A wandering Kumlien's Gull in the Midlands
The winter months traditionally provide the best chance for inland birders to discover scarce gull species and in particular, Iceland and Glaucous Gulls are high amongst the target species. The first three months of 2009 brought bumper numbers of Iceland Gulls to the Midlands and even after allowing for duplication of records, as birds moved from site to site, the numbers involved was truly remarkable. One particularly well travelled individual provided evidence of just how mobile these arctic wanderers can be.
Kumlien’s Gulls are generally considered to originate from a vast hybrid zone of Iceland Gulls and Thayer’s Gulls in eastern Canada and are being identified with increasing frequency across the UK in recent winters. One such individual (a third-calendar year bird), was initially discovered on February 20th on the eastern outskirts of Telford at Priorslee Lake (Shrops). It remained on site until mid-afternoon when it was seen to fly off to the east. It was then located in the gull roost at Belvide Reservoir (Staffs) later that afternoon. There was no sign of it early the following morning, but on 22nd a pale Iceland-type gull was seen at long range in the gull roost at Bartley Reservoir. This was presumably the Kumlien’s Gull that was then noted at Wildmoor Sand Quarry (Worcs) on 23rd before returning to the Bartley Reservoir roost that evening. The following day it returned to Wildmoor Sand Quarry where it spent a large part of the day before again returning to Bartley Reservoir where it remained until early the following morning. It was not noted again until March 2nd when it was seen in flight over Throckmorton Landfill Site from where it then headed off to the north-west. Being a Sunday, many of the gulls that frequent this site arrive from the south having spent the evening on the Severn Estuary and with Gloucester Landfill Site closed they head north to Throckmorton. Presumably the bird had been frequenting Gloucestershire during it’s absence in the West Midlands.
The next sighting was made near the M1/M6 interchange at Shawell Landfill Site (Leics) on March 10th and it was seen here more or less daily until 24th. Around this time it was also noted just over the border in Warwickshire at the Draycote Water gull roost on 15th whilst also being noted on a few occasions just north of Rugby at the Great Central Walk Nature Reserve. During this period it was presumably roosting at Draycote Water most nights, but due to the shear size of the site and the fact that it often left Shawell late in the day, it was rarely observed here. Just a few days later, the bird was relocated in Bedfordshire, in the Stewartby Lake area from March 31st to April 4th but there were no further reports after this date.
For a map displaying all the known sites the bird visited: click here
