A day to remember

No words can describe watching this!

Saturday 7th March. After a few days on patch with little to show for it, I must admit that something did feel a little different as I made my way across the Aristotle Lane bridge. It was cloudy, grey, and damp in the air; but without the biting northerly and clear conditions that had made birding rather unpleasant earlier in the week, and which had apparently halted any start to overhead migration. In fact, just as I was locking my bike up, I was greeted by the familiar sight of a hirundine hawking over the floods - my first Sand Martin of the year. A quick check of the floods revealed two each of Black-tailed Godwit and Dunlin, together with a few Shelduck. Birds were clearly moving.

BOC shot of the Sand Martin - the photo is so rubbish I haven't even bothered to get it off the camera

After my standard morning walk on the Meadow I planned to spend the afternoon staking out Farmoor, given that there were plenty of reports of inland Common Scoters and Kittiwakes on Birdguides. I met Steve Lavington in the hide, who had already found an apparently new adult male Common Scoter - nice! The long-staying Greater Scaup was near the hide, a Dunlin was on the causeway, and there was a small flock of Common Gulls milling around. Despite this, there were no birds moving overhead, and no hirundines present, so my enthusiasm for doing the roost was beginning to wane. Since I had the scope in the car with me I decided to head back to Port Meadow to properly check the shoreline in hope of an early Little Ringed Plover. 90% of my visits now are just with bins and camera on my walk before work - the scope is simply too big and heavy to lug around all day. Unless I make a special effort to do the roost, I've just accepted that I will probably miss some birds with this strategy. From a patch birding perspective, however, the increased focus on vismig after years of just doing the roost has recently been paying dividends, so I think it's a worthy trade-off for the time being.

The afternoon murk on the meadow

I arrived on Port Meadow for my second visit of the day and initially it seemed that little had changed. A/the Sand Martin was still present, together with the two Black-tailed Godwits. There had clearly been an influx of Pintail - approx 60, up from 14 this morning, so I spent some time scanning the wildfowl. I soon picked up the long-staying 1w Little Gull feeding quite close to the Burgess Field gate. I've now seen this bird several times but I'm aware that a few other regulars have been struggling to connect with it, so I put the news out and was soon joined by Matthew Lloyd, Steve Goddard and Steve Sansom. The gull then started performing incredibly well, rather like the adult I had in December 2024 - flycatching just metres from the shoreline, right in front of us. I began filling my SD card with photos, as usual.

Just one of the circa 1000 frames I took - what is it about Little Gulls on Port Meadow...

We had been watching the gull for perhaps half an hour when I had my brain meltdown moment. I'm not even sure if I was using bins or not, but I just remember seeing this pale bird with a chunky pink, black-tipped bill materialise in flight literally right in front of me, just behind the Little Gull. It then banked, revealing its tail and wing pattern and almost reflexively I lifted the camera and began firing off shots.

I am amazed at how well these photos have turned out despite the gloomy light and my panicked state!

I knew instantly that this was a 1w Ring-billed Gull, a bird that I had never seen before, but was really struggling to believe the evidence from my eyes. I ran the few metres up the bank towards my scope and spluttered/shouted something like "look at this bird, look at the Common Gull, it's a Ring-billed Gull!!", as it landed amongst some Wigeon.

Thankfully everyone got onto it immediately, and upon looking down my scope I could see all the features that I was expecting - that head/bill structure which is so different from a Common Gull, the pale-grey mantle with slight scalloping and dark marks on the feathers, the greater-covert bar - even the size of it, it was all perfect. I then looked at the flight shots on the back of my camera and began double checking them against the Collins app, just in case I had somehow messed up a runt Herring Gull or something. Then, the bird flew north over the grass and disappeared from view.

