Sabine's Gull - Pennington Flash, Manchester

When a cracking adult Sabine’s Gull turned up at Pennington Flash last Tuesday, I was keen on seeing this extremely beautiful gull, especially as this particular individual had been flying to within touching distance at times. Just 45 minutes from my house, I soon made the journey after work the next day, with the bird having been showing well and coming to bread throughout the day.

Frequenting the patch of water outside Horrocks Hide (handily just a few paces from the car park) we immediately caught up with this stunning gull, showing amazingly well and sitting happily extremely close to the side of the lake. Having been coming to bread that morning, we brought our own brown loaf to tempt it for a snack even closer to the bank, and sure enough as soon as the bread hit the surface it flew towards us, inquisitively wondering what morsels had been provided and flying to within just a few feet. Sadly, the Sabine’s mustn’t have had a taste for brown bread, as it quickly lost interest, floating a little further away and allowing the resident Mute Swan to gobble up the leftovers.

This is only my second Sabine’s Gull after seeing a juvenile a few years ago at Belvide Reservoir in Staffordshire (which bizarrely showed even closer, coming to within touching distance of the side) but I was really keen to see an adult plumaged bird. With the jet black head, yellow tipped bill and beautiful diagnostic black and white patterned wings, Sabine’s Gulls are unmistakeable in flight and definitely one of our most attractive species of gull. Usually a pelagic species in the UK, breeding in the arctic and only passing through during the autumn when strong gales bring them closer to shore, I have yet to see Sabine’s Gull on the sea. Individuals are often reported from the nearby Wirral coast and the North Wales shoreline during autumn gales in September, so it is definitely worth looking out for birds during strong Northerly and North Westerly winds.

The Pennington Flash bird seems to favour the left hand side of the lake before Horrocks Hide, where there is a small fenced area going down to the lake side. Present now for over a week, it has recently suffered an attack by a Pike, with visible damage sustained to the belly after having been reportedly dragged under the surface of the water. Luckily, the gull made an escape, and looks to be settled here for the time being. 

Mission Casp a success

It’s always tricky when a mega turns up at the beginning of the week and the recent Blyth’s Pipit in Yorkshire was no exception. Found on a Monday, it proved to be a tense few days until the first opportunity arose on the Saturday. With the majority of birds either in the far reaches of the remote Scottish Isles or down at the extreme opposite end of the country in Scilly, it was a great chance to see this rare pipit less than an hour and a half away (and on the mainland!)

Driving up to Pugney’s Country Park near Leeds, we arrived at the flooded field in the nearby industrial estate just before 11am – with the bird being seen throughout the day it was (thankfully) decided that a crack-of-dawn start was not really necessary!

Luckily we had only been stationed watching the bird’s favoured field for around 20 minutes before the word got around that it was out on the bank directly opposite and giving good scope views. We quickly got on the bird, and the difference between the accompanying Meadow Pipits was clear to see – the pale unstreaked breast and slightly thicker bill were apparent – as was the slightly larger size.

Bad quality scope shot but you can still note the pale breast and lack of streaking.

The bird being out in the open was extremely lucky, as the overgrown and tangled field made it virtually impossible to pick out the pipits hiding within – once landing they were immediately lost to view in the vegetation. There has also been quite a bit of controversy surrounding this particular individual – with people taking issue over the organised “flushing” that had been taking place every couple of hours before the weekend. On one hand, this prevented the inevitable trampling through the grass throughout the day which would undoubtedly have resulted in the bird being constantly disturbed and quickly moving on, although on the other, Saturday proved that great views are obtainable with a little luck and patience without the need for intentionally flushing the birds (in which case only flight views would be obtainable – something I personally wouldn’t be satisfied with).

Content with our views, although sadly not hearing the bird give its diagnostic call, we headed back over to Pugney’s to check out the wildfowl and gulls on the water. There was no sign of the recently reported drake Smew (high up on my wish list of winter birds to see) but a couple of male Goldeneye and a showy Kingfisher on the main lake were good compensations.

After not being able to connect with the recent Gresford Flash Caspian Gull the previous week, and having my 1w individual unceremoniously stripped from my list by someone who can’t even properly ID a Bean Goose (no names mentioned), me and Alex were keen to catch up with one of the birds that have regularly been roosting on the main lake.

With 3pm approaching, we joined the birders already stationed and began scanning the large gulls present on the lake. However, it soon became apparent that this wasn’t going to be an easy task – with the local boaters intent on ploughing their yachts straight at the flock – causing them to flush and scatter each time.

As it got steadily colder, darker and wetter, all there was to show was a 1w Yellow-legged Gull, displaying the classic checkerboard pattern and large, dark, smudged eye – offering a nice comparison with the nearby Herring Gulls.

After a false alarm with what was decided to be just a very pale headed Herring Gull (the structure just didn’t seem right for a Casp) of the experienced and very knowledgeable locals (co-incidentally the Blyth’s finder) locked on to a cracking 2w Caspian Gull. I uttered a silent cheer and took in the birds notable features – the very dark small eye and slender, parallel sided bill and the heavy presence of grey in the mantle – something you wouldn’t expect to see in a Herring Gull. The clean unstreaked head and breast were also clearly apparent - one of the main features along with the long, extreme black on the primary tips. It was also noticeable that the bird had a certain “banana-like” shape in the water when compared with the accompanying Herring Gulls, something to look out for in the future.

Record shot through the scope of the Caspian Gull as the light was fading

Normally hating gulls and having difficulty with Caspian Gulls in particular, it was a very educational bird and proved to be the only one of the night – a great start to get my eye in for finding and successfully identifying my own Caspian Gulls in the future.

Ecstatic and after several years of searching (in Alex’s case), countless trips to freezing winter gull roosts and various false alarms, hybrids and dips, Mission Casp could finally be called a success!