4th December 2019
Been in Salop for a few hours after traveling from Scilly, via Berkshire, and the first bird I see of note, is the long staying 1st wintert Caspian Gull at Prisorlee Lake. If that wasn’t enough, shortly afterwards, I went and found it or another 1st winter Caspian Gull at Trench Pool just behind my parents house.
Mid-afternoon and I arrived in Salop. It wasn’t long before I made the short drive up to Prisorlee Lake to check out if the Caspian Gull was still present. It’s been at this site for nearly five weeks, including yesterday, so there is no chance it wasn’t goin to be there today. Was there? Because of the sun shining from the west, it was hard work scanning through the gulls on the lake as the sun was in your eyes. It was a good 30 minutes later, after moving around with the sun behind me, when I finally relocated the 1st winter Caspian Gull sitting on a buoy on the far side. However. before all this happened, I had joined up with a birder at the south end, who was also looking for the Caspian Gull. A quick search with my bins and I picked up what I thought was a 3rd winter Caspian Gull on the water. I discovered that the guy I was with, I’ve forgot his name already, had been keeping a watch on it before I had arrived. There had been up to 3 Caspian Gull at Prisorlee in the last few weeks and I thought that maybe it was one of them. I put a pic out on the Shropshire Socks WhatsApp Group only for the main man, Tom Lowe, to tell me that it’s an advanced 2nd winter Yellow-legged Gull and it’s been around for weeks! Man, this looked good for a Caspian Gull. Also at Prisorlee Lake, just before I left to catch the Trench Pool roost, if there is one there, were 2 adult Great black-backed Gull and John Reeves, who was scanning the lake from his car, told me that he had a 1st winter GBBG and also the Caspian Gull.
Thought I had a Caspian Gull at Prisorlee Lake. It was later on I asked Tom if it could be a hybrid, CaspianxYellow-legged Gull? ‘Yes’ was his reply.
This is the real thing!! The 1st winter Caspian Gull that’s been at Prisorlee for five weeks now and here, kept it’s distance at the far side of the lake.
Altogether there were 3 Great black-backed Gull that roosted at Prisorlee Lake
This Jay showed off nearby
And there were a male Bullfinch and above, Reed Bunting on the west side of Prisorlee Lake.
It was almost dark when I reached Trench Pool and I could just make out a few large gulls on the water with my naked eye as I drove past. I scanned with my bins and immediately got onto a 1st winter Caspian Gull!! I fired off some record shots in the dark and then continued scanning and in with the 4 Herring and 6 Lesser-black backed Gull, was an adult Yellow-legged Gull. All the gulls flew out NW just before I left. There were also 5 Goosander on the pool and I heard a Kingfisher.
It was way too dark to work out if this was the same 1st winter Caspian Gull from Prisorlee Lake or not. Never the less, it was a kinda of surprise to see it with only 11 other large gulls on the water and is the forth sighting for Trench Pool.
I say forth sighting. In 2015 I had this 1st winter Caspian Gull at Trench Pool
Two years later, 2017, I found this 3rd winter Caspian Gull. At first, nearby Hortonwood, and later on it roosted at Trench Pool for a few nights before I left to go and travel. I believe that this individual may be the same 1st winter above from two years ago, returning. The third winter was my last sighting of a Caspian Gull in Salop until today.
An hour before I had the 2015 1st winter Caspian Gull at Trench Pool, the first sighting for the site, was this 2nd winter that came in to rest for ten minutes.
Just before leaving Berkshire, Jo took this image of this Kingfisher at Freeman’s Marsh where we also had of note, 4 Stonechat and flyover Little Egret and Raven….
this Chiffchaff….
and Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, 2 Red Kite and this Kestrel
SCILLYSPIDER 2 