We visit Brooklands once or twice a month. I've seen a few nice birds there over the years but we go more because its an easy place for a dog walk than in the expectation of seeing anything unexpected. That changed today when scanning the gulls, as I always do, I noticed what appeared to be a longer necked, whiter headed bird in amongst them. A telescope is rather an encumbrance at Brooklands so I rarely take one. On this occasion I wished I had a telescope but a bridge camera is sometimes an adequate substitute as proved to be the case today. Those on the raft are definitely my best Sussex Caspian Gull photos.
interesting looking long-necked, whiter headed gull but too far away to see much detail
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| zooming in on hastily taken images confirmed the long neck and cleaner whiter head and also revealed tertials, coverts and mantle that one would expect of a swimming Caspian as well as a long thin bill |
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| it swam over to the raft where its long legs were revealed and when home further cropping showed finer feather detail |
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| small head and eyes |
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| typical head and bill no longer solidly black |
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| It almost fell off the raft showing a thick band and fine streaking on the tail |
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| its upper wing pattern with venetian blinds on the inner primaries and white tips to the greater and median coverts |
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| and a gleaming white underwing |
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