Author: Mike Alibone

Gary Pullan was lucky enough to discover a first-winter Kittiwake at Daventry Country Park this morning. Although not particularly rare nationally, Kittiwakes can often be difficult to connect with in Northants as a result of the short stopovers at inland sites made by the few individuals which choose to migrate overland to reach their breeding sites anywhere between northern Britain and the high Arctic.

Apart from making a short flight around the reservoir while I was there, it spent most of its time loafing on the water, occasionally picking at surface insects, well out in the middle – hence the rather poor, heavily cropped digiscoped shot below.

With an average of four records per year over the last ten years, the overwhelming majority of Kittiwakes visiting the County in spring are adults so this individual is unusual insomuch as it is a first-year – apparently the first spring first-winter since 2001! At first sight it appears doubly unusual because it remained all day, allowing County year-listers ample time to catch up with it, although being immature is a likely explanation for it being in no hurry to reach any breeding grounds.

Mike Baron digiscoped this interesting-looking large gull at Sidegate Landfill yesterday.

In flight over the tip it bore a strong resemblance to a first-winter Glaucous Gull but upon closer examination, however, it clearly shows features more closely associated with Herring Gull.

Although it may be a Glaucous Gull x Herring Gull hybrid I think it more likely to be a leucistic Herring Gull as its head shape does not seem to fit Glaucous, it doesn’t appear to have Glaucous’s beady eye and, as well as the ghosted subterminal tail band, it has an indistinct secondary bar. It is larger, however, than any of the Herring Gulls present!

It does not show a typical striking Glaucous Gull x Herring Gull hybrid bill pattern, which is often virtually identical to first-winter Glaucous but it is not too far adrift from this. Compared with the Herring Gull in the photos, the primaries and tertials are much paler. A pitfall for the unwary Glaucous Gull seeker!

The first 10 days of February have seen additional scarce gulls arriving at Ditchford GP. In addition to those mentioned in the previous summary a new second-winter Iceland Gull was discovered on 3rd, an adult Mediterranean Gull put in an appearance on 7th and Caspian Gulls were also seen intermittently, with adults there on 1st and 7th, a second-winter on 4th and a different second-winter there on 8th.

Interestingly there might have been a new Glaucous Gull there, too. Dave Warner’s photo, below, taken at nearby Sidegate Landfill on 28th January, appears to show a third-winter with an apparent patchy grey mantle and the dark subterminal band on the bill much reduced in comparison to those of the two ‘regular’ second-winters which have been visiting the site. But maybe long distance, light and camera have conspired to distort reality …

One of the Iceland Gulls was showing distantly on the ice when I was there on Wednesday. In this plumage it sticks out like a sore thumb among the many other large gulls and its small size and delicate proportions are obvious compared, for instance, to the nearby Herring Gull.

Also interesting was this advanced second-winter Caspian Gull, well on its way to second-summer with a reasonably bright bill and very clean neck and breast (just a few small spots at the base of the neck).

This is a fairly typical individual with small head, dark iris, tapered, parallel-sided (though

a little short) bill and a small white mirror on P10, the latter not present on Yellow-legged Gull or argenteus Herring Gull and only on some argentatus Herring Gulls of this age. Second-winter Caspian Gulls are highly variable, some closely resembling first-winters while others can appear much more adult-like.

It’s been a record year for Glaucous Gulls at Ditchford already and we’re only at the end of January. With the discovery there in December of a juvenile, followed by a second-winter in early January, there has been a total of five Glaucous and two Iceland Gulls at this site, all birds commuting between the gravel pits and nearby Sidegate Landfill. The records so far can be summarised as follows:

Glaucous Gull                                                                                                                     juvenile: 14th to 28th December;  second-winter (#1): 10th December to 28th January; second-winter (#2): 27th to 30th January                                                   fourth-winter: 15th and 23rd January                                                                                   adult: 7th to 27th January

Iceland Gull                                                                                                                              second-winter: 16th to 30th January                                                                                     adult: 12th to 21st January

I was lucky enough to find the fourth-winter Glaucous Gull there on 15th January and to catch up with both the second-winters but the juvenile and the adult have (so far) managed to elude me. The most recently discovered second-winter was on show yesterday, distantly in the field opposite the entrance to Sidegate Landfill (see below).

It’s a different individual to the original one which is still present, being ‘whiter’, i.e. less brown in the plumage, and with a different bill pattern – the pale tip being a little more prominent and the black subterminal band being a different shape.

Hopefully more white-winged gulls will appear here before the winter is out. March is a recognised passage month for Iceland Gull and there’s always the outside chance of Ring-billed Gull – long overdue at this site, which hosted the first County record of this species in March 1984.

Since 10th December last year up to two Glaucous Gulls, a juvenile and a second-winter, have been present at Ditchford Gravel Pits, normally frequenting the fishing lake immediately west of Ditchford Lane. They have also been seen on the adjacent ‘viaduct pit’ and on the nearby water ski pit. Dave Warner’s photo of the second-winter, below, illustrates the key ID features: thick, pink bill with sharply demarcated black tip (almost to the very end), sloping forehead with flat crown plus bulky appearance and relatively short wings. The pale iris indicates it is at least a second year as opposed to a pale variant (eastern) first-winter.

Up to fourteen have been recorded in the Midlands to date this winter and these two are the only ones to have been found in Northants so far. Ditchford Gravel Pits is the site to find one locally, having produced approximately 50% of all Northamptonshire’s Glaucous Gulls in the last 10 years, principally as a result of the close proximity of the Sidegate Landfill. Located about 2 km to the north of the pits, this site, visible in part from the road, attracts hundreds – sometimes thousands – of large gulls and, since the demise of tips at Welford and Wootton and the inaccessibility of Weldon, is now the only gull-rich landfill in the County. When not visiting Ditchford to roost and bathe, gulls from the tip are often to be found on adjacent fields and locating a large loafing flock provides the best chance of being able to watch a Glaucous Gull in good light (as opposed to grappling with poor views in fading light at a reservoir roost!).