I was dithering a bit at this point, unsure how to put the news out, and suddenly lacking confidence. I've made a couple of identification errors over the past year and was understandably nervous about reporting a county mega, without necessarily double checking it with anyone more experienced. I think it was lucky that there were other birders present, especially people I already know and have been birding with frequently - there was less of a feeling of messing up in front of potentially judgemental strangers. I first messaged the local Port Meadow WhatsApp group, saying that I thought I had a 1w Ring-billed Gull on the flood, and sent some photos, and then forwarded these to the main Oxon birding group.

Initially there was almost no response apart from the customary, slightly panicked message from Ben Sheldon asking which side of the Meadow was best to view from. Crucially there were no comments from anyone on the identification of the bird! Bizarre radio silence, and I thought that maybe I should have put it out in a more definitive sense, rather than implying that this was a possible. Thankfully the bird then reappeared, flying back onto the far side of the flood - good, especially as Ben was on his way. It was more distant, but showed well with a Common Gull, providing an excellent comparison.

Video still from when it was more distant on the water

Still no response from the group chats, and where was Ben? The minutes dragged by. Finally he appeared in the distance on his bike, and we lined it up in the scope for him, ready to connect. I almost felt like I was waiting for him to confirm that we weren't going mad, that this was indeed a Ring-billed Gull, and when he did I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. Hands were shaken, a small cheer was let out and there were smiles all round. Simon Myers and Mario Garcia arrived just in time to connect that evening, but it was getting pretty gloomy by this point. I had a last-gasp find of a 2w Caspian Gull before deciding to call it for the night.

The successful twitchers on the first evening

The following morning I arrived on the meadow at 6:40am to set up for a bird ringing session on Burgess Field. Obviously I had to check for the Ring-billed Gull so went ahead of the group to the viewpoint next to the gate. Jed Cleeter was the only birder who had made the effort to get there pre-dawn and hadn't yet seen the gull, but I soon spotted it walking around on the grass at the southern end with a group of Black-headed Gulls. We hurried round to get closer views just as two undergraduate twitchers arrived and were able to point it out to them as it flew around before settling on the water. The rest of the ringing group also enjoyed the bird before we started our (rather unproductive) mist-netting session.

I then had to leave and what apparently followed throughout the day was a mixture of confusion over the identification combined with the bird being rather sporadic in its appearances, which unfortunately has led to a lot of people dipping. It was last seen at about 1pm before flying south with Common Gulls. There were around 25 people at the roost that evening, certainly the largest group of birders I have ever seen on Port Meadow (more even than the Pectoral Sandpiper or the "Siberian Buff Bellied Mipit"), but despite our best efforts the bird was not seen to come into roost. I had two Caspian Gulls (an adult and a 1w) and a pair of Mediterranean Gulls, which were nice to see and evidence of more small gull passage. I feel there is still a glimmer of hope for those who have yet to connect, given how it was hanging around during the day today and commuting between the meadow and (presumably) other nearby flood fields.

Massive county dip by Burgess gate

Ring-billed Gull was not even really on my radar for potential finds on Port Meadow. In this blog post (here) I mentioned Bonaparte's Gull as a possibility, but Ring-billed Gull has become so much rarer these days (and especially so away from the coast) that I thought it was a total pipe dream for an inland patch. These Birdguides articles give a good overview of how the pattern of occurrences has changed in the 50 years since they were first recorded in Britain.

https://www.birdguides.com/articles/britain-ireland/the-rise-and-fall-of-ring-billed-gull/

https://www.birdguides.com/news/europes-only-regular-ring-billed-gull-flock-shows-signs-of-recovery/

I have entertained the idea that one could turn up during the February/March movement of Common Gulls, and have indeed always kept an eye out (mostly looking for Russian Common Gulls, really) - but I am still finding it unbelievable that it actually came to be. There does seem to have been a mini-influx of new Ring-billed Gulls and Bonaparte's Gulls in Britain this winter, with several reported in the southwest England, so maybe this year was the year for it to happen. In my view, short of some genuine mega rarity it will be hard to top this in the context of the Port Meadow patch - especially as it's a rare gull, which is something that everyone has been waiting for me to find! The only other UK lifer I have found on patch was the male Grey-headed Wagtail in 2019.

