BEDDINGTON THE GULL HEAVEN THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

Over the farm today and the Gull hunt continued. This time of year the Gull numbers are in their thousands and unusual birds are regularly turned up if you have the patience to go through them. The first winter Iceland Gull which shows features of Kumlien's appeared on the lake briefly and T Bros also managed to see it before it disappeared again, just before Prof arrived.

A period of time passed, trying to re-locate the bird and anything else that might be in the flock. After a while, Prof indicated that he had a white-winger at the back of the lake. I looked to the spot he described, expecting to see the Iceland Gull, but instead saw an adult Gull with white primaries. It quickly disappeared behind an island but we discerned that it was large and pale and resembled an adult Glaucous Gull. After a further wait the bird flew to the tip but didn't come close. I'd taken pics and it was either a Glauc or a leucistic bird. We have had Herring Gulls with white primaries and other birds with various amounts of white before so I'm always wary of a bird which I haven't had a good look at. The bird had little or no streaking on the head and adult Glaucous Gulls are not common inland, we've had many Glaucs at Beddington, but all first winters. It did look promising though.

More time passed and no further sign. I stayed by the main lake and Prof went down to the south lake. After a while he phoned to say he had the bird again. I made my way down and was just arriving when the bird took off, the only one out of all the gulls there to do so. I'd had a quick look just as it took off and it was genuinely a large bird and had reddish pink legs, I also took more pics as it headed back to the tip. It was definitely an adult Glaucous Gull, the first adult recorded at Beddington.

What a week for Gulls, we've had three different Caspos, a possible Kumlien's and an adult Glauc plus a couple of Meds and the odd Yellow-legged Gull.
NEW SURREY YEAR LIST RECORD 198

Our first view of the Glauc, you can see it's a large bird and not particularly long winged. Couldn't see the legs at this stage

Taking off from the south lake. The leg colour is useful

The bird was still growing some secondaries

Heading back to the tip