A Devonian Goes to See a Bonaparte's Gull. (Bowling Green Marsh) (1 Viewer)

14-06-04

Location : Bowling Green Marsh. Devon. SX973875.



Yesterday I nipped out on the bus to Bowling Green Marsh to try for the Bonaparte's Gull and aborted my search early as I was at the mercy of a Sunday bus service and wanted to be safely back home for the Canadian GP and England's opening game against France. The best I saw yesterday was a Little Gull in full adult summer plumage. Today I returned to Bowling Green Marsh on the bus again. While I walked through Topsham a report of a Black Kite came through and this made me look up a lot should it happen to come my way. Sadly it was seen about an hour and half before and was probably far gone. I decided on a patient tactic this afternoon and headed straight for the hide to sit and wait for the bird to come to me. It was a cloudy and bright day with a slight breeze. There were a few in the hide with the same mind watching a gull roost gradually building up. It got to a good size with a Mediterranean Gull with a full hood but some black on the wings indicating a non adult bird. Sadly a Peregrine Falcon swooped over and flushed all the gulls with most of them disappearing to the mouth of the Clyst. At this point most of the birders left to the viewing platform but I decided to stick it out. A few other came along and unaware of the Peregrine sat down to wait too. The gulls started returning and the roost built up again. About an hour after I started, I scanned the flock for the umpteenth time and spotted the grey on the back of a small Bonaparte's Gull's neck and softly shouted "I've got it!" to which the birder next to me replied "Yeah, it's walking out of the water". My heart rate increased it's pace. Experience of a previous sighting being rejected made me grab my notebook to make detailed observations this time. It was obviously smaller than the surrounding Black-headed Gulls and lower down due to shorter legs that were a faint washed out pink with a hint of orange at a distance such that you were quite hard pressed to decide what colour they actually were. The whole structure of the bird was more delicate than the Black-headed Gulls with a rounder head. There was a stunning small jet black eye that at times seemed the size of a pinhead when it frequently squinted. Behind the eye there was a black smudge with faint smeared streaks running from the smudge and the eye to the crown. The back of the neck was grey as previously mentioned but this grey merged seamlessly into the grey mantle and wing coverts. Bearing the facts in mind it's grey mantle did seem a tad darker than the Black-headed Gulls' mantles when you look carefully enough. The upper wing coverings (scapulars and coverts) were uniformly grey as of the mantle but the wing feathers were not uniform in colour. There were lots of whites on the primary wing feathers with more black as you progress towards the feather tips. The bill was the best feature for me as it had a profound influence on the overall appearance of it as being a delicate bird. It was shorter and very black with a sheen from the sunshine. It was a slimmer bill in that it had a fast taper at the tip. I was lucky enough to be looking when it yawned before settling down to rest on it's belly, it revealed a reddish orange colour inside it's mouth. Sadly I did not make any observations about it's tail markings with them being tucked under the wings but I was happy with what I had learnt of it's plumage and features. That was a valuable year tick for me and a consolidated lifer for me as my sighting from Shobrooke Park in February of last year was unfortunately rejected by the BBRC.

The previous sighting's account can be seen here.

Hi Andrew good to read that as I had a very similar experience with my first Bonaparte's Gull this spring, scoping a large flock of Black-headed Gulls for what seemed like an eternity (I knew it was in there somewhere) before seeing it. I found it to be one of those birds that you don't realise how distinctive they are until you actually see one. Since I saw my first in March I've seen three more, finding two myself on the same day in April - typical how you wait for years and then you're tripping over them. I'm still envious of the Med Gull. It's one of those relatively common birds which I somehow have avoided.

You needn't have bothered with the England game, you could have saved yourself a lot of heartbreak by staying out a bit longer.

E

Edward,

Hindsight is a wonderful thing when birds and footy are combined.

I wanted to learn how to clinch one in flight so I watched each flock of gulls flying in (no more than ten at a time) to the roost but it was impossible for me. Need to learn them on the ground first then watch it take off if it does. Time will remedy that, I suppose. After first seeing it in the flock it was surprisingly easy to refind it after a commotion when I learnt how different it was from the BHGs.

Andrew said:

Edward,

Hindsight is a wonderful thing when birds and footy are combined.

Click to expand...

Indeed. So should I watch England v Croatia or use the longest day of the year (sunset at 00.06 tonight) to do some late evening birding? Found a singing Brambling (vagrant) on my patch at 10:00 yesterday evening!

E

More likely to see some action in the footy tonight so I'd stay indoors tonight. You have the rest of the week to bird and tomorrow will probably only be a minute shorter.

Don't blame me if a mate rings you to say they found a MEGA where you would have gone!