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Slide 01 Gulls on the
Adur: Cuckoo Corner to Shoreham Harbour |
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Slide 02 River Adur: Where to watch gulls Gull are best viewed at
low tide, with numbers often at their peak in the hour or so before dusk when
they gather prior to roosting on the sea (or in Southwick Canal when it is very
rough). Issues: the rising
tide, low evening sun when viewing from the east bank, disturbance by bait
diggers, helicopters and less so canoeists, dogs and overflying grey herons. The best area for
larger gulls is usually the section between the Old Toll Bridge and Railway,
viewed from east side, Toll bridge and Pumping Station. The mud by Ricardo,
viewed from the heron statue is particularly good for Common Gulls in winter as
is the section south of Cuckoos Corner viewed from the west side. Town Quay,
Coronation Green and Harbour Way are worth checking if passing, as is the
harbour. |
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Slide 03 Which gulls have been seen on the Adur? For some scarcer
species the question of whether they have been seen on the River Adur isn’t
easily answered as wherever one draws the line between the river and the sea a
lot of Sussex Records Database (COBRA2) refer to Shoreham Harbour. I do so
myself but most of my records there are of birds flying past at sea. Unless
stated otherwise I’ve ignored most Shoreham Harbour records in the list above.
Each species listed will feature in
the following slides. |
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Slide 04 Identifying gulls: Books and Journals Not all gulls are easy
to identify. Smaller gulls are fairly straight forward but what are referred to
large white-headed gulls (primarily Herring, Caspian, Yellow-legged and Lesser
Black-backed) can look very similar and it doesn’t help that their plumage
changes as they become adults, taking four years to do so. Several books have been published on gull identification, those shown or Peter Grant’s classic Gulls a guide to identification from 1982 and based on earlier British Birds papers, 2003’s Gulls of Europe, Asia and North America, (running to over 600 pages), Gulls of the World from 2018 and 2022’s Gulls of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. British Birds devoted two issues to the identification of Caspian Gulls, groundbreaking but helpful for insomniacs. My blog (birdingneversleeps)
often has photos of gulls I’ve seen on the Adur, and more general birding
mostly in the local area or abroad. |
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Slide 05. My
colour-ring sightings 1993-2025 I was aware of a colour
ringed gull in 1993 (long staying Dutch Mediterranean Gull 24H which I saw 25
times between Jan 1993 and Jan 1998 . It wasn’t until 2006 that I saw another
(2 Herring Gulls) and by 2010 I was actively looking for them Note that most gull
species are averaging about 2 sightings per individual. Lesser Black-backs are bucking that trend with all 15
individuals only having been seen once. |
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Slide 06. Countries where Adur gulls were colour-ringed Birds are ringed mainly
as chicks or breeding adults in colonies or of all ages on landfill sites. Most
birds ringed in England and the Channel Islands are on landfill. Sorted highest to
lowest for both countries and individuals with 44% of the total being Herring
Gulls ringed in the UK. Updated and correct as at 18/12/2025 |
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Slide 07. Herring Gull A6XY Herrings are not the
most interesting of gulls. This one I saw over 20 times on the Adur, it having
been an injured bird from Southwick. I’ve not seen for 3 years but it may still
be around, possibly having lost its ring? |
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Slide 08. Herring Gull AM9T This bird was ringed at
Pitsea Landfill in Essex by the North Thames Ringing Group (now defunct as
Pitsea and Rainham tips have closed).
