22nd Nov 2020: another Caspian Gull

It was fairly quiet during the week and with no bird news forthcoming, the highlight of the week was the sunrise view that Adrian T got on Friday morning.

Courtesy and copyright of Adrian Tysoe

Yesterday morning John and I met up to have a good stomp around the patch. The reservoir and woodland didn't have much to encourage us tbh, with the only thing of note being a possible sighting of the Stonechat still in the cattle field - but it disappeared before I got a good look at it.

In the Upper Cherwell Valley there were lots of gulls around and as we stood and scanned the Borrow Pit pool the numbers of large gulls increased in fairly regular pulses. After a little while John picked out a 1CY Caspian Gull - the third for the patch and second this year! We also had a minimum of three Yellow-legged Gulls (definitely a near adult and two 2CY birds) and there was also, easily, double figures of Herring Gulls. The two Stonechats were still present there too and lots of winter thrushes moving around the valley. We managed to find 3-4 Common Snipe in the usual wet field before we left. 

This morning Adrian T had the Caspian Gull again at the Borrow Pit pool before they left and Mike P and Iain found it again in the new construction site near to the M40 junction, as well as two adult Yellow-legged Gulls. 

This evening I had a 1CY Mediterranean Gull at the reservoir and a single Wigeon flew around before deciding to move on up the valley.

Gull photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

If anyone is wanting to have a look at the gulls I have cobbled together the map below. The blue circle is the Borrow Pit pool where gulls are very often gathering to bath and drink. The other main area at the moment seems to be the new construction site near to the M40 junction, where gulls gather on the bare earth. The two areas to the east of the pool (in Northamptonshire), are pasture fields where gulls feed and loaf - the eastern fields nearest to Chacombe are where many gulls were gathering a few winter back and we were lucky enough to have a Glaucous Gull there. Oddly, the large gulls are not coming to the reservoir in any number at all, but it may be worth a look anyway.