Glaucous & Iceland Gulls

A day at north Shields Fish Quay on Saturday in the company of many birders and Gulls , we had all come to see  Glaucous and Iceland Gulls  and they put on a good show especially the Iceland Gull  which gave cracking views , my interest was also in the  so called "Viking" gull a hybrid of Glaucous and Herring Gull which put in an appearance later in the day , initially it looked just like a Glaucous but darker . I had heard the term Viking gull before presume it has northern origins where perhaps they are more common I suppose it's  just a simple name rather than saying Glaucous X Herring Gull Hybrid 

 Iceland Gull

Glaucous Gull on the shed roof

 The "Viking"

 The Viking

 Iceland 2nd Winter

 Glaucous Gull

 Glaucous Gull

Glaucous X herring Gull

 Glaucous X herring Gull

Glaucous top left   and Glaucous X herring Gull lower right

Iceland Gull

The end of last Month I went back along to the Fish Quay ,but first called into the boating lake to check the Gulls for an Iceland or Glaucous only to find a sailing club in attendance with about 15 radio controlled yachts  milling about the duck , still a few gulls along the side they seem to adapt quickly to disturbance having their essential fresh  water bathe along the edge . Also called in to see the Lesser Whitethroat at Tynemouth which appeared and showed well after only ten minutes will process some shots but I can't add to the already well documented photos available . The fish quay was very quiet not many gulls around save for the usual mob at the car park, but I have never personally seen any white wingers at the car park or beach area . Well again  I walked back and forth along the Quay checking the shed roofs with nothing but then swimming out from the front of a boat in the channel an Iceland came into view allowing some shots before taking off , I soon realized I had the wrong camera for flight shots and despite it giving numerous fly pasts I got nothing , it finally settled up on the sheds  for awhile dropping into the channel again briefly and again back to the river side shed roof  which is where it was when I left. 

 I don't know if there was a race on or not these yacht sails are about 4' high

 Iceland on the water in the channel

 The closest I got as it swam past between moored boats

 I have overexposed the shots somewhat the  strong low sun giving very harsh light , but don't be fooled it's always cold here and this day no exception  one of the reasons to keep moving and always wrap up .

And it ends up on the shed roof  this side of the shed a favorite  of a lot of the gulls

Iceland Gull

Friday 21st

A visit to first the boating lake at Tynemouth to check out the Gulls with the report of an Iceland Gull making the odd visit there ,it did have plenty of gulls to scan through Black Headed, Herring  and Great Black Backs no Med or Iceland Gull for me , I went up beach Road in the hope of seeing the Glossy Ibis which had been reported that morning but no sign( at least not this day) , two dips already and its only the morning . Decided to check out the Fish Quay and walked back and forth from the quay along to the beach area and back again several times checking out any likely perch for a Glaucous or Iceland , it was a reasonable day weather wise but as usual on the quay a bitter wind coming down the river , well with not much to get any photos of I was just about to head home when a bird which had just landed on the roadside sheds but on the river side of the roof , I could see it was  a white winger but it was a bit to far for photos , another gull settled right beside it forcing it to lift and resettle but now on the roadside of the roof so I legged it round to find it preening (apparently it had just come from the boating lake) the strong light was making a decent exposure hard ,but I got a few shots before yet another gull virtually dropped on top of it forcing it to take off and disappear with no chance of any flight shots . it was relocated on the river side sheds but again some distance.

Glaucous and Iceland are in my view going to be harder to get to grips with yes they are still turning up but more mobile in their habits , gone are the days you could scan a flock of gulls and pick out a Glaucous or two .

I did go home with a souvenir from my visit , I could smell a very fishy smell about my person thinking I had stepped in something but no , had I been leaning against something no seemed OK , not till I got home and took my jacket off  did I notice the very large splodge ! on my shoulder and running down the back ,now getting the full wiff  it was a foul I had to hose it down before throwing it in the washer ,the not so nice side of Gull watching !

 Lands on the roadside shed roof , nice long primary projection

 Now it's flipped over the apex and is now alongside the road

 Seems to have a dark eye , but pinkish bill

No flight shots obtained and by now the light has changed , not shown here is the size of the bird which was on the larger end of the scale for Iceland I would term it 1st Winter .

Glaucous Gull

Been rather busy of late but did get along to the fish quay and catch up with the Glaucous Gull though I did miss the Iceland , this was on the 25th Feb the bird was  located near the small beach area  but soon  flew off with other gulls and it was not till very late in the afternoon that it re-appeared but this time apparently up on there usual haunt of the shed roof . In the meantime a walk along to Tynemouth Haven had 100+ Dunlin about the same Redshank  and 5-6 Purple Sandpiper till the tide pushed them off. So I still need Iceland for the year and Both for the Blyth Valley  list a couple of  short seawatches has yet to produce any and Blyth harbour seems to get less and less gulls hanging around 

Iceland Gulls North Shields Fish Quay

This week I went to Holywell Pond as  well as a couple of visits to the fish quay,Holywell was mostly frozen over and the trust working on the island , a few gulls bathing in the small clear area and loafing on the ice , the numbers have dropped rapidly since the closure ? of Seghill tip , the birds soon move on to some where else, Buzzard in the nearby trees but otherwise a brief visit . 

