A hint of the mediterranean at the warren

15/05/10

a very quiet time at the moors with the darke gadwall remaining, a water rail was heard sqwarking from within the reeds adjacent to the causeway, and an unsesonable cormorant, a pair of pied wagtail were flitting about, and a pair of common tern were about.

after an hour it was so dire we left for the flashes

as we walked across the southern shore of the sailing pool a flock of 8 greylag geese landed and swam to the NW corner of the pool.

a slow walk to the hide didnt add anything, we walked into the hide and was greeted by upton regular dave walker who did very little to raise the spirits ''rather quiet''

we chatted for a bit, he decided to go and have a check of the moors and we stopped.

he had walked off when my dad told me to get onto an odd gull on the sticks at the back of the flash he didnt recognise, a slow pan from the 1st flash to the sticks, a BHG was perched on the sticks, but i knew my dad well enough to know he can ID a BHG so i carried on and a few sticks later

OMG

i ran to the door, then turned around to look throgh the scope again to check i wasent stringing, then bolted out the door down the steps and along the boardwalk, dave was at the bench area, a simple call

''dave, MED GULL''

we(I) jogged back to the hide and took a look at the 2nd summer MEDITERRAIEAN GULL perched on the sticks, we both started takeing photos of this amazing looking bird, but i will admit, the first load i took were rubbish(but identifiable)

The 1st 2nd summer i have ever seen and what a looker, it was amazing, we had just enough time to savour this unusual midlands plumage(the least common age to be seen in the midlands apparently) and then the bird was harrased by a BHG and was forced to take flight revealing its distinctive pattering and very white impresion. after a few 'is he coming back' moments it eventually flew off east at 18:18.

we both text a few people to pass the news on and later we were joined by another upton regular(gordon greaves) and later by steve whitehouse(a med gull fan, like me), steve had somewhere to be at 7, and he kinda left at 7:05 so a bit late then...........

another 20 minuites passed and at 7:25 the reward came the MED GULL was flying back in from the east(the bird had a missing primary in its right wing, first noted when the bird flew off), the first thing i picked up on was its giant white eyelids, then its missing primary, and then it wing pattern, it swooped in front of the hide and circled the flash before landing on the stumps between the 1st and 2nd flash, again i started snapping away, the photos were a little better but still pritty dire, it was at this point that gordon sudgested that the gull would be viewable much closer from the path near the bench, i was soon there and watching the med gull at point blank range, an amazing specticle of a frame-filling med.

(before anybody says, the word in the film is see-you or see-ya, as gordon left, had me a bit stumped what i said when i first heard it)

after a good load of photos, i returned back to the hide where we watched the med gull swimming around the 2nd flash, it then took flight at 7:45 and flew north, in total we saw the bird for less than 30 mins but it was a real cracker of a bird......

a BHG with a yellow leg ring was seen on the stumps also and on scopeing it was ringed as 2Y32, this has been submitted to the ringing website and i await details on the bird, but untill then

good birding

MB