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30 October 2009. Lots of gulls on the dike but as winter approaches the "Grey Plague" is upon us. Not just those pensioners with their dogs and Nordic Walking sticks but also the dominance of adult argenteus Herring Gulls in the gull groups. A few thousand gulls were present but very few with rings/colour-rings. Of those ringed nearly all were from The Netherlands/Belgium. Still managed to read the ring of an Danish Great Black-backed and see 9 Yellow-legged Gulls including the smallish individual below. Also a few group pics to give the not-so-regular visitor an idea what to expect at Westkapelle.








1cy Yellow-legged Gull. This individual is as slender-billed, long-winged and small-headed as the smallest of our female Lesser Black-backeds.


3cy argentatus Herring Gull, a typical individual for this age group, unfortunately unringed as usual.

regards, pim

Today, Friday 13 2009, showed over a 1000 Herrings, 300 LBBG, 70 GBBG, 7 YLG and no less (but maybe more) than 11 Caspian Gulls.
The best day this year for this species on this location. A few were seen unaccompanied by other caspians, but in the wild corner (a less accessible part of the long dike, favoured by 'wilder' birds, 4 were seen close to each other.
Here is a sample.

Some of the older birds.
Unfortunately, one of the ORG members made a bad decision, leaving the dike to search for BW Pratincole ao.
Theo

And for Ies, a few more.

Theo

And some Caspians...

Theo

The last ones..
Theo

Just superb Theo!

JanJ

Theo Muusse wrote:And for Ies, a few more.

Theo, you make me crazy.....

Very nice series! Next time, I 'll try to accompany. No birds to discuss, seems to be!?

I predict that Pim will post a few of his collection of this more than average day too.

Theo