This bird becomes the fourth record of Ring-billed Gull for Oxfordshire, and is my 166th bird on Port Meadow. The occurrences are listed below - high time for an update to the county avifauna book I think!

1. An adult at Farmoor on 3rd December 1999.
2. An adult at Didcot on 1-2nd December 2002 (last twitchable bird).
3. A 2cy at Farmoor on 2nd April 2013 (brief and untwitchable, found by Nic Hallam and also seen at various other sites in the Midlands in April/May).
4. A 2cy at Port Meadow on 7-8th March 2026.

I also thought it would be useful here to summarise the identification features of 1w Ring-billed Gull, especially if it ends up hanging around the county and visiting other peoples' patches:

• Thick, pink-based bill with black tip - compared with insipid greyish-yellow and a weak band in most Common Gulls.
• Squarer head, more like a Herring Gull - less "cute" expression.
• Size variable but usually slightly larger than Common Gull - this individual is quite a bit larger, which combined with the strong bill possibly indicates a male.
• Much paler grey mantle than Common Gull, similar to argenteus Herring Gull, often with scalloped edges and dark central markings.
• Tertials lack the broad white fringes of Common Gull.
• Greater coverts are the same colour as the mantle and patterned differently to Common Gull - usually an obvious contrast in the latter.
• In flight, these features produce a striking impression, almost like a large Mediterranean Gull, with the dark primaries contrasting with the pale inner-primary panel, greater covert bar and mantle. In Common Gulls, the wing appears darker and browner than the mantle.
• The tail pattern (at least in this individual) is diagnostic, almost appearing like a "broken bar", consisting of a thick terminal band combined with variegated markings going up the shaft towards the rump. Common Gulls usually have a much cleaner-looking tail and thinner black band. The tail pattern of this Ring-billed Gull would be most likely confused with a 2w Herring Gull, but in this species the pattern is more extensively dark and continuous going from the distal to the proximal tip of the feather, with less of a fault-bar effect.
• In 2w Herring Gull (which can be a real confusion at distance due to the similarity in mantle colour and bill pattern) the coverts and tertials are more variegated, with white speckles and barring against a brown base colour, as opposed to the neat markings of Ring-billed Gull. The underwing is also more dusky in flight - Ring-billed Gull is more similar to Common Gull.

Overall my opinion is that it's one of those species where if you think you've seen it you probably haven't.

I do have a bit of history with Ring-billed Gull in Oxfordshire with a "half" tick at Appleford on 24th November 2020. I found a very strange-looking gull loafing on the gravel pit which was totally unlike any of the expected species, and almost recalling Black-tailed Gull - smaller than a Lesser Black-backed Gull, mantle colour similar or slightly darker than Common Gull and with a Ring-billed Gull head and bill pattern. I eventually realised was one of the apparent Ring-billed x Lesser Black-backed Gull hybrids that have been a feature of Midlands reservoir roosts for the last decade. There are at least two birds involved, one of which has been photographed regularly at Belvide - and indeed, this particular bird returned to Belvide for the first time in the winter of 2020 just a day or two after I recorded it at Appleford. Lew got some photos of the wing pattern as well which showed it to be more similar to Ring-billed Gull than Common Gull, with reduced/no mirror on P9.

The hybrid gull is in the foreground of the photo, standing by itself

There was even some discussion as to whether this could be an unusually large and dark Ring-billed Gull, but I think the wide tertial crescent doesn't fit well with this theory. It's unclear whether these hybrids originate from Greenland (where the breeding ranges of Ring-billed Gull and graellsii Lesser Black-backed Gull overlap), or from somewhere in Europe. After all, the returning adult Ring-billed Gulls that winter in western Europe must be going somewhere during the summer (not necessarily back to America!), and at least one has been known to set up shop in a Common Gull colony and breed there. So a nice find of what is in a world birding context a rare and interesting rare hybrid pairing, but missing out on a county tick!