They provided a link to maps for each gull reported. As Herring Gulls go
TM9T was quite an adventurous individual, although clearly wasn’t that enamored
with France. Only 8% of the ringed Herring Gulls seen on the Adur have also
been seen abroad: 7 in France and 2 in Netherlands although one also made it to
North Yorkshire which is probably further. |
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Slide 09. Great Black-backed Gull JZ186 An example of
colour-ring information posted online by the Norwegian based ringing scheme,
although JZ186 was ringed in Denmark. One can refer back to the link to check
for further sightings. The Norwegian scheme rings start with a J. |
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Slide 10. Great Black-backed Gull A26 |
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Slide 11. Lesser Black-backed Gull P97 An adult Lesser
Black-backed Gull ringed at a Guernsey landfill but seen most frequently in the
autumn in Portugal. Two sightings from the Channel Islands in summer could
relate to years when breeding further north failed? The lack of winter records
suggest it might travel further south. The following slide supports both
hypothesis for at least some individuals. |
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Slide 12. Lesser Black-backed Gull V1VN A bird ringed in
Denmark, seen in October on the Adur and in Morocco the following February. No
further information has been received on this bird. Did it succumb or is it
still commuting unnoticed? |
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Slide 13. Common Gull P43N This is one of my two
favourite colour-ringed gulls to date. I’d been frustrated seeing metal ringed
gulls that didn’t also have a colour-ring and wondered why not as having one
allows data to be collected in the field rather than relying on the bird giving
really exceptional views/allowing amazing photos, being retrapped or found
dead. P43N provided a potential explanation in that plastic colour rings don’t
last as long as metal ones. Another Estonian Common
Gull P77U was seen (twice) on the Adur in March 2020 and another (P8S7) in
March 2018, March 2021 and December 2025. Having contacted the
Estonian scheme about the December 2025 sighting of P8S7 I took the opportunity
to ask about P43N. My sightings of it are its last although surveys of the
colony finished in 2018 and sadly the ringer involved died in 2023. |
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Slide 14. Mediterranean Gull A3AP The report on the left
is typical of those received for German colour-ringed Mediterranean Gulls, this
one being seen along both sides of the Channel. |
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Slide 15. Mediterranean Gull 3RPA An adult in
winter-plumage. It is a Belgian bird that has been seen regularly in Spain,
France and SE England. |
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Slide 16. Black-headed Gull TUXR. An adult ringed in
Poland and seen several times on the River Adur. It has not been reported from
anywhere else in the 6 years since it was ringed. |
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Slide 17. Yellow-legged Gull HD429 The only colour-ringed
Yellow-legged Gull I have seen. A Swiss bird recorded twice by me sandwiching a
sighting by Tony Benton. |
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Slide 18. Yellow-legged Gulls Examples of
Yellow-legged Gulls seen on the Adur. The bird in the left-hand photo is an
obvious adult. The centre rear bird in
the right hand photo is a near adult with a duller bill with a small black mark
and duller legs (barely visible). From this image it is identified by the
darker mantle compared to the Herring Gull in front of it. The three Great
Black-backed Gulls are obvious adults but at the time I didn’t pay much
attention to the smaller left-hand bird. I posted this photo amongst others on
my blog recently and Matt Eade, sharp as ever, suggested it was also a
Yellow-legged Gull, a first-winter. Looking at it again I agree but it
demonstrated that the most obvious bird isn’t always the most interesting. Of
all the Adur gulls I find non-adult Yellow-legged Gulls cause me the most
identification problems, so much so that I’m rarely confident of them. |
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Slide 19. Yellow-legged Gulls |
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Slide 20. ‘Czech’ Gull 618:U This bird was a
puzzler. An unfamiliar colour-ringed gull that I couldn't put a name to.
