I pulled into Princes park Eastbourne as it got light and scanned the gathered gulls to find plenty of Black Headed Birds in various plumage from first winter to adult, all being dismissed by the bill shades from orange through reddish black to red.. A few Herring Gull were easily dismissed on size and a peregrine flew over as Swans begged for food along the edge of the pond.
After half an hour of searching through the gulls I finally found the smaller black billed bird and had another tick for 2013 with this little cracker...the Bonaparte's Gull.(164) I grabbed a picture as it floated around in the middle of the pond but I had to dash back to work so couldn't wait for it to come in closer.
(It did occasionally stick it's head up to reveal that slim black bill)
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| A sleeping Bonaparte's Gull |
A quick fly back up the A21 and into London for a days work where I stopped in at Middlesex Filter Beds as it was only two minutes from my place of work today.....It's literally in the back yard so a rare half hour lunch break was in order. From the entrance I walked across the small bridge and twenty yards to the river only to find three Firecrest (165) feeding in an Elderberry bush with one coming out as I grabbed a couple of pictures which wasn't easy as they were constantly flicking about in the bushes.
Great little birds and a real pleasure to spend a few moments with them before returning to work.
Right enough blog work as I have a big presentation to put together for work tomorrow.
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| Firecrest |
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| Firecrest |
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| Firecrest |
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| Black Headed Gull |
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| Mute Swan |
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| Coot splash landing |
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