During the morning of 16th February Kevin Gould visited Markham Pit Yard to view the gulls that gather there. Among
the flock he noticed an interesting bird but unfortunately it was partially obscured by the other gulls present and
he was unable to get any decent views of it. Later that afternoon Kevin was at Poolsbrook CP with Mark Beevers and they
both picked up the same bird. Mark thought it was a Thayer's type and from what he could remember of the photos, possibly the
same bird that had been present at Dix Pit in Oxfordshire recently. Mark rang me to look out for it at the roost at Ogston
but it did not arrive there, at least not before it was dark. Fortunately Martin Garner refound the bird on Erin Tip the next
morning where it gave intermittent and mostly fairly distant Views. Eventually it flew down to nearby Poolsbrook during the
early afternoon where it gave much better views confirming that it was almost certainly be the Dix Pit bird. An excellent
article appeared in Vol 20 No.12 of Birding World, discussng the identity of the bird while it was in Oxfordshire, though the
outcome of this was inconclusive, leaving room for more discussion.
I'm not sure if the issue of its identity can be progressed much further or ever solved beyond doubt, but I have put together
this page of photos, which show various plumage features of the bird, for general interest and would welcome any comments on its identity.
Thanks to Paul Bagguley and Martin Garner for the use of their photos.
