Snowy Hadlow

Down at the sewage farm the black-headed gulls were making their usual racket. Once again the quickfix button was required to get the muddiness out of the photos. This is an adult-plumaged bird in flight, with a first (or second - see below??) winter bird at rest behind it:

Here you can see a clearly first winter bird on the right, an adult bird on the left, and an intermediate in between. This intermediate plumage bird could just possibly be a second winter bird, 5% of which are supposed to have gained their grey wings but still have some brown patches on the tertials, although these do seem rather large brown patches, compared to the books!

Here is an adult-plumaged bird checking out the filter bed:

A good view of the "adult" underwing pattern:

And here are two yellow wagtails, only just visible as blurs as they are put up by the gulls, but clearly recognisable all the same. One of the birds can be seen at rest on a rail in a couple of other photos, more or less in the same place.