Mediterranean Gulls at Swanpool, Cornwall

Eight Mediterranean Gulls were showing well at Swanpool, Falmouth yesterday.  All but two were adults.  The bird below is already assuming summer plumage.  Numbers of this species seem to be growing year on year and decent size flocks are a familiar sight in the county now.  The nearest breeding colony is in Hampshire though many of our birds seem to originate from Eastern Europe.  A few more images can be found on my Flickr site link here

 

Med Gulls at Swanpool

These two adult Mediterranean Gulls were resting up on the car park at Swanpool today. The lower bird sports two leg rings, the white darvic plastic ring reading 3P71.  It was ringed at Fiskeholm, Hårby, in Denmark on 13 June 2007 and is one of the very few Danish white-ringed Med Gulls. (Thanks Mark Grantham and Camille Duponcheel.)

 

Gulls give above Par performance

Two Little Gulls have been present at Par Beach pool for several days.  I managed to catch up with them today and also saw a very obliging adult Med Gull.  All were seen at close quarters as they rested and preened on the grass in front of the car park.

Mediterranean Gulls at Gwithian

Mediterranean Gulls seem to be everywhere at the moment in Cornwall.  Gulls start moving in January and February and regular staging posts such as Hayle Estuary can host massive numbers of varying species.  I took this shot showing three adults last week at St Gothians, Gwithian, but also saw 25 Meds in Gerrans Bay last month, most of them being adults. 

Mediterranean Gulls at St Gothians

Three adult Med Gulls visited the reserve to wash up and preen. Two birds drifted towards us and these images were the results. Gulls start migrating through the county in February and March and the reserve is a handy stop-off point. Aperture was set to F/6.7, ISO 400, EV -0.3 White Balance set to Cloudy.

January storms hit Cornwall

Today is the day-after when the first of the year's big storms hit the county. Land's End recorded the strongest gust of a massive 79 mph. yesterday at 18.00 hrs. That must be hurrican force? Anyway, the birding story must surely be the influx of Grey Phalaropes not only in Cornwall but across the UK. Whilst I tried, I just could not get close enough to photo one! I saw just one today at St. Ives Island at half a mile range. The five together at Red River yesterday had evidently disappeared. The shots below typify birds of the coast but sadly no Grey Phals. The light was stunning - consequently, the shutter speed reached a high of 2500th second at f/5.6, perfect for moving birds. I dropped the exposure down to -0.7. Some of the images appear quite small but they were taken at distances of up to several hundred yards. I used the TC on the 600mm lens and also used the in-camera high speed crop function, effectively doubling the focal length to nearly 1700mm !

The two images below of this adult Gannet moving past St Ives today catches some nice guano sequences, a benefit of the high shutter speed.




The majority of auks in the image below are Razorbill, with one Guillemot near the rear. The smaller auk is actually a lone bird swimming in the sea at a different distance to the flying birds.

A Mediterranean feel to Cornwall

At Stithians Res today, at least four different Mediterranean Gulls were present in the morning at different times. They use the freshwater to bathe and preen and then move back to the coast or fields to feed. All the shots were taken with the 600mm lens coupled to the 1.7x tele converter. Light was good and the resulting shutter speed got up to 1000th sec. Aperture F/6.7. ISO 800. Exposure 0.0 . The image of the green ringed adult bird (right leg) above can be zoomed in and has the ring number 3EK2. This bird was originally ringed in Belgium in 2002/20/04/ (2002 as an adult) Zandvlietsluis, Antwerpen. It was subsequently recorded at Swanpool between 2003 and 2006. The bird was then recorded in France (Pas De Calais) 12 months later. The next sighting was three months later in Jan 2008 in Cornwall at Men-aver beach, Gillan. It was then recorded on Gyllingvase Beach, Falmouth in July finally arriving at Stithians reservoir on the 31st October and again on the 2nd November. (per S. Taylor).

Above left: Adult with a green ring, but a different mask structure to the other adults in this sequence. Above right: adult bird with no visible rings (although the foot is obscured). The structure of the black mask is also subtlely different with a more prominent downward sweep at the ear coverts.

Above left: Bird 3KN7 with green ring on left leg and above right, an adult and first winter bird together.

Above left and right: Adult 3EK2

Above left and right: Adult 3EK2

Mediterranean Gull at Stithians Res.

This splendid adult Med Gull was preening in the late afternoon sun directly in front of the hide. It was also joined by a Common Gull. Exposure was lowered to - 0.3 and I used my polariser filter to try and reduce any glare from the water. WB set to Sunny. ISO: 400. Focal length: 520mm.