Adult Caspian Gull - Withnell Landfill Site, Lancs - 25th Feb 2008.

This absolutely wonderful adult Caspian Gull - a real personal ambition bird to find locally in this plumage - was amongst a gathering of only c30 Herring, c40 LBB and c120 Black-headed Gulls in a field adj to Withnell Landfill Site, off M65 jcn3, late afternoon. The camcorder once again proving absolutely invaluable in fully documenting every aspect of the birds plumage characters and behavioral traits.

An unexpected bonus was the two occasions the bird 'long-called' atop its small raised grassy knoll as it warded off any LBB Gulls showing any interest in attempting to displace it. Much to my annoyance I missed it with the camcorder on the first occasion, but luckily it called again and this time the video was rolling capturing this behavior of which I had seen so much of for the first time whilst embedded in the White-tailed Eagle hide only a couple of weeks ago in Hungary. The following 'grabs' are in sequence.

Shortly afterwards the Caspian Gull took flight alone and was last seen heading in a westerly direction, but still in the vicinity of the site, until lost to view behind bushes, so there is a chance it merely took a wide arc round to the Landfill site. The only thing against this being that this flightpath was at odds with all other gulls moving between the fields and the tip.