Tonight we were ‘third time lucky’ when we finally caught up with Caspian Gull, Larus cachinnans, at Cley NWT. An adult summer bird was found in the pre-roost gull flock, on Pat’s Pool at around 19.00. It was in the company of about fifty other large gulls, mostly Lesser black-backed but there were a few Herring and up to four Yellow-legged. Caspian Gull, a fairly recent split from Yellow-legged Gull, breeds in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and show up in Britain, mostly in the summer/early autumn. They can be quite difficult to separate from Yellow-legged but they have a peculiar ‘jizz’ – pulled out legs, neck and rear end, a wedge-shaped forehead, long parallel bill with small red spot, a mid-grey back lacking the bluish tinge of Yellow-legged and long white ‘tongues’ on the outer primaries – most have dark eyes.  A couple of digipic record shots:

The Caspian Gull is centre, back of the picture

and again, centre, back – the bird is facing left

One of a number of adult Yellow-legged Gulls present, providing useful comparison