A couple of photos to finish of the roost vigil this evening - hopefully the spectacular sunset has made up for dipping the bird.

Small gulls

With the South Africa series of blog posts currently languishing in development hell (various parts written; most photos edited but just a total lack of time to pull things together), I think a quick patch update is probably needed in the interim. I am not birding that much at the moment but despite only visiting Port Meadow once or twice a week some interesting birds are still turning up. The whole area is extremely flooded at the moment and it is quite unusual how prolonged these conditions have been. Not great for the goose influx as there isn't much grass for them to hang around on but the roost is pretty good and I'm always hopeful of some rarer waterfowl brought down by the meadow's temporary transformation into "lake mode".

As well as the usual Caspian Gulls an adult Mediterranean Gull has been regularly roosting - presumably now that spring is getting underway we'll see a few more of these as their passage through the county peaks in March. I had a quick cycle along the Thames Path after work in the pouring rain on 6th February and found an adult Little Gull resting on a narrow strip of land between the swollen river and meadow floods, perhaps brought in by strong easterlies. Pleased with only my third winter record of this species on the patch, and although I had the camera with me I chose not to get it out for photos due to the rain - common sense has finally won out!

On 12th February I had an extended late afternoon session scanning through all the wildfowl and Black-headed Gulls with limited success. Viewing was difficult with birds spread over a huge area of floods and most being very distant - I was viewing from the Thames path and it was quite a trek just to get there due to flooding across the route. Six Oystercatchers along the river were good to see and were my first of the year. I was just about to leave when all of the gulls were put up by something and  I noticed a white dot in the distance, beneath the rest of the birds and flying differently to everything else. For some reason I knew almost instantly that it was a Kittiwake, although had to spend the next 30 seconds trying to get optics on it before managing to persuade myself that that was indeed what this speck was. Luckily it soon flew closer and I was treated to the wonderful sight of an adult Kittiwake circling the floods for several minutes before landing opposite me a few hundred metres away. It was absolutely luminescent in the low evening sun.

I feel like these photos (despite not exactly being frame-fillers) really illustrate how the shape of an adult Kittiwake is so distinctive. Those black wing-tips blend perfectly into the darker surrounds, giving the wing a strange spoon-like appearance - somewhat reminiscent of a giant Little Gull in this lighting!

The bird was just north of Burgess gate and would be easily viewable from there so I put the news out, but unfortunately it soon drifted into the mass of Black-headed Gulls loafing on the water and I ended up losing it before the first twitchers arrived. No one else connected, although it was apparently still there late into the evening as I heard it call a couple of times as all the gulls were flushed. A first-winter Little Gull also made a very brief appearance, seen in flight amongst the Black-headed Gulls (more on that later!).

Now I had hoped that the story of this Kittiwake would end there, but sadly this was not the case. It was nowhere to be seen on the meadow the next morning although people looking for it did discover a patch rarity - Pochard - which sadly flew off before I was able to twitch it for my year list. By mid morning, however, reports came in of a moribund adult Kittiwake sat on the causeway at Farmoor which was almost certainly the same bird. It ended up on the grass off of the southern bank of F2, being mobbed by a Red Kite and corvids, before Adam arrived and dutifully rescued it.

Phone pic courtesy of Mario Garcia

"By the time I got there it had flopped out onto the grass where it was looking exhausted so I decided to pick it up and take it to a wildlife rescue centre. I didn't have anything to carry it in so decided to take off my old jumper and used that to drop over it. I was then able to pick it up, wrap up its wings in the jumper so it wouldn't struggle and then placed my cap to cover its head, hoping that being in the dark would mean it was be calmer - the latter only with limited success. Back at the car I gently placed the bird, still wrapped in a jumper, inside a large paper shopping bag." - Adam Hartley

The bird was taken to Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue in Didcot, one of the few places which would take it due to bird flu concerns. Unfortunately it died in care there after a few days.

