Ring-billed Gull

Took the Docklands Light Railway down to the Isle of Dogs in East London to see the Ring-billed Gull yesterday. This long-staying/returning individual on the River Thames foreshore opposite Lovell's Wharf has been present in the area for several years and I've seen it as far north as Wanstead Flats and south of the river in Greenwich Park – both on occasions when I didn’t expect it. Of course as tends to happen when you purposely go looking for something, some birds decide not to behave. After two cold and windy hours scanning the River Thames I headed back towards Island Gardens station when the tide began to drop and expose some mud on the shore below the Thames Path. Many of the gulls that had been wheeling about in the wind seemed glad to have somewhere to rest. I ‘scoped the rapidly forming congregation and the second gull was the North American wanderer!