time).

But bird of the day goes to the Fieldfare that was in my garden eating apples. Very nice too. 

That's not a Glauc...

I recently came across some pictures of a very interesting looking gull on the Punkbirder website , taken at Cotham Landfill at the start of the month - see here (scroll down to 3rd January 2013 if necessary). A large, pale gull with an all-black bill and concolorous wings and body; not a Glauc. Is it a Glaucous-winged..? Certainly not a bird that I've seen on my recent few visits, but definitely worth keeping an eye out for!

Rather frustratingly, the author of the post, Alex Lees, had emailed my notbirding email on the day of  his sighting, but I only checked my email today - 3 weeks late. Perhaps I should check it more often...

Glauc again

A quick look at Cotham Landfill en route to a site visit at Thoroton produced the juvenile Glaucous Gull again this morning; I located it in record time, but then lost it in the melee and couldn't relocate it, so no picture. I was a bit disappointed not to pick out anything else of note - I know an adult Caspian Gull has been seen here on occasion, so that would've been nice. Not even a Yellow-leg today. 

Arriving at Thoroton, I was greeted by 7 Waxwings dropping down into a garden next to the main road, although there was no sign of them when I returned to my car 45 minutes later. I then had to call in at Saxondale, where a Crossbill flew over calling heading east.