In search of four year ticks.

It's that end-of-winter period where we are waiting for the temperature to rise and the birds to stream in. But there were four on-off decent birds within a couple of hours reach so Mike and I set off in search of year-ticks.

First was the Stanborough Little Bunting. Having handed over my children's inheritance to the car park machine we followed Birdguides directions and found ourselves at the reed-bed feeder. After two hours of intensive study of about fifteen Reed Buntings, we gave up. It was fun, watching them slowly work their way out of the reeds into the bushes then onto the feeder. And a chance to admire the variety of their plumage. But when we reached the point where we felt we knew every Reed Bunting we were seeing personally and with no change in the population, we cut our losses and headed off. 

Next up the Bedfordshire Waxwings. A flurry of sightings on BG gave us hope, but when we turned up  was no-one there - not a good sign. Slowly people arrived with cameras large and small, and we assembled at a corner and waited ... we reasoned we could wait all day and they might not show, so we cut our losses and headed off.

The on-off Great Grey Shrike was on again. We headed off into heaven-knows-where and having located a line of cars we deduced we had arrived at the site. Again, birders and telescopes in profusion, looking everywhere, but no firm news for a couple of hours. We have history with Great Grey Shrikes and large stretches of farmland, none of it good. So we cut our losses and headed off.

It was mid-afternoon now and just one target left, the Dernford Res Kumlien's Gull. Could we make it a full fat four-out-of-four Dip? As we took our position on the bank with the sun over our shoulder we noticed a distinct absence of birds, but as a flurry of snow swept around Mike shouted it was there, and we spent the next hour admiring this bird at close quarters. Wow, what a stunning bird. 

Just one issue. This had been touted as a Kumlien's Gull, but as we watched it at rest, preening, flapping, flying, neither of us could discern any features that made this anything other than a full one-hundred percent Iceland Gull. The primary tips were complete white. There was not a hint, anywhere, of the primary spots  or shading I would associate with a Kumlien's Gull. If this is a Kumlien's, every adult Iceland I have ever seen is a Kumlien's.

Just time to admire a couple of Yellow-Legged Gulls and we were on our way.

It sounds like a fiasco, but it was a great day. We were looking, searching, for most of the time, and had a great hour with a fabulous bird. I'd do it all again tomorrow. 

Postscript

Decided to post it in Birdguides as an Iceland Gull, but at the time of posting it hasn't appeared on the site.

Here's a couple of very poor photos, as you would expect,  but you can see the primaries. Not a hint of grey in there.