Thinking it most likely an argentatus Herring Gull (due to its size) I
was surprised to learn the scheme was from a Czech colony of Caspian and
Yellow-legged Gulls and it had been ringed as a Caspian Gull. It didn’t look
right and it has been suggested that Yellow-legged Gull was more likely. To me
the mantle seems a bit pale for that but it fits in other ways. Another hit to
my Yellow-legged Gull identification confidence. Correctly identifying chicks
ringed in mixed colonies must be fraught with difficulty as the chicks don’t
necessarily belong to the nearest adults. Hybrids might also be a possibility
and it would be interesting to know what was thought of this bird in Germany
and the Netherlands. |
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Slide 21. Caspian Gull XMEK This was the first Caspian Gull recorded on the River Adur, and a colour-ringed bird was something I'd always wanted to see and my other favourite colour-ring. I found it opposite the Airport A strikingly attractive gull with its white head, grey mantle with darker feather centres, brown coverts and black wings giving the expected four-coloured effect. Note also its white thumb-nail tips to dark tertials, long wings, small eye and longish parallel sided all black bill. It also had a pale underwing seen when flying off. See https://birdingneversleeps.blogspot.com/2014/10/caspian-gull-on-adur-5-october-2014.html for more details/images. |
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Slide 22. Caspian Gulls Two more first-winter
Caspian Gulls, the River Adur bird showing its almost stilt-like legs, its
mantle and coverts looking a bit faded probably not helped by excessive
cropping of a rather distant image. At last, the right-hand images are not all
gulls, although still predominantly mono-chrome. The top right illustrates the
point that it is one’s eyes can be easily distracted and it can be worth
looking beyond the most obvious bird. Most of the Caspian Gull seen on the Adur
have been first-winters. To my knowledge there has not yet been an adult. |
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Slide 23 Glaucous Gull I saw the 2016 Glaucous Gull at Goring Gap (right image) on 08 February, on the Inner Arm of Shoreham Harbour on 11 March and on the west beach at Shoreham Harbour on 12 March (left image). The latter is my closest to the Adur along with one seen three times on Southwick Canal Lockgates after dark when cycling home from work and also by the Sailing Club in March 2008. Glaucous Gulls records for the River Adur and nearby from the Sussex Records Database (CoBRA2) since 2000 are:
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Slide 24 Iceland Gull As well as on Southwick
Beach I saw the 2009 bird (photograph there above) on the River Adur opposite
Shoreham Airport on 24 and 25 March. Iceland Gulls records
for the River Adur and nearby from the Sussex Records Database (CoBRA2) are:
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Slide 25 Little Gull Little Gulls are
sometimes seen distantly in small numbers on Spring Seawatches, sometimes
closer after autumn/winter storms as was the individual above photographed at
Widewater Although I’ve recorded
Little Gulls from Shoreham Harbour most were passing by offshore. My notes for
an adult seen there on 02 Dec 2006 doesn’t indicate a direction of travel so
may have been in the harbour. It’s my closest to being on the Adur. River Adur records from the Sussex Records Database (CoBRA2) are:
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Slide 26 Kittiwake I forgot to create a
slide for Kittiwake for the presentation, it should have looked like this.
These are my most recent (left) and closest to the Adur (right) photos of the
species. Kittiwakes breed at
Seaford Head and are regularly seen flying by out at sea, sometimes in large
numbers but usually only identifiable with a telescope and this will be true of
(virtually) all Shoreham Harbour records. The Sussex Records Database (CoBRA2)
includes just 2 singles on the River Adur in July 1991 & March 1996 and
less helpfully entries without numbers (!!) on the Adur in January 2019 and
from the Adur Saltings in December 2024 |
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Slide 27 Sabine’s Gull Both birds photographed
are juveniles, the Norman’s Bay bird with an adult Little Gull. I’ve not seen a Sabine’s Gull on the Adur, the Hove Promenade bird is my closest. Of the following ‘Shoreham’ records only the 1956 record seems likely to have actually been on the Adur itself. A very nice gull to see where-ever they are. Sabine's Gull records from the Sussex Records Database (CoBRA2) are:
