Last night, Ninja had informed me that he'd possibly had three or four Iceland Gulls in the Walton Gull roost and as we'd had two yesterday, I had high hopes for more. We had several days of two 2w and 1w Kumlien's and several days of two 2w and a 1w and when you have three you always look for a fourth.
The Day started well with our most regular 2w, 'Old Whitey' and amazingly a first winter on the lake turned out to be the Kumlien's which we hadn't seen for ages (Gulls do come and go like that sometimes). It wasn't until early afternoon until I picked up a really white Iceland Gull on the main lake which I took to be Old Whitey but as I moved onto the back of the lake, I picked up another Gull which looked like Old Whitey. 'What the ?!'. I moved back to the first Gull and then realised I had a different bird with darker eyes. To me the bi-coloured bill and very white plumage made it look like a 2w bird but the eyes were pretty dark, although you could make out a brown iris. Of the other two 2w birds, Old Whitey has always had a much paler iris than 'New Kid on the Block' (although I noted New Kid's appeared to have gotten paler when it returned yesterday after twelve days absense). So is this new bird a very bleached/abraded 1w or a 2w with a darker eye ?
Interestingly, Steve Arlow had what looks like the same bird at Pitsea on February 4th.
http://www.birdersplayground.co.uk/Recent%20Images.html
He's got it down as "Probably a first winter progressing to second winter" so I'm still not sure. I've not seen a first winter looking like this in early Feb before but, repeat after me, 'Gulls are so bloody variable'
Having had three Iceland Gulls, I scanned constantly until our other 2w Gull 'New Kid on the Block' finally showed on the main lake. Four Iceland Gulls in one day ! Looking for five next (we've now had five different Iceland Gulls this winter).
The new Iceland Gull
Note the dark eye, the bi-coloured bill and plumage
The new Iceland Gull (above and below)
The view up Mile Road from the kissing gate
The view from the railway bridge to the main lake
The south lake
The main lake
The hide and some of the feeders
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