This story recalls another sad incident involving a Kittiwake lost inland in the Oxford midwinter - found dead on the flood at Exeter College Sports Ground, Marston by Will Langdon in February 2021. In some sort of strange parallel, Will also picked up the Kittiwake, and it lived in various freezers for a couple of years before finding its way to me. Given that the specimen was in such good condition (it probably died overnight just before Will found it early morning), I decided to get it taxidermied. I delivered it to William Hales, a specialist bird taxidermist in the Lincolnshire Wolds, and a year later it was ready for collection. I am very pleased with the result - a piece of Oxford birding history.

In the field photos courtesy of Will Langdon

The "Marston Kittiwake"

I headed down for the roost again on 18th February, this time from Burgess gate as it was pretty cloudy. Most of the small gulls were sat in a huge raft quite close by, and I quickly set about scanning them, joined by Adam. Despite the numbers, we couldn't pick out any Mediterranean Gulls, which was disappointing. In amongst the cacophony of Black-headed Gull calls I picked out a sharper, tern-like "kik-kik-kik" - my mind immediately went to Little Gull, but I couldn't see one anywhere. I alerted Adam and thirty seconds of frantic scanning later, the first-winter finally appeared opposite us, being harassed by a small group of Black-headed Gulls. Although it didn't show quite as well as the fabulous adult in December 2024, it was reasonably close and I managed to get a few photos in the gloom - I quite like the photos of it in front of the crane and pylons, showing the urban birding context. It clearly likes the meadow so hopefully it will roost again.

Two Little Gulls and a Kittiwake in the space of two weeks! In the middle of winter! Farmoor needs to up its game, especially as proper passage is about to start getting underway. If lake mode continues there could be some really interesting records in the coming weeks.

Patch geese

The reality of urban birding - rare grey geese about to be flushed by a dog!

It's been quite a while since my last blog post. Despite saying that I would be writing about an exciting autumn of migration, I ended up burning myself out so badly that I had basically vowed to take some time away from the hobby at least in the context of trying to find my own rare birds. I had a big trip to South Africa planned for 18th November to 10th December and I decided to focus on that rather than occupy myself with any more thoughts of rarities, twitching and British birding in general.

There are a few reasons for this - partly because despite touring several coastal hotspots this autumn I didn't find anything of note, a situation exacerbated by the continued discovery of rare birds back in Oxfordshire; hence, there was a feeling of not being rewarded for my time and therefore failing to get much enjoyment out of it. In hindsight, this probably wasn't quite true, and I still had a few fantastic experiences (e.g. being at the Wirral on a big Leach's Petrel day). Unfortunately it really gets to me when others continue to find rare birds when I perceive myself to be putting in an equal/more substantial effort - I have a hard time telling myself that the main determinant is just luck.

Leach's Petrel at Leasowe

In addition, I didn't enjoy my ringing trip to Cornwall for various reasons and therefore was put off writing about it. Perhaps that's a story for later. Another week on Portland resulted only in finding a second Grey Phalarope and a Woodlark whilst unfortunately missing a flyover Richard's Pipit (which in my already jaded state was quite the blow). The trip was just about saved by twitching a Pallas' Warbler, but overall I left with very little enthusiasm remaining for British birding. The only other birding I did before going to South Africa was twitching Pallid Swifts and Dusky Warbler in Kent.

Two Pallid Swifts at North Foreness

So that brings us to South Africa, which will be the subject of a separate set of blog posts. Needless to say the trip was very successful - amazing country, wildlife and experience more generally. I'm not sure that I've been converted to the idea of primarily doing this hobby from a world birding perspective, but seeing 469 species in the space of just three weeks was incredible. Many of these were endemics and visually spectacular. It felt very weird not knowing how to identify a large proportion of the birds whilst still being pretty adept at spotting/hearing them, and moving around the country so much meant that there was a continued flow of new species to learn. A sneak preview here of two of my favourite photos from the trip - a chance for some proper bird photography rather than just aiming at specks and hoping for the best like I usually do. The first blog post to come will be an overview of the itinerary and logistics and I think the rest of the trip divides quite nicely into five further posts.

Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill

Chorister Robin-chat

Since getting back I hadn't done any birding and I resolved to keep it that way at least until the New Year. I'm currently staying in London and don't really have a patch here, so even if I hadn't already decided to lay off the birding for a bit there would have been little temptation to get out anyway. However, a flow of freezing northeasterlies in the run-up to Christmas, originating deep in Europe, has resulted in a spectacular influx of wild geese into Britain. I was getting increasingly gripped by the reports of Russian White-fronted and Bean Geese popping up everywhere, well away from traditional East Coast haunts - including in Oxfordshire. The discovery of a 15-strong flock of Bean Geese on Otmoor made my mind up. Going all the way from London on Christmas Day would be ridiculous (bordering on deranged), but Boxing Day seemed socially acceptable. I had two aims - connect with the Bean Geese flock and then try to find my own wild geese on Port Meadow.

Why am I still focused on the patch despite apparently having left Oxford? Because it's an addiction... Well, I have a short stint back in the city from mid-January to the beginning of April and I had briefly been to Port Meadow twice this autumn when visiting friends. Surprisingly I actually enjoyed these short walks on the patch - the floods had refilled and even just with bins I saw an adult Mediterranean Gull come in to roost. Perhaps not obsessively going there every day is what's needed to keep it fresh.

In addition, there is something about wild geese that I find really evocative and apart from a flyover Pink-footed Goose I had never seen any on Port Meadow - it's something of a black hole for White-fronted Geese, partially due to the presence of a feral flock of gambelli for a few years which made it hard to be sure that any new arrivals weren't derived from these escapes. During the 2020/2021 winter White-fronted Goose influx I was convinced that I would find some on Port Meadow, and became increasingly despondent as the flock on Otmoor built up to over 120. No luck despite these huge numbers just a few miles away! I remembered that there was far more visible movement in the first week of the influx (which was correlated with birds being displaced due to heavy fog), before flocks settled down in favoured areas for the rest of the winter. I imagine that Port Meadow is too disturbed for wild geese to feel comfortable, so knew that my best chance of success would be to visit as soon as possible.

I arrived in Oxford mid-morning on Boxing Day and waited first for news of the Tundra Bean Geese, before planning to walk along the Thames towpath and do the Port Meadow roost. News of the Beans at Water Eaton resulted in a literal wild goose chase - I arrived, walked onto the site and no sooner had I begun to scan the fields a negative report was put out as the flock was apparently back on Otmoor! I headed straight there and briskly walked along the towpath to the Wetlands Watch hide. I quickly located a long, distant string of geese way out on Ashgrave towards Noke Farm, and started searching through them. It took a few minutes to find the first White-fronted Goose; then immediately afterwards I noticed the Tundra Beans behind it. Success! They were surprisingly hard to see as they kept walking behind undulations in the ground and going down into a pool to wash - I certainly saw at least 16, which corroborates with the total count of 18 from others earlier that morning. The birds were so far away and in such bad light that I didn't even bother to get the camera out, so only took a couple of digiscoped record shots.

I had my lunch in the hide tallying up White-fronted Geese (approximately 50 across Big Otmoor and Ashgrave) before driving to Godstow. The car park there is now pay and display which is rather annoying, so I parked in the village and walked to the Trout. It was a crisp and bright day but seriously cold, and I have been struggling to spend long periods outside recently without getting numb hands (e.g. whilst cycling). I walked across Godstow Lock and saw the resident flock of feral Greylag and Canada Geese milling around by the river. Immediately I noticed a group of smaller grey geese amongst them - success! Will they be Beans or White-fronts, I thought as I lifted my bins, although knew deep down that such a large group would almost certainly be the latter. Still absolutely wonderful to see and I have manifested finding a large flock on Port Meadow for so long.