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Slide 28 Rare American Gulls The Ring-billed Gull was seen by Tony Prater and Keith Noble from RSPB Regional Office which was in Shoreham at that time. My closest is a second-winter found by John Cooper at the Crumbles Gravel Pits, where Sovereign Harbour now is, in December 1985. The individual photographed above was a regular winterer in Gosport for several years although I only went to look for it once. The Laughing Gull was found on the Adur opposite the airport by Ralph Simpson on the morning of 6 April was present until 10:05. I happened to bump into him while he was watching it, pure jam! It was then seen at Splash Point Seaford from 11:00-11:30 and flying west past Widewater by Chris Corrigan shortly after 12:00. The only Laughing Gull photographs I have taken were in Venezuela, the best of a poor bunch is shown above. |
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Slide 29 In need of a ring: Baltic Lesser Black-backed Gull This striking adult
Lesser Black-backed Gull appeared to show features associated with the nominate
race fuscus often referred to as Baltic Gull. Most notably a very dark
mantle hardly contrasting with its primaries, long winged and short-legged
appearance and on a raised wing image no sign of fresh primaries (fuscus
suspends its moult until reaching the winter quarters). Unfortunately a small
number of intermedius Lesser Black-backs can show these features too and
to be acceptable by the British Birds Rarities Committee an adult fuscus
needs to have been colour-ringed in a fuscus colony (e.g. in
Finland). The bird on the left was seen on the River Adur on 6 October 2014 while that on the right is a Baltic Gull seen in Finland a couple of years later.
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Slide 30 Almost … During lockdown an
American Herring Gull took up residence at Newlyn Harbour in West Cornwall. Not
a species I’d seen in Britain and it would have been tempting to go but not
during a pandemic. I hoped it would hang on until I was able to go and kept checking
the Adur, although more in the hope of a Caspian Gulls or seeing colour rings.
Before sunset on 11 March I came across the gull in the right-hand photo. I was
immediately struck by the density of its gingery body plumage, somewhat
reminiscent of a warmer toned Great Skua. It was clearly a Herring Gull type
but the paler head, unstreaked rear neck, two toned bill and when it preened a
dark tail set off warning bells but the barred rump appeared to have more white
than black. American Herring Gull should be the reverse. I watched the bird for
over 20 minutes, improving my angle by venturing onto the edge of the
saltmarsh. The light worsened and it started to rain. A few gulls flew off but
it wouldn’t even stretch a wing for me. I didn’t think I was going to see any
more on it unless it did something but a further approach might flush all the
birds without me getting better photos. The rain became much heavier and to my
eternal regret I left hoping I might see it again/better the next day. It
didn’t, like most unusual gulls on the Adur it wasn’t seen again. Searching
photos of American Herring Gulls in America showed som with not dissimilar
barring on the rump but a firm identification in the UK requires a lot more
than on the East Coast of the USA. More
images of this bird including of its all dark tail are at: https://birdingneversleeps.blogspot.com/2021/03/potential-american-herring-gull-at.html That might have been the end of the story but Wayne Turner (ex
Seaford seawatcher now long time Guernsey resident and gull aficionado) had a very similar looking
bird on Guernsey on 08 March 2025. He managed some convincing photos before it
flew off in a rather unhelpful direction. Fortunately his bird reappeared a few
days later. The timing is very coincidental and it has been suggested that
early spring records are the result of juvenile American Herring Gulls crossing
the Atlantic in the autumn and migrating north up the west European coasts. A short word about the Newlyn American Herring Gull. I
drove down overnight to be at Newlyn the day after lockdown and saw the bird
very well, calling in at Exmouth for a Mockingbird on the way home. See https://birdingneversleeps.blogspot.com/2021/04/following-in-others-footsteps-with-my.html Two
new birds in Britain although I believe the Adur bird was an American Herring
Gull and I saw the Northern Mockingbird at Pulborough 9 days later! |
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Slide 31 Dreams The best of my old
photos of two gulls that haven’t occurred in Sussex but could do so. Either
would be a dream find on the Adur although an Ivory Gull is more likely to be
at a carcass on the beach as this one was. It is also more likely to be a
juvenile. Poor photo quality makes them seem a bit dreamy. One day perhaps … |
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