Another adult Mediterranean Gull, this time over Red Bank, Ribchester CLICK IMAGE FOR LIGHTBOX.
MED GULL STOLE THE SHOW AGAIN on a glorious springlike day. The valley was full of bird song even after a frost overnight. Blackbird, Song Thrush, Dunnock, Chaffinch, Wren and Great, Blue and Coal Tits were all adding to the chorus. However, ever ungrateful, I had just complained that there was hardly any movement today (Black-headed Gull didn’t even reach three figures and Common Gull was down to its usual three or four instead of yesterday’s 33) when a small flock of gulls appeared ahead of me at Red Bank. I could see one was a Common Gull so why not photograph it? It would look great against a clear blue sky. As I was lining it up I noticed the others were Black-headed Gulls but the fourth bird was…BAM! An adult Mediterranean Gull with a half-black hood. I had plenty of time to lock onto it as it came past me on the top of the small hill, not far above eye level. You can see from my other mostly poor Med Gull photos from Rib that they do not always co-operate, and/or I have not always been ready in time/had the correct settings dialled in etc. They are very much a feature of the valley at the moment, Bill Aspin had five at Brockholes yesterday afternoon and Paul Holt also had five feeding in the show field at Salesbury late this morning. We had a walk along there in the afternoon but they were all gone by then. It makes me laugh that Mediterranean Gull isn’t really a typical gull of the Mediterranean in the same way that Yellow-legged and Audouin’s Gulls are and it’s scientific name actually means Black-headed Gull! Meanwhile Black-headed Gull has a brown head and a scientific name that means Laughing Gull! And so it goes on, what a mess!
The rest of the birding around the village was mostly things that have been around for a while now. Lapwings exceeded 40 again, with several displaying pairs. Curlews were singing their hearts out again but didn’t break double figures today, all presumably local breeding birds now. Oystercatcher has dwindled to only 15 (most have probably gone upstream to breed now) but one of the wintering Little Grebes was still at Red Bank. Fieldfares had increased to 62 and walking the fields north of Red Bank I found a flock of 10 Redwings near Eatoughs. However, the two other best sightings were a Peregrine on one of the pylons (probably the same youngster, which has been around for a couple of months) and four Teal on one of the hidden shooting ponds. Ha! They are not on it now and are hopefully somewhere safe instead. Interestingly an adult Great Black-backed Gull was hanging aound the sheep up here this morning, maybe it knows that some tasty afterbirth is on the way soon? I do not see many mammals around Ribchester but Brown Hares are particularly conspicuous at the moment, with 6 seen today. So February ended on 72 bird species, one ahead of January but more significantly my Ribchester patch year list moved up to 76 and February is now four clear at the top of the all time chart with 77. Probably just a product of the 12 BTO BirdTrack walks I did this month.
Common Buzzard (adult) over Eatoughs on a bright sunny morning.
Feel the power! Another pylon Peregrine.
Can you stand another Med Gull?