Southwick and Shoreham and another CR Lesser Black-back (25-30 June 2012)

Monday 25 June.  No sign in the evening of the ringed Lesser Black-back 9P7 on the Adur but 2 Common Sandpipers at dusk.  The low tides have now slipped to after dark.   Three Peregrines on Southwick Power Station Chimney and 3 adult Ringed Plover.

Tuesday 26 June.  Black Redstart singing from the top of a sand pile by the Hanson/Tarmac building and even better 3 adult Ringed Plover and two still fairly small chicks (being brooded).  A Gannet and 9 Sandwich Terns offshore, 1 Peregrine on the chimney.

Wednesday 27-Friday 29 June.  Up to 4 adult Ringed Plover but the chicks hopefully keeping well hidden.  Up to 20 swifts over our road.  1 Peregrine on the chimney on 27th. Puncture on the way home on Friday.

Nothing from Estonia where 9P7 might have been ringed.  Both David Cooper and Alan Kitson thought it more like graellsii than intermedius.  I'm not too good on my grey scales. Is it Kodak 9-12 or 11-14 (GBbG is 13.5-15.5)?

Saturday 30 June.  7 Little Egrets on Widewater and the family of Mute Swans still have 5 large cygnets otherwise very quiet.  An afternoon  visit to the Adur at low tide added a further twist to the possible Estonian gull saga with another colour-ringed Lesser Black-backed Gull there with a similar code, this time 9H3.  What odds seeing two birds ringed in Estonia?  Much more likely that there is a UK scheme using similar codes that isn't included on the cr-birding website.  I'll investigate further next week [Tuesday 3rd July update: 9H3 and 9P7 are from Guernsey, unfortunately not as exciting as an Estonian control would have been. Monday 9th July update: 9H3 ringed as 4+ year old female at Chouet Landfill, Guernsey 18/05/11, seen Burhou, Alderney 15/07/11; 9P7 ringed as 3+year old male Chouet Landfill, Guernsey 19/05/11, seen Torreira beach, Aviero, Portugal 22/08/11, Figueira da Foz, Coimbra, Portugal 08-14/11/11].  This one looks more like a graellsii to me too so the other probably was as well?  Also on the Adur a juvenile Mediterranean Gull and another North Thames Herring Gull.

Lesser Black-backed Gull 9H3 on the Adur

looking a shade or two darker than in the previous image

showing its ring clearly

Gulls on the Adur at low tide.  The extreme left hand bird is colour-ringed ...

TM7T from North Thames

juvenile Mediterranean Gull on the Adur

bill appearing not to be fully grown

very delicately plumaged

a noisy reminder that the Adur isn't just gulls