Well, It has been a real busy week for me sorting out all the details for the forth-coming trips and so I have not been able to get out. I was meant to hit the tip today with Steve but being so far behind with everything I had to give it a miss. This is also the end of the Gull watching season for me as I am flying out on Monday. These are a few photo's from this winter. With a short video combination at the end.
Last winter I didn't do much Gull watching and then the sad closure of Mucking Tip at the end of November last year had resulted in me making a concerted effort to hit Pitsea Tip with Steve (of whom I am really grateful for all his help). I missed the opening day of the Gull season due to moving when Steve decided to find the first Thayer's Gull for Britain. This left me feeling that I had missed by far the best Gull of the season (little did I know what else was going to happen) and so settled in to seeing Caspian Gull's with the hope of some "White Winger" action. During the period I had over 15 different Caspian's and with the lack of "White Wingers" in the country was reflected at Pitsea as we only had a single Iceland Gull throughout in the form of a 1st winter, there was not a single Glauc up to the time of writing this posting.
My first winter Azores trip with Peter was a nice enjoyable experience and just an all round break which was also again a some what quiet year for Gull's for an Azorean scale compared to previous winters, However it was good to see plenty of Azorean Gull's whilst searching for something different amongst them. The tip at Terceira was non productive but Praia da Vitoria beach deliverred with up to 30 Ring Billed Gull's, 4 Med Gulls including a colour ringed bird, 2 American Herring Gull's were nice to see and the first ones I had seen since the winter of 1998 at Killybegs.
Obviously by far the best bird of the winter was the Slaty Backed found nearby at Rainham by Dominic Mitchel which I saw with Steve B and then being lucky enough to be on site at Pitsea with Steve and to see the bird at Pitsea not once but twice! and then again on Vange Wick. A short break to Holland to see Vincent resulted in some more Gull watching where we loacted a few Casp's and some interesting colour ringed birds. For excellent photos of Gulls at Pitsea click on Steve's link: http://www.birdersplayground.co.uk/Index.html For photos of the Slaty backed at Rainham click on: http://www.birdingetc.com/
For photos from the Azores winter trip click on pete's blog: http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.com/
For details of colour ringed Gull's click on Vincent's blog: http://babbler.blog.com/
Okay so that is it, Monday,if all goes to plan I am heading of on my Travel's....