The fish quay had  two 1st year, 2nd yr and the near Adult on Wednesdasy, but only the latter there on Friday and a Juvenile Kittiwake still hanging around no Glaucous or even better for me at least would be a Kumliens type Iceland . Here are  a few shots of the individual birds I have arranged in a Collage for no other reason than I could.

Mostly 1st winter Iceland

 2nd winter Iceland

Near adult  Iceland the right hand lower is from Friday still a very faint hint of light brown even on the wings.

Gosforth Park, Killingworth Lake & Fish Quay

Last Fiday  I started out at Gosforth Park NHSN site , the walk to the pond had lots  of Chaffinch on the wood edge and I was hoping for Brambling, a Sparrowhawk bathing in the stream which probably had Woodcock and Snipe along it's muddy edges as the pond was frozen to about 97% , several Moorhen lifted from the reeds a couple of minutes later a Fox came out along the left cutting , but ten minutes later came over the pond , so no wonder I did not see any Bitterns.

Called at Killingworth Lake all the birds at the west end where the Swans are keeping it open , hoping to get some close-ups of Goldeneye etc: but they all still kept their distance.

I next went down to the Fish Quay  2 Icelands up on the shed roof not very active so I thought I would head to the boating lake which also had some open water but no Iceland here , Tufted & Pochard with a few mallard, back down to the quay walked the very small beach only 4 Sanderling one of which colour ringed , by now the sub-adult was flying around  but no boats in and the light fading so I called it a day.

 In this cold spell there must be the odd carcase to scavenge in the reeds ?

 half a glance at the birds in the pool before it went back into the reeds.

 The Male Pochard is a rather smart bird in good light

 Black - headed Gulls coming to bread  at the boating lake

Colour ringed Sanderling on the beach

Juvenile centre and sub adult top  sitting on the fish quay roof

Caught this Iceland just as it was going over the shed roof , it's cleaner this side without the smudge behind the eye !!!

More from Iceland

End of last week I had another couple of hours at North Shields Fish Quay , the near Adult Iceland was around but I was hoping for either a Glaucous or the 2nd Winter Iceland  or Kumliens or anything else that wanted to show itself  , as it happens there was only the one bird . Gull behaviour can be quite aggressive when it comes to food , one bird was carrying damage to it's wing  probably caused clashing with another bird but it did not seem to cause it any problems in flight , I watched another Juvenile hold in the wind and slowly drop height near a fishing boat it  took a bit of manoeuvring, dropping back slightly then  lowering  till it eventually came level with the chute low down on the side of the boat where the discarded fish come through , it then looked in carefully as it held it's position seeing nothing to eat it immediately lifted and went to look elsewhere, all this it had learned in it's first year.    

 Sub - Adult Iceland Fish Quay north Shields

 Iceland don't seem to be as aggressive when  going for food usually keeping to the edge  of a group

 A noticeable amount of damage to this wing , but it did not seem to hinder  flight .

Iceland Gull - North Shields Quay

Reports of Iceland Gull and Glaucous Gull at North Shields fish quay again had me thinking  at the moment it does  not look like I am going to find one in Blyth Harbour so I headed back up to check it out , a bright sunny but rather windy day saw me on the  actual  quayside after checking the beach area on the way. First what appeared to be an adult came past but after further views you could see traces or smudges of light brown especially on the undertail so at the moment it's age is undetermined but I just refer to it as sub-adult,  also a 1st year bird came past and it was thought another bird perhaps a 2nd year but this one not seen to come past , I think it was actually just the sub-adult when viewed at a distance looking very white. No sign of the Glaucous  but it was good to catch up with the Iceland's  a few birders came and went with varying degrees of interest from just a tick and go to some spending more time in the company of these great birds , there must be more Iceland's in the Country than in any time before perhaps it will take time for more to drift into the County hoping for a nice clear cut Kumliens type .

 Light makes a huge difference in photographing these gulls although it was sunny all day the direction of light washed out the subtle colours .

 1st year alights briefly

 1st year mobbed by Carrion Crow

 1st year

 I just love the way they hang in the wind checking out any food source

 The sub-adult cruised over a fishing boat flying slowly into the wind, it checked out the boat turned sharply then dropped down onto deck and came up with this fish, although I have no idea what sort of fish it is ?

It's getting late in the afternoon the sun light starting to glow