Tuesday 11 February 2020

London Wetland Centre - The search for Old Icy!


The subject of gull identification is a complex subject with so much variation within a species not to mention hybridization. Having spent many a winter’s day at Beddington Farm with John, Garry and Pete sifting through some twenty thousand gulls with a feint possibility of finding a Glaucous, Iceland or even a Glaucous Winged gull it can send the mind into gull meltdown.

I carry a kindle with a growing compendium of bird books which includes Gulls of Europe, Asia and North America by Olsen and Larsson. The former I met at the Batumi bird fair whilst I was part of the Batumi Raptor Count in 2018.

During my Surrey Vice County travels I have kept an eye on an Iceland Gull that frequents the London Wetland Centre at weekends. This is probably the only period of the week where soccer commitments taking priority. I have seen adult birds before at the Farm but I wonder why does it only visit the LWC at the weekends. Is it down to observer effort or landfill/incinerator holding areas for our rubbish not being fully operational or is it being disturbed from its usual haunts by recreational humans. The bird has not been picked up at the Farm or at other roost sites so where does it go?!


Yesterday I took a tactical visit (2hrs before high tide) to the London Wetland Centre stopping off at Barnes Playing fields to check the gathering numbers of Black Headed Gulls. There were only a few larger gulls amongst the masses! 


This tale is cut short without a sighting of the Iceland gull on the reserve but an adult Yellow Legged Gull (middle right) did grace the small audience that had gathered in the WWF hide. The picture above gives a good comparison of Lesser Black Backed (Centre foreground) and Herring shades of grey through the saddle and wings. The yellow legs are an obvious feature in adult birds!

This small chapter is not complete with plans to visit the environs of the Wetland Centre in search of old Icy!

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