Having seen reports of Caspians at Dungeness I spent a little time on the rspb reserve where the gulls were on distant islands ... but the beach by the fishing boats seemed to offer the potential for better views ... half a dozen loaves of sliced bread later brought around a hundred Herring Gulls and a single Yellow-legged Gull ... the bright sunshine was very nice but no help to the gull-watcher ... the gulls bobbed about on the sea and were reluctant to stand obligingly on the beach ...
There were some groups of gulls loafing on the broad shingle strip between the road and the beach ... quite flighty and mostly sitting down before taking off in one seamless motion from sitting to flying without the transitional 'standing' phase that I was hoping for ...
After some careful approaches that often resulted in a whole flock just flushing ... one group was losing individuals more steadily as each bird flew off ... from the middle of this flock one bird caught my eye ... the very pale underwing was striking and suggested Caspian Gull ... it flew past me and kept going and was finally lost to view distantly somewhere near the lighthouse ... with the sun behind me I took a series of flight shots ...
p9 and p10 have almost pure white extensive tips with only tiny black marks ... p8 on the near wing is missing but the far wing shows pale tongues intruding into the black on the wing tip ...
on the near wing p5 shows a narrow black marking ... as the sun catches the underside of the far wing it appears very pale ...
again the pale tongues on the far wing show well ...
the deep chested structure becomes visible ...
the eye looks dark and the bill is greenish pale yellow with a hint of some dark marking ... all good features for Caspian Gull ...
the almost entirely white tips to p9 and p10 on the near wing and narrow black band on p5 show here ...
the head and neck show no sign of streaking ...
with the bill now in profile the lack of gonys angle is apparent ...
as a Herring Gull comes into shot the longer narrow wing of the Caspian Gull is highlighted along with its paler underside ... the difference in body shape is striking ...
... zooming in on the Caspian ... now looking suitably beady-eyed ...
... and on the Herring ...
This was a very different experience of Caspian Gull from those that I had seem previously but very rewarding ...
The Dungeness rspb had a lovely male Smew ... my first male of the winter ...
... and as I walked in the warm sunshine along the track between gorse and bramble scrub a Dartford Warbler flew right across in front of me and disappeared into the tangle ...
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