Barn Owl 1
Buzzard 1
Pett
Red-throated Diver 2W
Great Crested Grebe 5
Brent Goose 1 on Levels, 2W
Scoter c.6
Merlin 1
Scandinavian Herring Gull 3 adults (east end)
Adult Scandinavian Herring Gull at Pett
Rye Harbour NR
Little Egret 5
Great White Egret 1 ex. flew from ditch north of Castle Water and landed in reedbed near Bittern Viewpoint
Marsh Harrier 1
Water Rail 1 in flight ex.
Sanderling 2
Yellow-legged Gull 4 (1w beach, 2w and 2 ad Castle Water)
Caspian Gull 4 1w (including polish-ringed individual on shingle ridge)
Scandinavian Herring Gull 3 adults
Barn Owl 1 ex. upper sides of flight feathers virtually wholly white
Stonechat 2
Fieldfare 10W
Cetti's Warbler c.8 heard singing
First-winter Caspian Gull at Rye Harbour
A small and delicately built individual so presumably a female. A typical four-coloured individual courtesy of its white head and underparts, grey scapulars, brown coverts and black primaries. A superbly small and unmarked white-headed individual punctuated by its small dark eyes. It often adopted an upright stance being long-necked with its tell-tale protruding breast. Some dark grey nape streaking. Its slender tapering bill was two-toned being greyish basally and black-tipped. Its scapulars were virtually a plain pale grey. Its wing coverts had solid dark centres with pale fringes. Its dark greater coverts formed a dark bar across its closed wing. Primarily dark almost black tertials with narrow white thumbnail tips. Long pointed black primaries with length of tail tip to primary tip clearly longer than tertial tip to tail tip. Gleaming white neck and belly with some fine spotting to its breast sides and flanks. Gleaming white rump and upper tail contrasting with solid broad black tail band. Long pale flesh weak-looking legs with extensive tibia.
Same first-winter Caspian Gull as above and a more advanced first-winter (foreground) Caspian Gull at Rye Harbour NR
Advanced first-winter Caspian Gull at Rye Harbour NR
Another small and delicately built individual so presumably another female. Structurally appearing identical to the accompanying individual (see top image above). Its pale grey basal two-thirds to its bill, paler and greyer and predominantly plain mantle, scapulars and wing coverts and its worn vermiculated greater coverts caused me to consider it a second-winter but its dark-centred with narrow white thumbnailed tipped tertials strongly point to it being another first-winter individual albeit more advanced. It was a very active individual flying from place to place on the beach giving me repeated opportunity to capture its characteristic soft white axillaries and underwing coverts - superb. It would regularly appear aggresive to other Gulls in its vicinity raising its wings. Gleaming white rump and upper tail contrasting with solid broad black tail band. Long pale flesh weak-looking legs with extensive tibia.
First-winter Caspian Gull at Rye Harbour NR
In contrast to the two individuals above this was a large, hefty, bulky and large-billed individual so presumably a male. At times its large structure reminded me of a Yellow-legged Gull although it took on a different appearance on raising its long neck when its skeletal white head appeared peculiarly small and sleek, its back flat, and as whole, reassuringly attenuated. Again a typical four-coloured individual albeit more of its grey scapulars having dark internal markings. Its small white head (some brown staining was evident on its right side and some feather displacement on its left side) had a long sloping forehead and was very flat-crowned. Small black eyes complete with white eyelids. Its primarily black solid-looking bill had a pure white base to its lower mandible recalling a first-winter individual I have seen at Dungeness and an obvious gape line. Some restricted pale grey nape streaking and some blurred greyish blotching to its breast sides and flanks and across its belly so contrasting with its white head, neck and protruding breast. When facing away an obvious ventral bulge was apparent. White rump and uppertail contrasting with broad black tail band. On first reviewing my images I was somewhat perplexed by its dark-centred tertials having broad pale tips being slightly notched but have subsequently read that this is withing the variation shown by Caspian Gull (BB104:719). Long pointed black primaries with projection from tail tip virtually equal to tertial tip to tail tip. Long pale flesh weak-looking legs with extensive tibia.
Polish-ringed first-winter Caspian Gull PKPK at Rye Harbour NR
Hopefully the images speak for themselves as this beauty felt a textbook first-winter in every respect. It was ringed as a nestling in a pure Caspian Gull colony on an island in a reservoir at ZB. Kozielno, Paczkow just north of the southern border of Poland on 25/5/12 by Jacek Betleja and Jakub Szymczak. It is the first reported sighting (in fact, remarkably it is the same individual that was present at Newhaven Harbour on 3rd & 4th December) since being ringed in which time it has moved 1,139km west in 212 days. The ringing location falls to the south of the approximate hybrid zone mapped in BB104:705.
Map showing origin of colour-ringed Caspian Gull at Rye Harbour NR
Great White Egret over Castle Water, Rye Harbour NR
Whilst poles apart from MCC's regular images of this species from just over the County border they helpfully convey its large size, its long legs projecting far beyond its tail, large black feet and orange-yellow bill.
