It's all about the gulls

I headed out for a bit of local birding a couple of times on Saturday 24/09. I started out by meeting up with Gareth mid-morning for a stomp around Grimsbury Res and the Upper Cherwell valley. We failed to find anything particularly spectacular but a few nice odds & sods consisting of a 2cy Yellow-Legged Gull, a foraging Willow Tit, a Wigeon, 2 Common Sand and a small movement of Mipits & Swallows.

I went a longer way home than usual to check a few farmland sites and came across a large flock of around 200 Lesser Black Backed Gulls near Thenford. It was pleasing to find a further 3 Yellow-Legged Gulls here with an adult, a 2cy (possibly the same individual from Grimsbury?) & a 3cy. Grotty phone-scoped photo of the 3cy below...

Later on, I met up with both Gareth & Dan for a crack at the Boddington gull roost. Before I went away to Cornwall it was appearing quite productive and I was keen to give it another go. It proved to be well worth while, with a juvenile/1st winter Caspian Gull present almost immediately and was there pretty much the whole evening. iphone-scope photos below.

Also present were two juv/1st-winter (one of them below) & 1 adult Yellow-Legged Gulls, as well as a Little Egret (far from a common sight here). A couple of Yellow Wagtail also flew south calling. It was then time for a pint!