Daily Yaffle: Gulling at the Wetland Centre

After failing to connect with the juvenile Iceland Gull yesterday at Beckton Creekmouth I decided to try for the adult at the London Wetland Centre. It was a bit of a gamble as it’s been quite erratic in its appearances but it did show mid-morning on Saturday so it seemed worth trying for. It meant I could have a leisurely stroll rather than chasing around all over London which I did yesterday, also I didn’t need an early start to get there for opening time at 9:30.

As I headed for the South Route upon arrival my plan was to slowly wander around but I bumped into fellow Brent birder Shailesh who volunteers at LWC and he told me the Iceland Gull was showing at the WWF hide so I hot-footed it straight there. And a couple of minutes later I was watching a smart adult Iceland Gull, only the second one I’ve seen in London. It was initially on a distant spit but it decided to fly around and land at the front of the closest island so we all had superb views.

Iceland Gull

Iceland Gull with Common Gull behind

Iceland Gull

Someone mentioned a Yellow-legged Gull so I scanned through the other gulls and instead found an adult Caspian Gull.

Caspian Gull

Caspian Gull with Herring Gull behind on left

After a while all the gulls took up and flew off towards the observatory just before a few other birders arrived including Shailesh. While they went back to look for the gull flock I carried on to the Peacock Hide. From the top deck I could see the Iceland Gull in the distance so hopefully everyone managed to catch up with it. A little later I picked it up flying our way and it landed on the grazing marsh. As I watched it again I noticed a Yellow-legged Gull a bit further back and got everyone on that. It was a very productive gull morning with seven species and only Great Black-back missing from the more common species.

Yellow-legged Gull on right with Lesser Black-backed Gull on far left and Herring Gull in centre

A Bittern was claimed but I couldn’t locate it before it disappeared back into the reedbed. The water level on the marsh was high so there was no chance of any Snipe there and the only Water Pipit was one I heard flying past. I scanned the hospital and was lucky enough to watch one of the Peregrines fly in and land.

High water levels on grazing marsh

As I rushed in I hadn’t seen many small birds so I went for a slow walk along the return route but it was fairly quiet for birds. It got busier and noisier as I approached the centre but that was from the families so I headed to the cafe for a coffee before heading over to the collection. I don’t usually spend a lot of time looking at the captive birds but the woodlands along the way often add species I haven’t seen earlier. Today it was Jay and Goldcrest and a Green Woodpecker at the Wildside Hide – my daily Yaffle.

Pair of feeding Shoveler

A pair of Shoveler were swimming round in circles stirring up food and there were plenty of Wigeon grazing.

Wigeon

I was hoping to also add Goldeneye and Mandarin but I couldn’t track either duck down so I called a halt to proceedings and headed off back to the centre. On the way the whole Lapwing flock took up and started flying around. Can you estimate how many there are?