There was one flock of 15 birds all together and 6 more off to the side. I watched them for a few minutes through bins, checking that all were 100% Russian White-fronted Geese rather than Greenland (a seriously rare bird in the county), and noted that quite a high proportion of the birds were juveniles. They became more alert as some walkers with dogs approached and I knew what was going to happen - surely enough after a few repeated runs by the dogs all of the geese took to the air, most settling again on the river but the White-fronts seemed rather more wary and began circling.

Quite a few immature birds visible in these images

I suspected that they would eventually settle on the floods and so continued down the river towards the Perch to set up my scope for the roost. I encountered the (presumed feral) Ross's Goose showing nicely with a few Canada Geese further down the river - I'm aware that this bird is contentious amongst the year-listers as it counts on the eBird leaderboard despite being obviously duff. A nice male Goosander also offered some unusually close views.

The river had broken its banks recently and the waters were now receding , so most of the gulls and wildfowl were far away on the main flood rather than on the line of islands that sometimes form when the water levels are at their highest. In these conditions diving ducks sometimes visit the floods and I was pleased to see a Tufted Duck swimming amongst the Wigeon and Teal, along with a few Pintail. Three Black-tailed Godwits had joined the Lapwings although there were no Golden Plovers today.

Grainy videograb of the Godwits

As expected, the White-fronted Geese flew in from the north calling and settled on a spit near the river, just like their feral counterparts used to do each evening. They were a real feature of the Port Meadow roost for a few years, usually coming in after dark and accompanied by a couple of Bar-headed Geese and some hybrid offspring. I've not seen them regularly for a while although they may be lurking elsewhere in the county.

I turned my attention towards the gulls and quickly found an adult Caspian Gull preening on an island, together with a few Common Gulls and a pair of unseasonal Shelduck. James Hammond and Ben Sheldon arrived to see the geese so the Caspian Gull was a nice bonus.

A second Caspian Gull soon appeared, initially swimming around on the water and later joining the first individual roosting on and island. In the field I called this bird as a subadult (4cy) due to slightly more black in the wing tip and some dark markings around the bill, but having looked at the video stills all the primary coverts look plain grey and adult-type to me, so that's what it should probably go down as. I found a third Caspian Gull, a 2cy, at last light. At least three Yellow-legged Gulls were also present in the roost.

The second adult Caspian Gull - shorter tongues on the primaries than the first

Both birds together

2cy Caspian Gull - not the best looking bird

At dusk all the birds were flushed by something unseen and the White-fronted Geese took off to the north. As far as I'm aware they haven't been seen today so it seems like I timed my visit perfectly. The walk back to Godstow was long and cold - we heard a Tawny Owl calling and despite Ben's best attempts to avoid looking at the Ross's Goose it has been added to the year list!

Quite a nice day out in the end with all targets achieved - perhaps the only way it could have been better would be finding Tundra Bean Geese as well but that'll have to be the carrot on a stick for the rest of the winter. In recent years (although before my time) I think there has only been one record of this species, in April. It was considered an escape, so it's a real patch mega and I am eagerly anticipating adding it to my list along with Brent Goose - there seem to be a few displaced inland with the recent weather.

A lovely purple hue after sunset

What I have found with patch birding is that the scarce migrants do seem to occur when expected, usually off the back of some sort of influx. This has been the case for several of my most recent patch ticks - White-fronted Goose, Crossbill, Kittiwake, Hawfinch, and Yellow-browed Warbler. For each of these there has been some "event" which has prompted me to be particularly attentive out or alter my search to maximise my chances of connecting with them. In this (rather extreme) instance I ended up driving two hours back to Oxford and walking the northern end of the Meadow, which I never usually do. Sometimes you do have to wait for a few national influxes to occur before striking lucky, like with these geese, but targeted searching does seem to pay off in the end. It's the really rare birds that occur randomly out of the blue and require you to put in some serious hours to have a chance of finding one.