Sunday 28th December: Yellow-Legged Gull
Today continuing rather cold with a light breeze.
A late afternoon visit to the Meadow found wader numbers somewhat reduced in numbers, possibly because of the large number of Sunday walkers around. There were about 10 BLACK-TAILED GODWITS and a similar number of RUFF, with about 6 DUNLIN and 4 REDSHANKS also present. There was a modest flock of about 75 golden plover. There were much more PINTAIL around with at least a dozen birds on the water.
In the gull roost there were at least 7 COMMON GULL including one first winter bird. In addition there was a rather smart adult YELLOW-LEGGED GULL.
Elsewhere in Oxon: a slavonian grebe was present yesterday at Farmoor but not today. The red-head smew is still around at Dix Pit after spending one day at Farmoor recently. The great northern diver(s) and the scaup are also still at Farmoor.
The yellow-legged gull: the clean white head and clean dark mantle still stand out in the crowd though herring gulls will soon be starting to lose their streaked heads making it much harder to pick the yellow-legged out. © Adam Hartley
A late afternoon visit to the Meadow found wader numbers somewhat reduced in numbers, possibly because of the large number of Sunday walkers around. There were about 10 BLACK-TAILED GODWITS and a similar number of RUFF, with about 6 DUNLIN and 4 REDSHANKS also present. There was a modest flock of about 75 golden plover. There were much more PINTAIL around with at least a dozen birds on the water.
In the gull roost there were at least 7 COMMON GULL including one first winter bird. In addition there was a rather smart adult YELLOW-LEGGED GULL.
Elsewhere in Oxon: a slavonian grebe was present yesterday at Farmoor but not today. The red-head smew is still around at Dix Pit after spending one day at Farmoor recently. The great northern diver(s) and the scaup are also still at Farmoor.
The yellow-legged gull: the clean white head and clean dark mantle still stand out in the crowd though herring gulls will soon be starting to lose their streaked heads making it much harder to pick the yellow-legged out. © Adam Hartley