Gulls, Gulls and more Gulls!

I thought it’s about time I blogged about Gulls again. In fact, I haven’t blogged in ages so need to make an effort!

Back in the 80’s Radipole Lake was a Mecca for gull watchers from around the country. Rare gulls would be a regular occurrence including several species from the USA. Since then our gull reputation has been somewhat down graded due to infrequency of interesting species (apart from Med Gulls!). This winter however we are back on track with so far having several really nice species.

Anyone who’s been to the reserve since Christmas will have probably heard about Ring-billed Gulls. This is a species which is found in the USA and is one of the species which used to frequent Radipole Lake on a regular basis, well at least in the winter. Nowadays, we are lucky if we get one but so far this winter, wait for it... we’ve had four possibly even five! (apologies if the excitement has made you spill a nearby beverage or table top object!)

Here’s a picture showing the features to look out for. As the name suggests its got a ring around its bill but Common Gulls can also have that but the bill itself is larger and chunkier.  

Next up is a species which I’ve talked about before, Caspian Gull. Monday evening I clapped eyes on this beauty though to the untrained eye its looks like just another gull. Rather than risking boring you  to tears, call into the visitor centre over the weekend and I’ll tell you why its a Caspian Gull. Here’s a photo.

Finally a species which really does get me excited and I’m sure you will when you see the picture. Last Saturday I was lucky enough to pick this rather obvious gull out of the flock outside the visitor centre. It’s an Iceland Gull but probably not from Iceland as they don’t breed there. It is pretty obvious why this is different to our normal gulls!

If you have made it this far through the blog, I congratulate you for not falling to sleep at the thought of gull identification. I promise I won’t blog about Gulls again in the near future. Over and out.