The Hampshire County Bird Recorder

Hey peeps! Two days ago me and my dad were just walking down the promenade on Southsea beach with my dad, not for seawatching or anything, I hadn't even brung my bins and camera, just scoffing ice-creams and rock. A flock of Black-headed Gulls were feeding on the beach just next to South Parade Pier (we tried going on the Pier but some idiot has closed it down so only people who pay to go fishing on there are allowed on. You can't go under it anymore either.). I had noticed an evident distributional change in gulls: On and around the Canoe Lake (where we were about an hour before) was dominated by Herring-gulls (and a tonne of Feral Pigeons) and only very occasionally would a Black-headed Gull appear, whereas by the sea the scene was dominated by the Black-headed Gulls, among which I found this:

These photos were taken with my dad's phone camera (crap) so are not very clear. So, what do you make that bird? It's bill was muddy so I couldn't really see the colour. I was thinking either Common or Ring-billed Gull. I was secretly hoping Ring-billed (no offence Common Gulls) but either would be good because Common Gulls are not actually common (you get them only generally in Scotland and Northern Ireland) and Ring-billed Gulls are an American species that are regular vagrants to the UK. I emailed the Hampshire Bird Recorder (see the BTO website to find your county's Bird Recorder) Keith Betton about my "find". He accepted my format of conveying the information:

Species: Larus canus, Common Gull

Quantity of individuals: one single bird 

Age/sex: fully adult (showing no juvenile plumage), sex unknown

Plumage: full breeding plumage

Location: just beside South Parade Pier, Southsea, Portsmouth

Other: among Black-headed Gulls, fairly heavy wind blowing inland, overcast sky, no sign of breeding/attempted breeding

Date: 15/08/13

The thing is, I forgot to put the date on there originally so I emailed it to him afterwards. He emailed back with this photo attached:

Keith Betton with a Red Kite chick.

If you are thinking what I was thinking you would be thinking "wow that's legend". Even more legend is he said this:

 I'm very lucky to get this close to a chick. If you'd like to see them close next year I can try to arrange it.

Too right I want to get close to them! Well next year look out for a post about Keith Betton and Red Kites! Then on Saturday (or Caturday if you're feline or Saturdog if you're canine) I went to Reading to see some of my family (my aunties and cousins and second-cousins all live in Reading) and there were Red Kites flying all over the place! They say they can just chuck chicken bones and the like on the lawn and the Kites swoop down and take it off! Lucky people. They say "oh yeah, the kites. They are everywhere aren't they?" No! Conclusion of today's post: Reading is awesome because of it's Red Kites.   

Bye peeps! I'll post again soon.